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Although democratic theorists recognize an independent media as central to the proper functioning of democratic institutions, democratic governments often exploit their citizens' faith in that independence to generate popular support or at least acquiescence for government policies. This article uses the examples of Operation Horseshoe and the fighting at Račak and Rugovo during the Kosovo conflict of 1998 and 1999 to illustrate how democratic governments in the US and Germany attempted to manipulate public perceptions of the Kosovo conflict to justify the 1999 war. The study reviews over 100 newspaper articles, found in the Lexis-Nexis database, and numerous scholarly articles to trace the development of these specific narratives. The article shows the construction of two illusions: the illusion of multiple sources and the illusion of independent confirmation. In the end, these `truths' and frameworks filter into scholarship, as many scholars begin to base their interpretations on these `facts'.

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd