FILE – In this Oct. 4, 2018 file photo, a Trump supporter holds up a T-shirt reading “You Are Fake News” before a rally by President Donald Trump in Rochester, Minn. Local members of the media says they’ve noticed more hostility from the public since Trump began his attacks on ‘fake news.’ Trade groups are spreading safety tips because of the incidents. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)

With the Wuhan virus pandemic dominating every corner of the news, and for good reason, the media continue to shred their credibly with ridiculous takes. One of the worst offenders has been The Washington Post, though it’s a pretty jammed up field near the top.

Instead of reporting honestly about what’s going on, they continue to push partisan narratives even when they are easily disproven. Take their latest story on the small business loan program, which contains some of the most incredibly false framing you’ll ever seen presented in a news article.

Thread on one of the most outrageous frameworks for a story you’ll ever see. Garbage story here: https://t.co/t97u6ESw1Y

— Josh Holmes (@HolmesJosh) April 21, 2020

Second – the premise is that hotels and restaurant chains ran the fund dry. Set aside basic understanding of franchise models or how they calculate that employees of some entities as less deserving than others, later in the story they let this slip: pic.twitter.com/MQ3OztJGdg

— Josh Holmes (@HolmesJosh) April 21, 2020

While I understand Holmes’ graciousness in setting aside how franchises work, I’m not going to be so kind. The current narrative being pushed that somehow franchises and restaurant chains, which employ hundreds of thousands of people within the guise of individual locations, are somehow less deserving that other businesses is ridiculous. It makes no sense at all and it ignores that almost all franchises are locally owned and do indeed qualify as small businesses.

But as Holmes says, that talking point is largely irrelevant anyway because it’s a tiny fraction of the money that’s went out. Focusing on that as a reason to stop the funding puts millions out of work so Democrats can virtue signal over a system that was never going to be perfect.

So maybe PPP needs more funding. What does the Post say about that: pic.twitter.com/eugBAeR0BH

— Josh Holmes (@HolmesJosh) April 21, 2020

That’s most crazy claim in the article. That somehow it is Democrats who are “asking that PPP be replenished. Republicans have been fighting to add money to the program for over a week now. The entire time, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have stood in the way. Yet, the Post attempts to make it seem as if Democrats are actually fighting for the little guy. It’s enough to make you want to run your head through a wall.

Just to take you back a bit – those newfound heroes trying to fund the small biz program, however, are not to blame for the program itself which as we’ve read has many flaws that are of GOP making. Got all that? Nonsense.

— Josh Holmes (@HolmesJosh) April 21, 2020

Let me summarize this for you. The Washington Post (and the media at large) think you are idiots. They think you can’t process the most basic facts, even when they are widely available. They believe they can somehow turn the Democrats blocking small business funding into the fault of the GOP while recasting Pelosi and Schumer as heroes.

You have to respect the grift I suppose.