I could see if it was a deflection and criticized something irrelevant about China or the news agency. But saying you aren’t sure about a story because the source is known to be unreliable is perfectly reasonable. And yes, I trust NPR more than the official state media of any government. I’d say, the Trump administration released a statement saying basically anything and it was repeated by Fox, I’d be wary, so no, I don’t agree with the “western” thing.