According to some news curators such as BuzzFeed, yes. It featured the Washington photo under the headline: “This Adorably Sad Image Is Now The Official Photo Of The U.S. Government Shutdown.”
The photo first made its appearance on reddit, a community of forums on every topic imaginable. Uploaded by user superbonnie in the “pics” forum, the photo has attracted 2,460 “votes” and 330 comments within 21 hours.
On BuzzFeed’s page, the image has been Facebook Liked 2,400 times, and shared on Twitter by 594 readers (as of 9 p.m. ET Thursday).
In the photo, a child is standing on the gate of The National Zoo in Washington. On the gate a sign reads, “The Smithsonian Museums and National Zoo are closed today due to the government shutdown. Please visit www.si.edu for updates. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
It’s unclear who the parents are and if the image was staged.
Earlier this month we learned the National Zoo’s “Panda Cam” would go dark during the government shutdown, now in its tenth day.
