Do The Allegheny County Young Republicans Actually Know What A Joke Is?

From The Trib:

The chief of staff to Pittsburgh's mayor blasted the Young Republicans of Allegheny County for posting a photo of him on its Facebook page that purported to show him him supporting a social media movement that urges Democrats to "walk away" from the party.

The GOP group admitted the photo was fake news but left it on its Facebook page.

And:

The Young Republicans admitted the picture was fake in a Facebook post that has since been removed. The post said they hoped it would inspire the #walkaway movement in Allegheny County. The placard Gilman is holding - #Walk Away - refers to a social media campaign urging Democrats to quit the Democratic Party.

"It is obviously photoshopped and #fakenews," the GOP post said.

Amazing to me that a group of republicans would admit to pushing fake news. Ah, well. They're young (it's in their name!) they'll learn what their elders do.

But here's the thing - no one pushes "fake news" thinking that it won't be believed - that's the whole point, isn't it? That you know it's fake but your target audience thinks it's actually real. 

Their first caption read:

Breaking news from CNN, Mayor Bill Peduto’s Chief of Staff Dan Gilman has joined the #walkaway campaign. #russianbots

How much you wanna bet that they were hoping no one would understand the significance of that last hashtag and believe the photo to be real?