Just when you thought you’d seen the worst the mainstream media had to offer in this election, the New York Times is here to show you how wrong you were. After spending months telling us that voter fraud is a fictitious problem, that illegal immigration is good for the country, and that Donald Trump supporters can’t tell the difference between facts and nonsense, the nation’s most respected newspaper ran this headline on Tuesday:

“I Had a Scary Dream About Donald Trump”: Muslim Parents Face a Tense Election

It would seem impossible for the paper to sink lower than their Onion-worthy headline, but they manage:

Bilal Elcharfa was pouring cereal for his children before school this month when his 7-year-old daughter, Maaria, walked into the kitchen, calling for him.

“Baba, I had a scary dream,” she said, hugging him tight. “About Donald Trump.”

It was the morning after the second presidential debate, which the Elcharfa family’s two youngest daughters watched in the basement of their Staten Island home with their parents. In the middle of the night, Maaria went to her parents’ room twice, unable to sleep, and walked to the living room and checked her family’s security camera.

That morning, Mr. Elcharfa, 52, asked his daughter what she saw in the nightmare.

“He was so mean to us,” she said. “He had a scary face, like a zombie or something.” In the dream, Maaria later said, Mr. Trump came to the home of every Muslim family in the country and put each one in jail.

“Don’t worry,” he told his daughter, comforting her. “He’s just talk.”

So…a few questions. Assuming this story isn’t just made up by some bored writer in Manhattan, how did the paper even come across this family? These people actually wrote to the New York Times to report on a dream their kid had? And the New York Times actually followed up on it? Bias aside…what the hell?

Furthermore, did little Maaria get this nightmare fuel from the debate – undoubtedly boring beyond words to a seven-year-old – or from her parents’ hyper-reaction to Trump over the last year?

“I’m trying to let my kids live in peace,” the father told the Times. “I don’t want them to worry.”

You have a funny idea about the word “trying,” Mr. Elcharfa.

But of course, this isn’t about one Muslim family and it certainly isn’t about one 7-year-old’s nightmare. It’s about the audacity of the New York Times to run such a ridiculous story while simultaneously claiming to be an objective source of news.

Or are they even bothering to make that claim anymore?