“On killing Serbs”—A. M. Rosenthal as public memory dissent in reporting on the Yugoslav wars in The New York Times

Abstract The Yugoslav wars of secession attained a considerable quantity of media coverage. In the context of this extensive media coverage and war reporting during the 1990s, A. M. Rosenthal, the former managing and executive editor of The New York Times , was a notable memory agent. In the newspaper, he advocated a public dissent that was not only unique throughout the USA and Europe, but also partly convincing, as evidenced by archival material. In this study, I demonstrate how Rosenthal employed historical narratives in his own interpretation, integrating them with his personal memories and biographical experiences. While his journalistic colleagues were supportive of the demonization the Serbian side, Rosenthal vehemently denounced the unequal treatment of the warring parties (Serbs, Bosnians, Croatians, Kosovars). He referred to World War II legacy, when Serbia along with the USA fought against Hitler and Nazi Germany, and engaged in other memory work that contained oppositional knowledge than the hegemonial historical narratives. This approach is informed by theoretical concepts of transnational memory processes and political myth studies. This article presents the findings of a historical analysis of the archival material of A. M. Rosenthal from the New York Public Library , including the 17 articles from his newspaper column. Furthermore, the corpus includes Rosenthal’s personal correspondence, as well as reports and materials from his colleagues at The New York Times . In conclusion, it can be argued that Rosenthal was not merely a public dissenter; rather, his memory work can be viewed as an example of public memory dissent.