Disclaimer: I have no idea who Rita Weaver is. I've never met her. I have no connection with her campaign and I don't even remember if I voted for her in the primary.
You know, I'm rather suspicious of this image. It would be fairly easy to create some "evidence" like this in Photoshop, take a screenshot with a cell camera, and send it to people in an attempt to smear someone's name. There are just too many items here that don't line up. There may be some rational explanation for them but there are so many it's hard to believe. For example:
- Look closely at the image, and notice the remarkable difference in compression artifacts and blurriness between the yellow SomeECards image and the text immediately below it. That sharp text is consistent across the lower part of the page, so I do not believe this is because of a tilted camera angle leading to different focus lengths. SomeECards images are always small enough to embed in a page without such compression artifacts, so there's no reason for it to be unclear and pixelated like that.
- Rita posts very few things on her FB profile. The three items visible are not currently on her profile. They must have been from 2013, since the second one refers to Furlough Fridays which were NOT an issue this August. Also, the comment about Monday matches Monday Aug 5th 2013. In 2013, she apparently posted only six total items.
- There are no public images in Rita's profile matching the SomeECards image on her purported page, and no link in that timeframe to such an image on someone else's page.
- There are no images on Rita's profile pictures that match the one on her purported page. Profile pics are usually publicly visible. There is no good reason for her to have deleted such an innocuous image later. There are also no "Rita changed her profile image" messages matching this image.
- There is no evidence in the supposed timeframe (Aug 12th) of any of these status updates, including the school board one. I can understand if Rita deleted such an inflammatory comment on her own page, but there would be no reason for Sue Weissner to delete her own status; it's funny but nothing for Sue to be ashamed of.
- There is no evidence on Rita's page of such a status update about the school board. (I can understand she would delete it upon realizing it might impact her campaign.)
- There is no evidence on Greg Weaver's page of her comment about him. I can understand this if she deleted it for personal reasons but other similar comments about Greg are still there, making it unlikely she deleted such a comment later. However, on Aug 5th 2013, Greg was convalescing from a knee replacement at home, not stuck on a Furlough Friday. This makes the existence of such a comment questionable.
- I cannot find any SomeEcards image matching the one shown.
So is any of this, or all of it, proof that this image is faked? No, I can't state that as a fact.
Is Thunderstruck intentionally misleading us? Probably not; the image may have come from somebody else.
But the image itself should not be used as proof that Rita is an unworthy candidate. It SHOULD be viewed as proof that someone is smearing her name, whether correctly or not.