It is a characteristic of the Western media that they report anything which London or Washington or Paris comes up with as the gospel truth. Is is true because it was said by a government spokesmen. This is the extent of truth-testing most ‘journalists’ engage in.
At the same time briefings by the Kremlin or the Russian Ministry of Defense, for example, are treated with the utmost caution. An example of the latter; the
The New Observer 