Sen. Ted Ferrioli

A meta-controversy stormed through the Oregon Capitol this week — among media types about media.

In a release Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, was quoted saying that a recent editorial in the Statesman-Journal on business taxes amounted to “fake news.”

“There is journalism, the hard, tedious work of real journalism, and there’s fake news,” Ferrioli’s statement, released by his spokesman, said. “Oregonians have to decide for themselves which media to trust, and which media to throw in the trash.”

“Fake news” is an increasingly loaded term in today’s fractious political environment.

Generally, it’s meant to describe news that is straight-up fabricated — not merely erroneously reported, or, in the case of editorials, representing a point of view with which you disagree.

The Register-Guard’s capitol reporter, Saul Hubbard, dubbed the statement a “really wild attack.”

“Lots of lawmakers/staff grumble about editorials,” Hubbard tweeted. “But public attack like that on Ed. board is v. rare.”

Later Wednesday, in response to criticism, Ferrioli retracted the “fake news” comment and apologized.

With what did he replace the term “fake news”?

“Crappy journalism.”

That kind of rhetoric, while not unheard of in politics elsewhere, seems contrary to the preferred Oregon Way of expressing displeasure: passive aggression.

Lindsey O’Brien, a spokeswoman for the Speaker of the House Tina Kotek, D-Portland, tweeted:

“Bullying reporters, crying fake news, personally insulting legislators,” O’Brien wrote. “Next: Phony Time cover? Maybe normal in DC…not in #orpol.”