The Washington Post's Gleeful Hot Take on the Crashing Economy Gets the Thrashing It Deserves

FILE – In this file photograph taken Nov. 1, 2007, the masthead of The Washington Post is displayed on the office building, in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

It’s difficult to keep up with all the bad mainstream media hot takes out there right now due to the sheer volume of them.

But one that caught the attention of social media users earlier today was an especially awful one from the Washington Post, where they promoted a piece they wrote on the economy’s performance since governments at the local, state, and national levels ramped up their efforts to combat the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.

Here was the tweet:

The coronavirus recession is exposing how the economy was not strong as it seemed https://t.co/ZUpvfMB5Um

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 29, 2020

I’ve seen a lot of super-bad hot takes over my years of covering and analyzing the media, but this one ranks right up there in the top ten worst.

I mean, millions of people are out of work because of restrictions put in place for non-essential workers in an effort to get people to do better at “social distancing.” Businesses have had to shut their doors, some of them permanently. Even with the stimulus package, some of the ones that are still open (but barely so) will continue to struggle until restrictions are eased and more people can get back to work.

But yeah, this whole thing proves the economy was “not as strong as it seemed” or whatever, Washington Post.

There were a whole lot of instant fact checks (and quite a bit of mockery) after that tweet went out:

No, it shows that when the government forces businesses to shut down, they can’t survive without sales.

— Ben Jammin 🇺🇸 (@xBenJamminx) March 29, 2020

Government enforced lockdowns just put millions out of work.
This headline makes no snse.

— Patrick McGuinness (@patmcguinness) March 29, 2020

If the government orders businesses to shut down, they don’t produce at the same robust rate as they did pre-order. Go figure. Pulitzer on the way, baby.

— GregEsq (@GregEsq) March 29, 2020

Possibly the dumbest thing I've ever seen in the Washington Post. And The Washington Post publishes a lot of dumb stuff… https://t.co/REZOVi50p3

— Pete Kaliner (@PeteKaliner) March 29, 2020

My wife turned off the hose earlier, exposing how the stream of water that was pouring out of it wasn't as strong as we'd thought. https://t.co/9lel6YNQF7

— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) March 29, 2020

I'm sorry… what economy anywhere at anytime would not grind to a halt when customers, employees, businesses, everyone was not ordered under penalty of law by the government to literally grind to a halt?#UseWaPoForTP https://t.co/dm0jI9cUZB

— Larry O'Connor (@LarryOConnor) March 29, 2020

Somebody thought it was a good idea to write this. And then at least 3 levels of editors though it was a good idea to publish this.

Ponder that for a moment.

— Plàya Manhattan (@PlayaManhattan) March 29, 2020

Twitchy documented more reactions here.

I read someone use the nickname “Washington Compost” recently in response to some of the paper’s recent coverage. All things considered, that sounds about right.