In a previous diary I reported on two German TV stations apologizing for incorrectly using videos/photos of Nepal police beating protesters for coverage of ethnic violence in Tibet. It turns out that these are not isolated mistakes.
As this youtube video shows, many of the major western media have made similar or even worse "mistakes."
(Don't be offended by the Chinese flag at the end - if you are, then you are just as prejudiced as the guy waving the Chinese flag).
The consequence of these biased, careless reporting lends credence to the accusation by the Chinese government that the west is aimed at "splitting China." The mostly apathic (on the matter of Tibetan independence) Chinese public opinion all of sudden turned decidedly pro-government. You may argue that inside China all bbs forums are controlled by the government. Not true but I won't argue on this point. I'll give you an example that is completely free of Chinese government control, and in fact banned by China.
The website cnd.org, which stands for "China News Digest," is a website run by the exile Chinese students in the aftermath of 1989 Tiananmen democracy movement. The discussion on this forum mostly focused on various democracy related issues in China, and are often quite critical of Chinese government. But take a look at this thread discussing events in Tibet. It started out as a condemnation of the media blackout by the Chinese government and anticipation of a violent government crackdown. Quite a few posters initially expressed sympathy/support for demonstrators. Then it turned into a discussion of biased reports by CNN and Washington Post. Then it became clear (to people in the discussion at least) that the violence was mainly Tibetans targeting ethnic Han and Muslim Hui. They started to use the term like "terrorists." Most of the discussion degenerates (no surprise here, just like on dkos) into a shouting match on whether the western media is deliberately misleading in the Tibet coverage. Finally, the end of the thread became a discussion of the degree of force allowed in law enforcement.
In this thread you can see before your eyes the turn in the public opinion. And the western media played a significant and shameful role in that turn.
So far, dkos is no better. There was the mindless "free tibet" sign-in temp who got fired but got on the rec list for a whole day. There was the mindless "Dear China, you suck" diary that got a swarm of approving comments. And all the mindless kudos and congrats that piled upon these mindless diaries. I am totally fed up with the hateful China-bashing that is going on here. I had thought that hate was not a characteristic of Democrats. People, please understand that your arrogant, self-righteous words and acts are not helping the Tibetan cause. They are hurting it.
This diary by DrJK shows a much more thoughtful approach, an approach likely to be taken by president Obama.