Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters was accused Monday of suggesting that diversity at the Federal Reserve has hurt the economy by the mainstream press, which attacked him over a sarcastic Twitter post.

Masters, a venture capitalist who is running for Senate in Arizona, shared a widely derided Associated Press story about the new, diverse leadership at the Federal Reserve. The article celebrated how there are "more female, Black and gay officials contributing to the central bank's interest-rate decisions than at any time in its 109-year history."

Conservatives, including Masters, mocked the AP and the Federal Reserve for touting diversity as an accomplishment amid record high levels of inflation — which the Fed is supposed to keep under control by manipulating interest rates.

"Finally a compelling explanation for why our economy is doing so well," Masters tweeted sarcastically, joining a chorus of Twitter users who poked fun at the story.

\u201cFinally a compelling explanation for why our economy is doing so well\u201d

— Blake Masters (@Blake Masters) 1661742143

But the New York Times and NBC News didn't get the joke. The Times published a deadly serious piece announcing that Masters "Links Fed Diversity to Economic Woes." “The sarcastic barb from Mr. Masters, which was widely condemned, was in response to a report of increased diversity at the Federal Reserve," the paper reported.

NBC News went further with a headline that reads, "Senate GOP candidate Blake Masters suggests diversity at Federal Reserve is harming the economy."

"Blake Masters, the GOP nominee for a Senate seat in Arizona, suggested in a sarcastic tweet this week that the sluggish economy and the high rate of inflation were tied to diversity in the high ranks of the Federal Reserve," NBC's evening politics reporter Zoë Richards wrote.

Masters obviously was not suggesting anything of the kind, as National Review's Nate Hochman explained in a post responding to the New York Times' coverage: "The entire premise of the piece — that Masters was arguing that the Fed’s increased diversity caused the economic downturn — is patently absurd," Hochman wrote.

He observed that the Times even acknowledged that Masters' tweet "aligned with some of his fellow Republicans, who also criticized the focus on diversity at a time of high inflation."

"Those are two wildly different things, actually: Suggesting that diversity is causing an economic recession, and arguing that diversity is a silly thing to focus on in the midst of a recession, are not the same," Hochman wrote.

The reports went on to raise questions about Masters' viability as a Donald Trump-endorsed GOP candidate for Senate in Arizona. The Times raised doubts as to whether Masters "can appeal to voters beyond his right-wing base." NBC News cherry-picked some of Masters' most controversial statements related to race, noting for example that in April he told "The Jeff Oravits Show" that "black people, frankly," were responsible for the majority of gun violence in the United States — referring to gang violence in big cities like Chicago and St. Louis.

NBC also reported that Masters "disparaged Black women" by criticizing Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first black woman confirmed to the high court, as a "horrible pick" and an "affirmative action candidate."

Many Republicans and conservative commentators were critical of the Jackson nomination and specifically of President Joe Biden's campaign promise to exclusively nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court for his first appointment.

Masters responded to the controversy over his tweet Monday night, calling the coverage "fake news."

\u201cI'm declaring war on Joe Biden's dysfunctional affirmative action regime\u201d

— Blake Masters (@Blake Masters) 1661811701

"Look, I don't care if every single employee at the Fed is a black lesbian, as long as they're hired for their competence and not because of what they look like or who they sleep with," Masters said in a view posted to Twitter.

"Race quotas are wrong. Gender quotas are wrong. They're unjust. They're illegal," he said. "But the Democrats are addicted to this kind of identity politics garbage."