英国国际关系分析家汤姆福迪（Tom Fowdy）在《今日俄罗斯》（RT）网站上的一篇文章指出，歇斯底里反北京的“金牌”应归于《纽约时报》，因为其“精神错乱”对中国奥运的成功进行攻击。
过去四年来，尤其是特朗普在2016年美国总统选举胜出后，美国、英国、澳洲及其盟友的报纸和媒体网站的读者，成了这些媒体妖魔化中国，以图拉低中国在世界地位的一致行动受众。
这种冷战方式不仅是因为担忧中国在国际经济关键领域竞争和地缘政治中取得的进展，也是因为中国被视为美国和西方在全球体系主导地位的主要威胁——尤其自1992年苏联解体以来，这种主导地位一直未曾受到挑战。
在美国总统拜登领导下，美国和世界其他地区对中国的妖魔化正在加速，尤其西方媒体更热衷于充当美国及其盟友的非官方喉舌。
如今，西方新闻报导中，任何关于中国或其他地方的，重要或不重要的课题，甚至可能与中国没多大关联的——技术、文化、航空、全球变暖、健康、环境等课题——似乎是为了加强对中国的负面刻板印象，并以简化和微妙置入的信息来诋毁和丑化中国、中国政府和中国人。近来，西方媒体为了给人一种平衡和公平报导的印象，会更多采用华人或亚洲人的文章和消息来源。
美国有线新闻网（CNN）、《纽约时报》、《华盛顿邮报》、英国广播公司（BBC）、《卫报》、《华尔街日报》、《澳洲广播公司》、《悉尼先驱晨报》和其亚洲的媒体盟友如《日本经济新闻》和《印度时报》所采用的媒体宣传策略，尤其是对中国的负面报导，就包括了：
●删除或低调处理中国正面的新闻
●制造耸人听闻、伪造和虚假的信息
●无依据的抹黑
●使用煽动字眼和模糊的术语
●采访具偏见的受访者
●依赖跟风效应
西方的反华新闻甚至延伸到最近华中水灾等悲剧的报导，从西方媒体报导天气频道中，不寻找的大量采用郑州灾情和人员伤亡的图片，显示西方媒体的窥淫癖和歪曲报导的手段。
奥运的反华报导
一些西方媒体采取的立场甚至比其政府官方喉舌更极端，最新例子就是《纽约时报》。《纽约时报》被西方媒体行业视为“具权威性”的信史报纸，其发行量在世界排名第18，在美国排名第3，《纽约时报》在奥运会期间，却对中国进行最新一轮的抨击行动。
这一家声称寻求真相、帮助人们了解世界的报纸，刊登的一篇文章就展示了其扭曲的政治思维和逻辑，该文是由该报社东南亚分社社长撰写的，具有轰动性的标题〈中国运动机器的唯一目标：不惜任何代价拿下最多的金牌〉
文章声称中国出于政治目的扭曲了奥运精神，指责中国政府“将数万名儿童送入政府开办的培训学校”，并将年轻运动员分配到“那些较次要而北京又希望能称霸的体育项目上”。
这篇“发牢骚”的文章，写于奥运会的第一周后，当时中国在奖牌榜上金牌领先美国──该文除了有打击北京政府和中国体坛的政治目的外，也为中国获得的金牌，添加了种族主义色彩：该文指出，北京的重点一直是那些枯燥重复的运动项目，而不是涉及许多运动员互动且充满不确定性的运动。
英国国际关系分析家汤姆福迪除了揭露该文章的意识形态和种族歧视外，也指出该文章对与来自世界各地选手一样追求卓越表现的中国奥运选手，展示了一种傲慢、荒谬和赤裸裸的侮辱。他总结指出：
“运动归运动，无论他们来自哪里，只有最卓越者才可能胜出。《纽约时报》针对中国发表如此骇人听闻的文章，并不奇怪，这是美国媒体普遍存在的一种趋势，也与政府的外交政策相一致，这是种对中国的趋势──尽可能的负面、诽谤和彻头彻尾歇斯底里。
这也难怪中国人越来越鄙视外国报导，特别是美国三大报纸——《纽约时报》、《华盛顿邮报》和《华尔街日报》——每天都在无休止地散播反华报导，试图挑剔、诋毁和攻击中国的每一项发展，而且往往这些假设都是彻头彻尾荒谬的。”
读者的反应
从该文章在《纽约时报》推特和《今日俄罗斯》（RT）网站的读者反应分析表明，大多数人不认同西方媒体对中国的报导方式。
以下是一些读者的留言：
这几乎就像《纽约时报》和他们的同类，在每次有奥运会举行时都会老调重弹。尤其他们的国家无法排在第一时，就大叫大嚷；
这迎合恐华的观点，即中国人在某种程度上更像机器，而非如我们──拥有自由意志的西方人；
当美国利诱贫穷国家有前途的运动员，以代表美国在体育运动中取得成功，以及美国运动员在世界反兴奋剂机构的许可下使用违禁药物的事实中，所有这些针对中国的指控就显得非常荒谬；
美国人根本无法容忍其他国家的成功，因为他们误以为自己是应该引导世界的“理想之国”。在他们看来，一切都是零和游戏；
过去4年，我们就面对著类似反俄罗斯的歇斯底里举动。这是一种未经治疗并演变成包括反华的歇斯底里精神疾病。就像疯子劫持了美国的“常识”和“逻辑”。这国家的怪异行为，您可能会认为，也许我们社会正陷入“大规模歇斯底里”的崩溃处境。我无法相信美国，这个曾备受尊敬的国家，在道德上已经破产了。只有谎言，欺骗，巧取，哀鸣。
西方媒体的下一步
在西方媒体仇视中国的抨击中，接下来很可能会是什么课题呢？我们已经看到西方媒体在西藏、香港、新疆、华为、棉花产品、新冠病毒等课题上，对中国的丑化和诅咒。
接下来很可能是冬季奥运会和气候变化课题。指责中国和散播中国的谣言，已经在澳洲开始，澳洲天空新闻的一位主要主持人耸人听闻的指，中国16天的碳排量，等于澳洲一整年的碳排量。
一个不能忽视的事实是，按人均计算，中国的碳排放量远低于澳洲。2018年的最新数据显示，中国人均碳排放量为7.4公吨，不到澳洲15.5公吨的一半。同时，中国的碳排放也与高收入国家将排放密集型产业外包给中国有关。
在气候变化方面，澳洲和其他西方媒体更需要关注的是，根据一项最新国际排名，在57个国家中，澳洲是气候变化政策表现上最差的国家。
由非盈利智囊机构─新气候研究所（NewClimate Institute）、气候行动网络和德国看守协会（Germanwatch）组成的智囊团编制的2020年气候变化绩效指数，以各国的碳排放、可再生能源、能源使用和政策等类别，来衡量一国在气候变化方面的努力。在所有四个类别中，澳洲在受评估的57个国家中，是倒数最差的6国。这些专家的报告指出，澳洲莫里森政府“在国家和国际层面的表现继续恶化”，并指出澳洲政府在气候变化谈判中“是一股越来越倒退的力量”。
相比之下，中国排名第33位，其领导也因“在多个对气候变化产生影响的领域实施了许多重大政策”以及“在气候变化上领导地位的提升”而受到称赞。
林德宜《西方媒体能有多糟》（How Low Can Western Media Go ）原文：
The gold medal for anti-Beijing hysteria goes to the NYT for its unhinged attack on China’s Olympic Success
Tom Fowdy, in https://www.rt.com/op-ed/530706-nyt-china-olympic-success-article/
For the last four years, readers of media newspapers and websites in the US, Britain, Australia and their allies - especially after Trump’s presidential victory in 2016 - have been the targets of a concerted move to demonize China and to bring down China’s standing in the world.
This cold war approach is not only due to fear that China is gaining ground or winning in key sectors of international economic and geopolitical competition. It has also come about because China is seen as the principal threat to US and western dominance of the global system - a dominance unchallenged since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1992.
The demonization of China is now accelerating at a rapid pace under President Biden with western media more than eager to act as unofficial mouthpieces of the United States and its allies.
Today any western news reporting on China or elsewhere, on any topic however unimportant that may have the remotest connection to China - technology, culture, space, global warming, health, the environment, vaccines and others - is written up to reinforce negative stereotypes of China.
Both simplistic and subtle messages are inserted to discredit and reflect poorly on the country, its government and its people. Most recently, journalists and sources who are Chinese or Asians have been recruited; and non-western names provided alongside or at strategic positions in the news article to give the impression that the media are engaged in balanced reporting,
Some of the media strategies practised by the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, BBC, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney Morning Herald and their other media allies in Asia such as Nikkei Asia and the Times of India in their negative news reporting on China include:
●Deletion, lowering or ghosting the profile of positive news on China
●Sensationalism, falsification and disinformation
●Baseless smearing
●Loaded words and vague terms
●Use of biased respondents and providing soft facts
●Reliance on bandwagon effect
Western anti-China oriented journalism even extends to slanted coverage of tragedies such as the recent floods in Central China where voyeuristic and perverse reporting can be seen in the dissemination of an abnormally large number of images showing the devastation and human toll in Zhengzhou by western media weather channels!
Anti-China Olympics Reporting
The most recent example of the western media taking up a position even more extreme than that of the official mouthpieces of their governments comes from the New York Times. Touted in the western media industry as a national "newspaper of record", ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S, the NYT picked on the Olympics to engage in its latest bout of China bashing.
In an article written by its Southeast Asian bureau chief which shows its warped political thinking and logic, the newspaper that claims to seek the truth and help people understand the world, had the sensational title of “The Chinese sports machine’s single goal: The most golds, at any cost” (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/world/asia/china-olympics.html).
Claiming that China had manipulated the Olympics for political purposes, the article accused the Chinese government of “putting tens of thousands of children in government-run training schools”, exposing them to health and mental stress risks and funnelling these young athletes into “less prominent sports that Beijing hopes to dominate.”
More than a Cry Baby Article
A cry baby piece written after the end of the first week of the Olympics when China was leading in gold medals, the article - besides the political objective of running down the Beijing government and sports authorities - added a racist twist to the gold medals that China had won:
Beijing’s focus has been on sports that can be perfected with rote routines, rather than those that involve an unpredictable interplay of multiple athletes.
British international relations analyst, Fowdy, in exposing the ideological and racial blinkers of the article, pointed out that the article was patronizing, ridiculous, and just outright insulting to the Chinese Olympians who dedicate their lives towards competing and excelling in their chosen events as does any athlete from anywhere in the world. His conclusion:
Sport is sport, and may the most deserving athletes win, wherever they are from. The fact that the New York Times could produce such an utterly dreadful article on China is not surprising, yet it is endemic of a broader trend in US media, which – in line with the government’s foreign policy – has become as negative, vilifying and outright hysterical as possible.
Is it any wonder why people in China have come to increasingly despise foreign reporting? The big three US newspapers in particular – the NYT, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal – spew an endless daily conveyor belt of anti-Chinese stories which seek to nitpick, discredit, and attack every single development within the country, often on utterly ridiculous premises.
How Discerning Readers Have Responded
Analysis of the responses from readers to the articles in the NYT twitter and RT website indicates that some are not buying the western media anti-China news reporting.
These are examples of comments from readers:
It's almost like NYT and their ilk just rehash these hit pieces every time there's an Olympics going on. Just screams butthurt when their team isn't on top.
Playing into the Sinophobic view that Chinese people are somehow more machine-like in their brain, as opposed to us free-will-having Westerners
All those allegations against China are utterly ridiculous considering the fact that the US lures promising athletes from poor countries aiming for success in sports and revelations about US athletes using banned drugs under WADA permission.
Americans are simply unable to tolerate other countries' successes because they are under the delusion that they're the 'shining beacon on the hill' that should guide the world. Everything is a zero-sum game in their view.
We had 4 years of Anti Russia hysterics. It was a mental illness that was untreated and morphed to include Anti China hysteria. It is like crazy people have taken the US common sense & logic as a hostage. This is such bizarre behavior of a country, you might believe that maybe we are suffering a " mass hysteria" breakdown of society. I can't believe that the US, a once well respected country, has become morally bankrupt. And lie, cheat, steal, Whine.
What’s Next in Western Media’s China Bashing
So what’s likely to feature next in the western media’s xenophobic China bashing? We have already seen the media fixation with damning China on Tibet, Hongkong, Xinjiang, Huawei, cotton products, the China virus, and so on.
Coming up next is likely to be the Winter Olympics and Climate Change. Finger pointing at China and scare mongering has already started in Australia with one of the main presenters of Sky News Australia sensationalizing the news that “China emits in 16 days what Australia does in an entire year”.
The inconvenient truth is that on a per-capita basis, China's carbon emissions were considerably less than Australia’s. The latest data in 2018 shows China with a per capita carbon emission of 7.4 metric tonnes or less than half of Australia’s 15.5. Also pertinent is that the carbon emissions of China are an outcome of higher-income countries outsourcing their emissions-intensive industries to China.
On climate change, the bigger picture which Australia’s and other western media need to pick on is that Australia is the worst-performing country on climate change policy according to the latest international ranking of 57 countries. The 2020 Climate Change Performance Index prepared by a group of thinktanks comprising the NewClimate Institute, the Climate Action Network and Germanwatch, looks at national climate action across the categories of emissions, renewable energy, energy use and policy. Across all four categories, Australia ranks as the sixth-worst performing of the 57 countries assessed. The expert report found that the Morrison government “has continued to worsen performance at both national and international levels” and noted that the government “is an increasingly regressive force” in climate change negotiations.
In contrast China compares favourably with a ranking of 33 and the country’s leadership has been praised for “implementing many significant policies in multiple sectors that have implications for climate change” as well as for its “increased show of climate leadership”.
