But that's all right, really. Because we all know that's what the Chinese are like. Really. We know it because we've seen the photos and the news footage of the vicious Chinese police beating the innocent Tibetans. We've seen it on CTV in Canada. We've seen it on CNN in the USA. We've seen it in The Times in the UK. We've seen it in L'Actualite in France. We've seen it on N-TV and in Der Spiegel in Germany. These are only the images I've seen myself, but they represent a fair sample of the mainstream media in the leading countries of the Western world.

And so what if the images aren't actually Chinese police beating Tibetans in Tibet at all? So what if they're actually Nepalese police beating Nepalese demonstrators in Nepal? So what if – irony of ironies – they're actually Indian police beating Kashmiris campaigning for an independent Kashmir in Kashmir?

None of that matters because we all know what the Chinese are really like. Really. And there's no smoke without fire. Even if the smoke's in Kashmir, that doesn't mean the fire isn't in Tibet.

There is a more serious problem with trivialising debate – as well as legitimizing oafs and boors, it also legitimizes lies. Once you've run the problem through a reductionist analysis that turns it into a simple case of good versus evil, you can justify whatever measures you like as long as they're being taken on behalf of the "good".

I have no great expectations of the West's media. Over the course of my adult life, the most salient of its achievements seems to have been a relentless process of dumbing-down. Some – rather a lot – of the material that is presented as entertainment on Western television is excruciating. Jack Cafferty is a boor and an oaf, but I don't doubt among a substantial part of his audience, a hero.

But if the Western media wish to preach a lesson to the Chinese about their shortcomings, then adopting an approach of publishing and broadcasting lies in support of their case – superficial, absurd, transparently obvious lies – is a process that is likely to be self-defeating.

(China.org.cn by David Ferguson, May 6, 2008)