Page 172 - The CNN Effect in Action - How the News Media Pushed the West toward War ini Kosovo

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THE KOSOVO CRISIS—THE MICRO REVIEW
weeks ago when women, children and innocent people who were just
wantonly killed by Serbian police using helicopters and artillery. It is
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something that we ought not see in the year 1998.”
The pressure continued to build in the U.S. legislature until it
led to the passage of a concurrent resolution. On March 18, the
U.S. Senate passed Concurrent Resolution 85 by a vote of 98 to 0
“calling for the end of violent repression on the people of Kosovo.”
Based on the arguments of leading senators, media images of suffer-
ing Albanians played a crucial role in generating support for the
resolution. Joseph R. Biden, who was a leading Democratic senator
on foreign policy issues, played an important role in pushing the
Kosovo issue after Drenica and throughout the following year. In
comments made during the debate on the resolution, Biden made
clear links between the images and stories reported by media outlets,
and the conclusions he had reached about blame. According to
Biden, “The past two weeks have seen appalling massacres of inno-
cent ethnic Albanians in Kosovo by heavily armed Serbian paramili-
tary forces . . . the world has witnessed the spectre of survivors
exhuming the bodies of their loved ones in order to give them dig-
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nified, Muslim burials.”
Clearly, Biden’s references to the world
witnessing events in Kosovo related to media reports and images.
Other members of the Senate supporting this resolution also
described how media images and framing had influenced their deci-
sion-making on Kosovo. According to Senator Chris Dodds from
Connecticut, one of the resolution’s sponsors,
I think it is appropriate, in light of events we have all seen in our news-
papers and television stations, events that have occurred in Kosovo in
the last couple of weeks, to speak, to be heard. . . . we will be heard
expressing, I think, the outrage of our constituents across this country,
regardless of where we live, letting those who are suffering know that
their voices are being heard, letting those who perpetrate this violence
and outrage know that we know what is going on and we will not
forget it. 25
Phase 3: March 28 to September 27, 1998
The period from the end of March to the end of September 1998 was
marked by four discernable stages. The first and third involved periods
of military relaxation and appeasement by the FRY toward the West,
while the second and fourth involved attempts to regain control on