News anchor and rival meteorologist feud on social media over ‘fake’ tornado photo
A Southwest Florida TV weather personality deleted a social media post after publicly accusing a rival station of sharing a fake tornado photo — touching off a public spat over journalistic credibility as AI-generated images become increasingly common.
Lauren Kreidler, a meteorologist at WINK News, posted an image of a tornado funnel beneath dark storm clouds over a Cape Coral intersection with a bold red banner reading, “NOT A REAL PICTURE.”
In the post, she wrote that the image had been sent into the WINK newsroom during severe storms but insisted it was “NOT a real photo.” The post, which was first revealed by the industry newsletter FTVLive, was later deleted.
The image shows what appears to be a narrow tornado funnel extending from a dark, rotating storm cloud toward the ground above a busy intersection lined with traffic lights, utility lines and passing vehicles.
The post prompted a response from Gulf Coast News anchor Peter Busch, who had previously shared the same image.
Busch said some viewers had suggested the photo was AI-generated and revealed that “a meteorologist from another station even briefly posted on her page that it was fake, but then she deleted her post.”
“In the interest of journalistic transparency, I’d like to explain to you how we determined that the photo is legitimate,” Busch wrote on Facebook.
According to Busch, the National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado briefly touched down near Cape Coral’s Southwest 27th Street shortly after 4 p.m. on Friday — matching the reported time and location of the image.
He added that the person who submitted the photo later gave an on-camera interview with Gulf Coast News.
Busch also said the station ran the image through AI-detection software, which “concluded that nothing in the image suggests it was manipulated.”
“It is healthy for us to be skeptical of images in this age of artificial intelligence,” Busch wrote. “We will always do our best to make sure that what we’re showing you is the real deal.”
The Post has sought comment from Kreidler and Busch.
