Welcome to the world of EU bashing. People usually never read anything that comes from Brussels, but love to complain about it. Unfortunately, that is especially true for British media.
Welcome to the world of $LARGE_ORGANIZATION bashing. People usually never read anything that comes from $LARGE_ORGANIZATION, but love to complain about it. Unfortunately, that is especially true for $EVERYONE.
(Sorry. Excessively-specific adjectives are a bit of a pet peeve of mine.)
Just read European newspapers and the justifications of politicians in Europe when they want to implement some unpopular policy.
Its not uncommon that a political party introduces a policy first on the EU level (say, in the Commission) and then complain about it later that the "EU forces them" to implement it on a national level (even though it was that same party that promoted it in Europe). Its the easiest way for politicians to blame unpopular but necessary policies on somebody else.
In this case, sure. I mentally think of it as the excessively-specific adjective problem, because usually I'm wanting to replace "British media" with "media" or something. This shot right off the adjectives entirely. (This is explanation, not defense, BTW; you are entirely correct.)
(Sorry. Excessively-specific adjectives are a bit of a pet peeve of mine.)