An oldy but still interesting.   We see the BBC ready / willing / and occasionally able to recognize their role in the entire mess that is the GWOT -

JW. I don't think there's a double-standard at a conscious level. I don't think the BBC has a double standard. I've never been told what to say one way or the other

RB. But you're saying there's a greater readiness to criticize America than there is to criticize China, or perhaps Saudi Arabia or other countries in the Middle East?

JW. And the reason is, I think, that it's easier, that we have a problem reporting open societies, particularly in a time of great international turmoil and war. It's just easier to criticize, it's easier to get information, it's easier to find people within the society who are immensely critical of it. Yet when you think of China, when you think of the Taliban...when you think of the situation in Iran it's just more difficult to get a handle on what's going on in those places. And I think there is a tendency, which we always have to guard against, of being tougher on democratic societies simply because it's easier.

JW identifies the means - transparency - by which negative reportage of a free society is made possible.   What he stays clear from is the far more troubling issue - motive.  Societies who, in Lee Harris' memorable phrase "have experience forgetfulness" fall into a surreal trap -

Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe....

They forget that in time of danger, in the face of the enemy, they must trust and confide in each other, or perish....

They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the enemy. "That, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn't done enough for yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part--something that we could correct....

The BBC criticizes the free world not simply because it's easier to do so, but also (I suspect)  because deep within their psyches the world would be Perfect if only we'd simply start being nicer to everyone.   For those trapped in this mode, the evil of 9/11 isn't the product of systematic failure on "their" part but rather lack of understanding on "our" part.