After extreme flooding in central China last week destroyed homes, engulfed subways and killed at least 73, the ruling Communist Party found a convenient outlet for the public’s pent-up emotions: the foreign news media.A party organization in Henan Province issued a call to arms on social media to confront a BBC journalist covering the disaster there. A day later angry residents surrounded, pushed and yelled at reporters from Deutsche Welle and The Los Angeles Times. Then nationalistic commentators and news organizations used the videos and screenshots of the confrontation to wage a large-scale online attack on journalists working for …
