The truth is never fake news.

President Donald Trump’s tweets created a stir Sunday morning — even by Trump-tweet standards — when he told four liberal congresswomen to “go back” to their countries.

He was pretty clearly talking about Reps. Ayanna Presley, D-Mass., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Ilan Omar, D-Minn., though he didn’t name them.

What do they have in common?

They’re all women. They’re all Democrats. They’ve all criticized Trump and his immigration policies.

More importantly, none are white. And despite Trump’s go-back-where-you-came-from grandstanding, THREE ARE FROM THE UNITED STATES. (Omar was born in Somalia and later became a U.S. citizen.)

The media is sometimes accused of paying too much attention to Trump’s tweets, trying to turn every angry post into a story, even when it shouldn’t be.

This is different. This is far more incendiary than the usual, and that’s saying something.

But the media is also accused of harboring a bias against Trump. Maybe that is true in some instances.

Not this one.

For one thing, as noted, Trump got his facts wrong. And there is absolutely nothing biased about saying so. Despite what some people might tell you, there is no such thing as “alternative facts.” Where is Ocasio-Cortez supposed to go back to? The Bronx?

A lot of media outlets have been focusing on the racist, perhaps even nationalist, tenor of the tweets in their coverage, which is a crucial part of the story. But too often it’s been done by framing this in the context of Democratic reaction. (If you’re looking for Republican reaction, there hasn’t been much so far.)

The Washington Post pointed out that Trump’s complaints basically parrot a segment Fox News host Tucker Carlson aired last week slamming Omar — hardly the first time Trump has let the network take the lead in crafting policy and rhetoric. This is important.

The New York Times tackled the story in a roundabout fashion, saying, “President Trump on Sunday weighed in on the friction between a group of four freshman Democratic congresswomen and Speaker Nancy Pelosi: He suggested that the congresswomen — none of whom are white — should ‘go back and help fix’ the countries they came from. His message was immediately seized upon by Democrats, who called it a racist trope.”

That’s like covering the epic, historic Wimbledon men’s final Sunday in which Novak Djokovic beat Roger Federer and talking about how it was the longest singles match in history but being afraid to tell your audience who won. (Djokovic, for the record. And “epic” sells it short. It was a thing of beauty.)

As we roll into the 2020 presidential election, a lot of people wonder what the media has learned from its coverage of the 2016 campaign. So far, the answer is basically not much. So here’s a reminder that, as the saying goes, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.

Trump’s tweet was wrong, and dripping with long-held racist tropes. The media should not — indeed, cannot — be afraid to say so.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: Facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.