This may sound like the beginning of a joke. A president of the country, the minister of internal affairs, a member of parliament from another country, a turbo-folk singer, and a tabloid editor met and went to Maric’s talk show.
The president delivers a speech, giving the others crumbs of time to say something bad about Montenegro, the West, to deny the genocide a bit, to blame all Serbs for the genocide, creating a spectacle grander than the other show featuring Dajkovic, Zavetnica, and Jovana Jeremic, discussing the very same topics.
On one sofa, the member of parliament and the tabloid editor who, according to KRIK’s data, had 348 fact manipulations in 306 publications, disinforming the public more than once a day. On the other sofa – the president, the minister, and the pop singer.
The very name of the show contains a cliché that, you will remember, we have heard and read countless times in the past few months – “the shameful Resolution.” One might think it is a campaign organized by politicians and the media.
At the beginning of the show, there were emotional outbursts. The member of parliament says that the president is his friend, and the president reciprocates with a declaration of love to the member of parliament. The singer says that the gentleman from Montenegro is very charming. There haven’t been any declarations of love and affection for the editor in a long time.
When they finished with “You sing my praises, and I`ll sing yours”, they started talking that would make one think that the United Nations did not even adopt the Resolution, and very soon, 19 votes against it quickly turned into 109.
The member of parliament then started justifying himself, saying that Germany had actually decided on behalf of Montenegro. Then, with the support of Minister Dacic, he said how we, the citizens of Montenegro, get free healthcare in Serbia. However, Dacic didn’t forget to ask – “How come people from Montenegro come to Serbia if we are genocidal!?” However, he didn’t forget that you must declare yourself a Serb to get free healthcare. Yet, he missed saying that the (non)payment of treatment is a matter of agreement hat Montenegro has with Serbia as well as many other countries, and it is not quite as “free” as he says.
The host introduces the pop singer as someone who does not mince words, only to be asked where she gets the courage to support the president and defend the country.
In the company of the president, the member of parliament, and the minister, she did not want to comment on the fact that she quarreled with a colleague over Twitter, saying that the colleague politicized everything. By the way, she says that her colleague from Dalmatia is actually a Serb, but let’s not politicize now.
And the show went on for almost three full hours. A mix of genocide denial, disinformation that the West wants to blame all Serbs for the genocide, that 109 votes were against the Resolution, and that we are all Serbs, including Severina. And it all started as a joke, although there is less disinformation in an average joke than in this show.
Darvin Muric, Editor-in-Chief of Raskrinkavanje.me
This project is funded by the US Embassy in Podgorica. The opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the US Department of State/Government.