(Credit: Atlantic Wire, screenshot, highlight added)

Columbia Journalism Review criticized the Atlantic’s slideshow about “The New American Ghost Towns.”  According to CJR, those alleged ghost towns are really just vacation hot spots during normal down seasonal visitations.

For example, the Atlantic cites Dukes County, Massachusetts; Summit County, Colorado; and Dare County, N.C., which CJR identifies as Martha’s Vineyard, Breckenridge, and the Outer Banks respectively.

As CJR explains, “these ghost towns are really just resort areas that were empty during low season in a snapshot taken in April” 2010 by the Census Bureau.