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At the end of the article “The Enduring Gullibility of Chinese State Media,” Matt Schiavenza argued that the editorial sloppiness that causes Chinese state media organisations to mistake satire for fact with embarrassing frequency is holding the country back from having an internationally respected media brand.

Ironically, the incident that sparked Schiavenza’s article related to the recent takeover of the Washington Post, a paper whose decline is part of the seismic shift that has seen China Daily, Xinhua and CCTV go global while Western media organisations face what newly-minted London correspondent Mark MacKinnon describes as “seemingly insurmountable challenges.”

Schiavenza correctly pointed out that financial resources alone do not make for a global brand. And, as well as the problems that underpin much of Chinese society such as nepotistic recruiting, self-censorship, and a culture of conformity brought on by an education system still obsessed with standardised testing, there are at least three major obstacles that keep China at least a generation away from having an internationally respected media brand.

The first stage of trying to build credibility is overcoming prejudice. In her 2005 book, “A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives,” academic psychologist Cordelia Fine wrote that we are programmed to prefer newspapers, magazines and people that share our own values. Surrounding ourselves with “yes men” limits the chances of our views being contradicted.

As a relative newcomer to the global media stage, China’s media will need more than just wide reach to successfully impose its values.

A more obvious problem still is that of attracting interest. A news organization attracts a following by being interesting. As Kirk Douglas’ unscrupulous reporter said in the 1951 film Ace In The Hole, “Bad news sells best and good news is no news.” As Mitch Moxley reminisced in his recently published China memoir “Apologies to My Censor,” hard-hitting reporting about corruption and official misconduct takes a firm back seat to harmoniousness and cronyism. Journalists who have valued standing up to be counted ahead of advancing their careers include Cheng Yizhong, whose time in jail is described in formed Washington Post journalist Philip Pan’s 2008 book “Out of Mao’s Shadow.”

Chinese newspapers routinely fill pages with information about what the government will achieve in the distant future instead of reporting noteworthy events of the recent past. Who would you rather sit next to in a bar: Somebody who endlessly boasts about what they will achieve or somebody who tells stories about colorful (or embarrassing) experiences they have had?

This leads to the most obvious problem of all – trust. A history of cover-ups, such as during the SARS crisis in the early 2000s and uprisings in Tibet in 2008 and Xinjiang in 2009 have helped discredit Chinese state media at home and abroad. The series of self-immolations by Tibetan monks that started in March 2011 have been described by Beijing as acts of “self-propaganda,” Tibetan media organisations based in India and the West have responded. Lobsang Sangay, prime minister of the Tibetan government in exile, told Asia Times Online that the monks were calling for the “restoration of freedom in Tibet and the return of His Holiness The Dalai Lama.” Very few people in the West are qualified to have an opinion on the Tibet issue, but Beijing cannot be said to be winning the battle for credibility.

So as circulation and advertising revenues continue to decline in the Western world, don’t expect Chinese counterparts to simply step into the void, even if this sloppy editing is avoided in future.