How can anyone take the western media seriously on this issue? Duterte is well known for being a loudmouth, and you can _tell_ from the quotes that he's joking

How can anyone take the western media seriously on this issue? Duterte is well known for being a loudmouth, and you can _tell_ from the quotes that he's joking most of the time. Yet they breathlessly cover this as if everything he says is dead serious. You might say that a head of state of a US ally shouldn't be talking this way, but I don't think it newsworthy anymore to jump whenever Duterte says something silly.