At 3:21 yesterday afternoon, the RI general assembly press office put out a release naming the legislative members of the new commission charged with studying tolls (covered here). An hour later, they issued a "clarification" worthy of one of Stanley Milgram's subjects. Viz:

Last year, the General Assembly approved legislation to implement a toll on the new Sakonnet River Bridge, which connects Tiverton and Portsmouth. Since then, a majority of the East Bay delegation and members of their communities have been vying for an equitable alternative to the tolls in order to maintain the area’s infrastructure and protect Aquidneck Island businesses.

In the later revision, this became

Last year, the General Assembly approved a provision in the budget transferring the ownership of the Sakonnet River Bridge, which connects Tiverton and Portsmouth, to RITBA so that a toll could be placed on the bridge. Since then, a majority of the East Bay delegation and members of their communities have been vying for an equitable alternative to the tolls in order to maintain the area’s infrastructure and protect Aquidneck Island businesses.

See what they did there? We didn't press the button giving someone a painful electric shock; it was those guys in the white lab coats who said we needed to do it. This is referred to as the "agentic shift," and to this reporter's mind, it is uglier than the raw fact of the toll itself.