UPDATED: Washington Examiner, please define "linked"

Fox News this morning dutifully amplified the Examiner's wildly misleading report from yesterday about how a Maryland-based company just landed a modest-sized government contract and is "linked" to its local Congressman, House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer.

Linked? Hoyer had nothing to do with the firm getting the contract and didnt' even know about it until after it was signed. The only "link" was that three of company execs have contributed modestly to Hoyer over the years. That's the news. That's the hook.

Do I even have to explain that 'reporters' at the Examiner could, if they wanted, announce that virtually every private company in America which lands a government contract is "linked" to a politician simply by showing at some time in the history of that company a single exec wrote a campaign check. The logic is rather idiotic.

So naturally Fox News picked it up this morning.

Check out the chyron below, which notes that company execs gave Hoyer $19,000. Even at face value that total seems laughably small. (That's supposed to raise eyebrows?) But the chuckles only increase when you realize they gave that modest sum over a ten year period, a fact which Fox News leaves out.