Drudge: 1973, 2008...What's the Difference?

Only a bonafide tornado nut like me would notice something like this, but here goes anyway. For several hours last night and into this morning (Feb. 5-6), the Drudge Report (normally one of my favorite websites) perpetuated a goof at minimum, and a copyright violation at maximum. Before I provide the answer below, take a mental exercise and guess which tornado is in the photo below. [Click on the thumbnail to get the full-sized screen capture in a separate window or pane.]

The tornado-related articles on Drudge that night dealt with the Super Tuesday tornado outbreak of 5 Feb 2008. That photo is real, and was taken from within the damage path of a tornado as it retreated from town.

The town was Union City, OK, and the date was 24 May 1973! I recognized that tornado immediately, having catalogued numerous slides of it over 20 years ago as a former NSSL student research aide and storm intercept crew member.

Some asking around amongst storm chasing old-timers has indicated that the photo was taken by Al Moller using Randy Zipser's camera. I don't know if it is copyrighted by either of those guys, or was released to the public domain. Either way, the record should be set straight, even if very, very few ever would notice or even care.