It's so easy to criticise America

Justin Webb on Radio 4's Feedback programme replying to critics who accuse him of sounding like Fox News. His explanation of why is everyone so critical of the US thankfully lacks the grand superstructure of conspiracy theories and the squalid drama of 'selling out'.
So why is everyone so critical of the US? It's easier, (or, as Ninme puts it, they're just lazy).

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.

(via Ninme, with links to Clive Davis, who gives the background)