Bangladesh, Oct. 18 -- The Western media establishment has perfected a familiar political performance: wrap an ideological campaign in the language of investigative journalism, selectively assemble allegations, and then insist that the resulting narrative represents objective truth. The latest example is a New York Times report on the global fish farming industry that shifts its attention toward salmon production in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, reviving allegations of "forced labor" without, according to the account presented here, offering convincing firsthand evidence to substantiate its claims.

The issue is not whether journalists should investigate labor conditions in Xinjiang or anywhere else. They should. The...