Archives for November 25th, 2004

Television screenshots from March 24, 1999. Click for more.

These few pages contain nearly random screenshots of a night in front of the tv set. Possibly there will be more. The date was 24/25 of March 1999 and it’s all about the bombing of Yu.

I first came to Slovenia in early ‘99 — just a few weeks before The Strike Against Yugoslavia^TM, as CNN called the Kosovo Conflict, began.

Slovenia had opened up its air space to NATO planes, so you would occasionally hear F-16s from the Aviano Air Base in Italy flying overhead towards targets in Serbia. Later on at night, if you turned on the television, you could catch a glimpse of what they had been up to. It was a surreal experience, made more intense by the fact that I was spending a lot of free time reading whatever I could and then flipping through the channels at night for the latest news. CNN, of course, provided their usual stuff:

CNN anchor: "Joining us now in Brussels is Mr. CNN reporter, who’s been following the latest press briefings. What can you tell us about what’s going on at NATO headquarters?"
CNN reporter: "Well, CNN anchor, NATO members are urging resolve and determination today as the Strike Against Yugoslavia continues. They’re saying that this mission won’t be easy, but that they have resolve and determination, and that that’s what this mission will take to win."
CNN anchor: "Thanks, CNN reporter, we’ll be checking in with you again in five minutes. In the meantime, we’d like to welcome to our studio Mr. CNN Retired General Military Analyst — thanks for speaking with us."
CNN Ret. Gen. Military Analyst: "It’s my pleasure."
CNN anchor: "What kind of… strategy is NATO going to employ in the next few days? What can we expect to see?"
CNN R.G.M.A.: "Well, of course that’s all strictly confidential, although I’m sure they have very thorough plans. I think that, primarily, NATO will try to show resolve and determination in these next few, crucial days, and continue to pursue their mission goals within the mission’s given parameters, and by doing so, complete this internationally supported mission until it is successfully completed."

It’s amazing how you can listen to them for hours and not learn anything, isn’t it?

I much preferred Serbian television, which started broadcasting English news reports every night until NATO dropped a couple tons of resolve and determination on their broadcasting capabilities. Every single night, it was a variation of the following:

Serbian announcer: "NATO criminals continued NATO-criminal tactics against Yugoslavia today. At 4 a.m. in morning, NATO criminals drop bombs on Ostruznica Railroad Bridge using bombs that were criminals, or to be more specific, that were NATO criminals."

I should also mention that, at the time, it was normal to see X-rated movies on public television. (They’ve since been removed, as far as I know.) So, when flipping through the stations, you would see: war, war, war, war, porn, war, war, war, gay porn, war, war, etc…

This site, with its random screenshots, does a wonderful job of capturing that whole bizarre period.