We have all heard more than we want to hear about “fake news”, “factoids”, “truthiness” and “alternative facts”. Well, unfortunately, the problem has hit home.
The Virginians for High Speed Rail (VHSR) organization recently held a rally at the Richmond Main St. station to advocate for high speed train service. They were showing “Don’t Cut Our Trains” signs. Some citizens from Ashland were also present showing their own “No Third Rail” signs. (It should be noted that Ashlanders are not opposed to high speed rail — what we are opposed to is a third track running through town.)
Here is the picture, as presented in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. (The full web address is http://www.richmond.com/news/local/ashland/altered-photo-from-train-rally-riles-ashland-residents/article_bcc6ee32-287d-5292-824e-a492b7cc692b.html). You can see a mixture of signs.
The VHSR organization later doctored the picture to make it look like the following.
So, Fake News comes to our little town.
P.S. One neat feature of the R T-D picture that I had not run across before is that there is a slider bar running down it: move the bar to see how the picture changes.
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