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Analysis: Was The Notorious Racist Tea Party Sign Forged? We Believe Not

Analysis

by Philip Bump | 11:33 am, March 31st, 2010

» 27 comments

Last week we reported on a photograph of self-proclaimed Tea Pary founder Dale Robertson holding a sign featuring a racist (and misspelled) slur. In an exclusive interview with Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher, Robertson claims that the photo was a fake. I was asked to take a look at the now-infamous photo of Tea Party leader Dale Robertson to assess the likelihood that the word ‘niggar’ was added at a later time.

First, some credentials. I used to be a designer at Adobe Systems, Inc., makers of Photoshop. Among other things, I worked on the Photoshop user’s manual and designed chapters for the Photoshop Classroom in a Book. As for experience with this sort of forensic analysis – I did spend about a week as a juror having signature differences explained to me, for what it’s worth.

On to the analysis.

The original image
I’d been sent a copy of the image in a fairly low-resolution format, so I decided to seek out as close to the original as possible. I found a high-resolution version still on the Houston Tea Party website, HoustonTPs.org.

Each time a modern digital camera takes a picture, it stores certain information along with the image. This data, called EXIF data travels along with the photo unless it’s stripped out as part of a photo editing process.

In the case of the original photo, the EXIF data revealed that the original photo was taken on February 27, 2009, without a flash. It was saved out of Photoshop CS3 for Windows on March 4th of last year – apparently the last time the original file was edited. It is possible to falsify EXIF data, so this is not conclusive, but if accurate, that’s well before the furor over the photo erupted.

Looking closely at the original also revealed other information.

First, the majority of the lettering seems to have been done in dry erase marker, the letters (particularly in ‘slave owner’) bearing signs of having lost color by being brushed against.

Second, the word ‘niggar’ was written in regular marker on a piece of posterboard or other stiff paper which was then attached to the larger sign. You can see, in the enlargement above, the upper-left corner of the paper. Below, the lower right corner, including that the bottom of the added sign was covered with duct tape.

At the top of the additional sign, above the second G in ‘niggar’, is what appears to be a piece of tape, indicating that the writing may be on the reverse of another sign of some sort.

Lettering
Next, I compared the lettering for the primary sign with that of the posterboard addition.

At left, below, are the letters from the word ‘niggar’; at right, the same or similar letters from elsewhere on the sign.

Stylistically, the lettering for the N, A and R are consistent with lettering elsewhere on the sign – but, importantly, are not exact duplicates. That is, the letter A in ‘niggar’ isn’t a copy of one of the other A’s, though it’s clear that they are very similar in style. (In the case of the A’s, it appears the general outline of the A was drawn first, then a triangle in the middle, then the entire letter filled in.)

The G’s are harder to determine, since the only other G is partly covered at the top of the sign. But it’s obvious that they aren’t copies of that G, nor are they copies of the C in ‘congress’.

Evidence of manipulation
I then looked at the evidence within the image data itself, focusing on two things: compression artifacts and fill.

Artifacts. The original image was saved in the JPEG format, which is a “lossy” format, meaning that every time the file is saved, it loses data in order to reduce file size. Part of this process means that artifacts, or compression fingerprints, remain in JPEG images, as you can see faintly above. The discolorations in the red circles are compression artifacts.

Fill. If this image is forged, and there was originally another word where ‘niggar’ now appears, that word would have to have been covered up in Photoshop. (If there weren’t another word there originally, why was he holding the sign?) There are two ways to do this – either by filling the entire area with a solid color, or by using the clone tool (or its sister, the healing brush) to cover the original lettering with copies of blank areas of the posterboard. More on this in a moment.

To assess the likelihood that the image was forged, I made a forgery. Presenting my more powerful political statement:

In this image, you can clearly see that the letters P, O, N and Y come from elsewhere on the sign, though they’ve been manipulated and darkened. Note, too, that the area behind ‘pony’ has been filled to cover ‘niggar’.

In creating the ‘pony’ version, I first covered ‘niggar’ with a solid color which, to the naked eye, makes the paper appear blank. I then saved the image out as a JPEG and re-opened it to compare compression artifacts and fill. The result:

The area of the fill, while invisible to the naked eye, is obvious when the color of the image is adjusted. Note the subtle line moving from the left edge up and to the right, and the right edge of the fill area about three-quarters of the way across the color-adjusted version. Most importantly, note the evenness of the color in the fill area. In the original, there’s no such evenness; the area between letters is mottled and splotchy in the color-adjusted version. To the naked eye, that’s not the case. (Also, note how prominent the compression artifacts are in the color-adjusted version.)

Adding ‘pony’ and saving as a JPEG results in the following:

There are additional artifacts, but note the flat, even color between the letters.

Then I filled the area by cloning. In the cloned sign, the filled area is blockier and less even than in the original, albeit only slightly. The differences here are more subtle and open to interpretation.

It’s obvious that if the original image in this case was forged, the creator of the forgery paid particular attention to covering the original wording of the sign.

Motive
The fundamental issue, though, is this. Someone with the appropriate Photoshop chops would need to have:
1) falsified the EXIF data,
2) created a sophisticated mottling to cover the original word (when a fill would do), and
3) carefully matched the styling of the original letters without duplicating them.

All to impugn the signholder with a word that could only have been slightly more offensive than other alternatives – after all, not many words fit where ‘niggar’ is now.

But the final piece of evidence worth considering this: the original, high-resolution file I downloaded came from the Tea Partiers website. Why would they upload and host a forged image of one of their leaders if it contains a word they’ve disavowed?

Assessment
There’s no evidence that the photo was altered in any way. For it to have been altered convincingly requires a level of sophistication that doesn’t seem to be worth the pay-off in this case.

Further assessment – this took longer than I should have spent on it.

Adobe, Dale Robertson, Dale Robertson n-word, Philip Bump, Photoshop, Tea Party

SWWT

For some reason, after reading your article, I feel that the original image may have easily been photoshopped. Took a couple classes on photoshop and photography at a local community college and some of the things that people can do were really amazing, but scary at the same time.

Also, imo, the G’s look nothing alike and neither do the N’s or R’s.

I think you’ve just introduced reasonable doubt. :s
homie

Further circumstantial evidence that the sign is genuine: It has been photographed in the possession of a white, racist teabagger.
homie

“G’s look nothing alike and neither do the N’s or R’s.” They don’t look radically different neither but it doesn’t preclude the possibility that another ‘artist’ composed the pasted on signage.
But even if they were conclusively determined by an expert to another’s handwritin’, it still fails to prove the sign a forgery as a photoshop fake, which it does not appear to be.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

I think the fact that you downloaded the sign from a Tea Party site speaks volumes. As you ask, why would they host a forged sign and I’ll add the question, how would a nefarious forger get upload privileges?

Still, good work and I guess we know what you did with your last night.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

Note: “last night” as in a reference to yesterday evening… nothing else.

(This site really needs an edit button)
SWWT

The R’s look pretty different. If you look at the top parts of the R’s they are longer horizontally than the bottom parts. In the R in “NIGGAR”, for some reason, the top part is longer vertically, and is shorter horizontally than the bottom part. In the original, the top parts of the R’s and P are consistently while the R in “NIGGAR” is different.

Explanations? He could’ve been writing them with a different marker, in a different position (sitting/standing), at a slower/faster motion, maybe he pre-outlined the other letters then filled them in, spacing, maybe someone else wrote it but he still put it on the sign, etc. But whatever the reason they look different.

The G’s look nothing a like. And I could go on and on again.

Unfortunately, any type of handwriting analysis doesn’t counter the fact that the picture is on full display on the website and like the author of the post brought up, honestly, who would do that for such little payoff (well it is paying off now I suppose). However, everything else (including changing the EXIF) could be moderately doable in any photo manipulation software.

Which is why I feel that author’s proof that the image is not photoshopped was inconclusive, imo, but the fact that it was on full display on the website is evidence that it wasn’t photoshopped.

Also, note that the person who took this picture had a Canon 5D, a pretty expensive camera. I could assume that a person with such a good camera would be more apt at photo manipulation. But then again, the mode is on Auto… but then again, the white balance is on manual. Unless Canon’s Ap mode still says it’s in Auto mode in the EXIF.

I still don’t think it was photoshopped, but beyond a reasonable doubt? I dunno about that.
felixw

10,000 articles in the “mainstream media” on the tea parties, and none of them discuss the actual reasons for these events or why people are attending. The government plans to spend another ten trillion dollars during the Obama presidency, money that they will need to borrow from the Chinese, and the media gives us…articles about a sign.

Message to the Left: Keep on trying to evade the issues and and playing these diversionary games. But know this: the public wants to address real issues and real problems, and they can see through this garbage flung in their faces — every day now — by the mainstream media. If you haven’t figured that out by now, you will get a reminder when elections come around in November.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

@SWWT: His wife or kid could’ve written one or the other, so they may not be from the same hand.

@felixw: As I said in response to a similar comment on another thread… it’s not the media’s job to explain or proselytize on behalf of any interest group.
http://www.pbump.net Philip Bump

SWWT – Thanks for your thoughts.

The burden of proof here isn’t on me, it’s on the person claiming that the image is forged. I wasn’t looking to disprove that claim, I was looking to see if there was evidence for a forgery. There isn’t any.
ex politicalmedia hack

Oh Lord…

Did you really just write this!?

The burden of proof here isn’t on me, it’s on the person claiming that the image is forged.”

i cant even began to imagine the mindset of a ethical journalist who would think this were true.
http://www.pbump.net Philip Bump

I really did.

Robertson is making a claim of fact. I can’t prove a fact to be false; it’s incumbent upon him to prove it true. If he’d said that it was actually a randomly generated collection of pixels that happened to form the shape of him and a sign, it would be up to him to prove that assertion as well.

By your logic, anyone claiming that an apparently authentic document is falsified must be believed until such time that it’s proven authentic. That certainly subverts a few centuries of case law, and would cause a rash of heart attacks among logicians.
the visionary

the real issue here is that the tea party does not associate itself with this crazy person so why does mediaite keep trying to tie him to the party? he has been disavowed by multiple tea party groups…
pyrope

photoshopped. to say otherwise is to believe the Earth is flat…or that global warming is real.
cappi

I have to wonder why anyone would ascribe credibility to the sign as being legit when everything about it, if it were legit would paint him and the tea party in the worst possible light. WHY would anyone legitimately associated with the Tea Party movement DO that? It makes no sense.

I don’t know about all the mumbo jumbo about pixels and photoshop but the legitimacy of the photo has to be questioned UNLESS this were a photo of a person in the KKK that wanted to publicize their racism. Yeah. That seems plausible.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joe-Vialonga/1284542851 Joe Vialonga

The left is terrified of the ea party, Sarah palin and anyone or anything else which stands up against the LEFT and it’s attempt to take America down the path to socialism and ultimately worse. The amount of time, energy and money they spend attempting (and failing) to discredit and demean them is stunning given their claim these organizations and Sarah Palin are “of no consequence” and unpopular with Americans.

Meanwhile every time there is a Tea Party rally, thousands and thousands of people show up.
ex politicalmedia hack

szo the author wants a “pony”

does this website recruit its “journalists’ exclusively from daily kos alumni?

no one uses that phrase but those nitwits…

pie,
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joshua-Stears/30802426 Joshua Stears

Thousand and thousands show up? Every time? That’s why the Tea Party express has been having around 500 people show up to most of their events this time around? Some had 1000+ but 4-5 in a row were lucky to have 500 according to CNN reporters that are with the bus on the tour.
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http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=17802816 Barrett Anderson

Could he have meant “niggard?” There also seems to be a lot of space left on the right side of the added paper. Could you analyze the photograph for any tampering on the right side (removing a ‘d’)? Niggard means something completely different.
Anonymous

The left would of done anythingthing, including a fake anlalysis to prove the altered sign was real – to discredit the tea party and make white people look like rascists
http://www.facebook.com/gmsingh123 Greg Singh

How about telling us about the Tea Party instead of the “Tea Pary”?