The irony was not lost on anyone who read Friday's People's Daily article 'To be kind to the media is to be kind to the global audience', and was then treated to video footage showing Beijing police using unnecessary force to manhandle Hong Kong journalists who tried to cover chaos surrounding the sale of Olympics tickets that day.
'To serve the media is to serve the Olympics,' the People's Daily article crowed. 'To be kind to the media is to be kind to the global audience, a solemn commitment China has made.'
It quoted former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch saying that the media were the ultimate judges of the Games, and said that to a certain extent the history of the Beijing Olympics would be jointly written by tens of thousands of media workers and other participants.
But Friday's clashes between police and reporters did not bode well for how global audiences will view the Beijing Olympics, because of the way the capital's police treated the 'ultimate judges'. Television footage showed that several Hong Kong journalists were pushed, dragged and forcibly removed from reporting on the chaos.
On Saturday, Olympic organisers admitted the police had acted inappropriately and promised to learn from the experience.
The unfortunate incident may appear isolated, but it says a lot about Beijing's readiness, or lack of it, just days before the Games start.
More important, it raises serious concerns about whether the mainland authorities will pass the ultimate tests - how to deal with perceived negative events and incidents, and the overseas media that will want to cover them.