Earlier in March, as Senate Dems were rallying their troops to reinstate President Obama’s repealed Net Neutrality law via a Congressional Review Act Resolution, the Washington Post (WaPo) did an amazing thing. It fact-checked those same Dems and one of their propaganda tweets (below):

“If we don’t save net neutrality, you’ll get the Internet one word at a time.”

I know. Crazytown. And the WaPo thought so, too, bringing it to conclude:

“…[T]here’s scant evidence that Internet users should brace for a slowdown. Yet the Democrats’ tweet conveys the false impression that a slowdown is imminent unless net neutrality rules are restored. This transmission error merits Three Pinocchios…”

Three Pinocchios!

What an unprecedented rebuke, especially considering that the news outlet has long supported Net Neutrality. So, does it portend that the pro-regulatory, anti-prosperity MSM like the WaPo have seen the light and changed their stripes?

Probably not.

Though certainly welcome, WaPo’s piece is only a temporary outlier. From the get-go, the MSM has been an integral partner in the Net Neutrality heist of the century, eagerly lending its support to subvert free enterprise, freedom of speech, and private property, among other things, all in order to bring about a more “fair” and “just” society via the Internet.

So, more truth-telling akin to the WaPo fact-check story isn’t likely to follow.

Expect instead to read more breathless reports why states and municipalities should pass their own balkanizing Net Neutrality laws to RESIST the Trump FCC. Or, how municipalities must own and operate (with your tax dollars) their own ISPs, choking out “evil” incumbent providers who “fail to serve” their communities. Or, why states need to spend tens of billions of tax dollars to “fix” rural broadband because the private sector “simply chooses not to.”

The press might want to reconsider this dysfunctional partnership. Its support of policies that encourage legal theft, economic sloth, and social division ain’t a brand-builder. Who wants to read that dreck?

Instead of partnering with the Pinocchio Democrats, the press would do well to examine policies which truly promote growth and innovation. It could start by taking a more balanced look at the FCC’s recent Net Neutrality repeal, which returns the Internet to the light touch regulatory model that made it so great in the first place.

Perhaps it could also look at some successful, pro-growth models in the states, like what Governor Doug Ducey is doing in Arizona.

Last year, Arizona was the first to pass legislation which streamlines governmental processes for the deployment of small cell technology. According Ducey, the law ensures that entrepreneurs don’t have to “jump through a patchwork of regulatory hurdles or navigate a maze of permits and fees in order to offer Arizonans access to mobile data.” Quite simply, these efforts are jumpstarting growth for the next generation of wireless communications, such as 5G, making Arizonans more prosperous and competitive.

Imagine if other states used the Arizona deregulatory template? Surely the press could. If the press to a look, it’d see a model which will help unleash nationwide an estimated $275 billion in private, 5G infrastructure investment; the creation of 3 million new jobs; and GDP growth to the tune of $500 billion.

In short, it would find that private companies, in partnering with government through light touch policies, can serve Americans as well or better than any heavy-handed, government plan (like Net Neutrality, etc.) could.

Can Pinocchio-policies bring about that growth?

No – the only thing they can grow is Pinocchio’s nose.

The media should reject his lies.

Mike Wendy is president of Media Freedom, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.