You don't want to frame it as "US media agitating against China" as if it's some top-down, conscious project. It sometimes is, of course, but you don't want to lead with that. You want to lead with stuff like:
Most reporters get their foreign information from the State Department or other official U.S. agencies
Those agencies are not neutral sources and sometimes lie about other countries (toss in an example like the WMD story invented to justify the Iraq invasion)
Reporters who are too hostile to these agencies lose access to them
Reporters without access see their careers suffer
Over time, reporters either figure this out and curb their skepticism or they get drummed out of the spotlight
It's more about career incentives and who gets the job/keeps the job/gets promoted than about an intent to deceive.
There almost certainly is astroturfing going on organized and funded by Bannon, the Atlantic council, and their exiled billionaire Chinese rapist friend but yeah for the most part it's just bullshit news laundered through the State Department.
You don't need a formal conspiracy when interests converge!
--George Carlin
--Michael Scott
This is the problem right here.
You don't want to frame it as "US media agitating against China" as if it's some top-down, conscious project. It sometimes is, of course, but you don't want to lead with that. You want to lead with stuff like:
It's more about career incentives and who gets the job/keeps the job/gets promoted than about an intent to deceive.
There almost certainly is astroturfing going on organized and funded by Bannon, the Atlantic council, and their exiled billionaire Chinese rapist friend but yeah for the most part it's just bullshit news laundered through the State Department.