The Washington Post just published a deeply reported story about the Trump administration’s campaign to “expand free speech” in Europe. That headline alone should tell you something about how the story is framed — it takes the administration’s self-description at face value, as though we’re watching some noble effort to export the First Amendment across the Atlantic.

But if you get past the incredibly misleading headline, the actual reporting reveals quite an admission from within the administration, and it fundamentally undercuts everything they’ve been doing supposedly regarding “EU internet censorship.” The story reveals that the Trump administration ran its own investigation into EU censorship, found nothing, and then barreled ahead with the entire crusade anyway.

Worth repeating, because it’s the whole story (even if WaPo buried it with their headline): the Trump admin investigated “EU censorship.” The Trump admin came up empty. And then the administration just kept going as if it were undeniable that what their own investigators couldn’t find must have happened anyway.

Framing is a hell of a drug.