German newsmedia actually called good relations with Russia a problem

This is how mindbogglingly corrupted the media are really, how much of a hate-propaganda organ they are, with an added dose of lazy spinelessness.

Very recently, shortly before the U.S. presidential election's results were expected, I heard a host (or pundit? - the borders are very fluid there) say on German 'public' TV evening news that both Clinton and Trump would be problematic/inconvenient for Germany/Europe: Clinton because she might demand us to provide military forces for their wars, Trump because he could improve relations with Russia.

Yes, he said it like that. What an inconvenience that would be, to not be able to regard Russia as an enemy, a villain, but to have good relations with them. Apart from the glaring opposites of opposition and cooperation both being villified there, actually this is expressing a view of Russia being the eternal and core villain beyond change or complexity, no ability to discriminate and looks at the various facets of a country. It is saying: Russia is evil, so any cooperation with them is bad.

This is textbook hate propaganda. It is incitement. And incitement is a crime according to German law. But that law is never applied to that side of hatemongers. They're only using it as a weapon against their hate-competitors; those who have the audacity to openly (and often sincerely) express their negative attitudes towards others, those others being the allies of this propaganda establishment.

But the game of distracting from inconvenient self-knowledge by projecting it onto others is very popular. And so you often hear the view expressed like: "China really has censorship and propaganda. We are not perfect, but we are angels compared to them."
The sad irony is that those who say that are much greater devils, for they conceil, use trickery, lies, deception. In China, censorship is actually not a secret at all, it's at least in part more like official policy to filter out certain foreign cultural influences.
While those who play the accuser try everything to pretend they don't do what they accuse others of.

Media censorship in the West is at an appalling level, supported by the convenient ignorance of the masses.
I will end on an anecdote to put things in perspective: Recently someone made a remark about elections manipulation and all the democracy talk and the accusations against countries like Iran. The remark was that it should make us stop and wonder that unlike many targets of accusation by the USA, the USA is the country which refuses international observers at their elections to ensure a democratic process. And their domestic issues with democracy aren't even a secret. But people get angry when you speak out the obvious truth. They consider it a personal attack of their convenient denial.