Hey Washington Post, I have a question.

Please forgive me if I come across the wrong way. However, here's what I want to know: Are you serious!? 

Yes, I understand it's impossible to fit all the important context and details in a 140-character-or-less tweet.

But really, this was the best you could do?:

 Am I reading that right? Is the newspaper that exposed Watergate really suggesting that the most important detail about a Cabinet appointee is that he "once led a prayer?"

Stop the presses!

I mean, is the political staff of the Post really so out of touch that they think somebody praying is first-sentence material for a breaking news alert?: 

According to the Pew Research Center, 55 percent of Americans say they pray every day. I'm assuming that during a drought, a few of them might pray for rain. No word on the percentage of reporters and editors in the Post newsroom who believe in prayer.

I know at least one staff member — former GetReligionista and current Post religion writer Sarah Pulliam Bailey — who has written about her personal faith. 

I couldn't resist tagging Bailey in a tweet last night:

Mollie Hemingway — another former GetReligionista, now a senior editor for The Federalist — replied:

New York Post op-ed editor Seth Mandel quipped:

Many direct responses to the Post's tweet were equally amusing:

On the bright side, the latest version of the Post story is better, waiting until the third paragraph to note that Perdue "drew national headlines for holding a public vigil to pray for rain in 2007 amidst a crippling drought." But it's too late to fix the original damage.

Despite my sarcasm with this post, I try not to go overboard in bashing the so-called mainstream media. I work hard to provide a mix of praise and criticism. I even got accused before the Nov. 8 election of a "blanket defense of journalists." 

But it's extremely difficult to see coverage like the above from the Post and not agree with at least the first sentence of this person's tweet:

I'll ask again, Washington Post: Are you serious!?