The latest example of “fake news” is the wild misrepresentation of a message from the Republican National Committee that caused a Christmas day frenzy as the establishment media and bitter online leftists pushed the theory that a reference to a “new King” in a paragraph talking about Jesus was an allusion to Donald Trump.

The RNC Message Celebrating Christmas began:

WASHINGTON – Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus and Co-Chair Sharon Day released the following statement celebrating Christmas: “Merry Christmas to all! Over two millennia ago, a new hope was born into the world, a Savior who would offer the promise of salvation to all mankind. Just as the three wise men did on that night, this Christmas heralds a time to celebrate the good news of a new King. We hope Americans celebrating Christmas today will enjoy a day of festivities and a renewed closeness with family and friends.

RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer called out both CNN and BuzzFeed on Twitter for hyping the bizarre interpretations of the Christmas message. CNN posted a story titled “RNC: The ‘new King’ is not Trump,” while BuzzFeed’s article “People Are Arguing About Whether Republicans Just Compared Trump To Jesus” stated:

The combination of the words “this Christmas” and “new King” had people wondering whether the GOP was comparing Donald Trump to, well, Jesus.

Spicer, who is slated to be the Press Secretary for the Trump administration, wasted no time in not only stating the obvious fact that “the King” is a reference to Jesus Christ but to call on both CNN and BuzzFeed to apologize.

Christ is the King. He was born today so we could be saved. Its sad & disappointing you are politicizing such a holy day. https://t.co/NEOkLNd1Mz — Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) December 25, 2016

It’s sad that @BuzzFeedBen condones this attack on Christ on such a holy day for Christians. @BuzzFeed must apologize https://t.co/QdtAZGOqgY — Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) December 25, 2016

On this holy day of Christmas @CNN @greggbirnbaum mock @gop 4 acknowledging that Christ is the King of Christians https://t.co/2G7R67YcyR — Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) December 25, 2016

A number of verified Twitter users who are part of the Democrat establishment engaged in bizarre theorizing and made flat-out false claims, but instead of being fact checked by media sources like BuzzFeed or CNN, they were simply quoted and their statements were left unchallenged for accuracy.

For example, writer and activist John Aravosis, whose bio says he is a “Dem digital strategist & Editor @AMERICAblog. LGBT advocate” actually called on the RNC to apologize before going on to make the wholly false claim that Donald Trump had declared himself king. Aravosis was quoted in articles from both BuzzFeed and an article in The Hill titled “Social media erupts over GOP statement about ‘new King.’”

Imagine the outcry had President-elect Obama compared himself to Jesus on Christmas Day AND called himself “king.” https://t.co/Iq0MjefIID — John Aravosis (@aravosis) December 25, 2016

Another verified Twitter user, New York magazine writer Jonathan Chait, felt the need to explain to his readers that there’s a distinction between a president and a king:

The distinction between a president and a king is not trivial https://t.co/8At2sHon1E — Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) December 25, 2016

Chait was promptly schooled by National Review Institute Senior Fellow David French, who spoke from personal experience.

He’s referring to Jesus, not Trump. This is standard Evangelical phrasing I’ve heard a million times in my life. https://t.co/5W2PA5PNWY — David French (@DavidAFrench) December 25, 2016

When Daily Beast editor Alex Leo chimed in to respond to French, saying that she’d consulted “a man versed in theology” who had parsed the RNC statement, Chait retweeted her.

@DavidAFrench @jonathanchait I just spoke with a man versed in theology who said the suspect part is *this* Christmas. It’s every Christmas. — Alex Leo (@AlexMLeo) December 25, 2016

Then Chait acted declared to his followers: the “best conclusion” is that the bizarre conspiracy theory was the fault of the RNC.

Best conclusion of preceding 2 tweets is that the GOP wrote a confusingly-worded passage that did not intend to describe Trump as a King. — Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) December 25, 2016

BuzzFeed, who also quoted Chait’s tweet about the distinction between a king and president, included a poll at the end of their piece, giving their readers three options — two of which blamed the RNC for either accidentally or intentionally comparing Donald Trump to Jesus. The options were:

The GOP just decided to compare Trump to Jesus.

It’s poor phrasing, but the statement unintentionally compared Trump to Jesus.

They clearly meant Jesus. Stop this madness.

At press time, over 50% of BuzzFeed readers believed “The GOP just decided to compare Trump to Jesus” while only 11% thought “They clearly meant Jesus. Stop this madness.”

Follow Breitbart News investigative reporter and Citizen Journalism School founder Lee Stranahan on Twitter at @Stranahan.