AP Stands by Caption in 'Looting' Photo Controversy

[sabra]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054569

AP Stands by Caption in 'Looting' Photo Controversy

NEW YORK In one of the photos, a man wades through chest-deep waters with a large black bag filled with items from a grocery store. In another, two people wade through equally high waters, carrying bread and soda.

...

In the first, the young man, who is black, is described as having "looted" the items. In the second, the pair, who are white or light-skinned, are described as "finding" the items.

...

On Thursday, Yahoo withdrew the photo of the light-skinned pair at the request of Agence France Presse, which distributes Getty's U.S-produced photos internationally. In a note, Yahoo wrote it "regrets that these photos and captions, viewed together, may have suggested a racial bias on our part.

...

The Associated Press said its policy was clear. "When we see people go into businesses and come out with goods, we call it looting," said Santiago Lyon, AP's director of photography. "When we just see them carrying things down the road, we call it carrying items."

[bear425]

1. I guess they just didn't "see" the white couple go into the

business and come out with the goods. :eyes:

[xultar]

12. They were 2 different news organizations. AP and AFP.

[MADem]

2. What a fucking load of horseshit

If you don't SEE it, it did not happen? How Bushlike!!!!!

Where do they think those folks got those items they were carrying? At the 7-11? Did they wait in line, and get change back from their ten spot?

Please...this defies all logic. But it does sound Bushian, to me!

[xultar]

13. They were 2 different news organizations. AP and AFP.

[MADem]

18. Yeah, I know, but YAHOO carried them, and they were Yahoos for so doing nt

[Igel]

24. So Barnes and Noble is responsible for

the editorial content of everything in their store?

They provide access to the stories; they don't write them.

[MADem]

25. No, but Yahoo could have used their brains, and exercised a bit of

editorial discretion. It's not a question of what one MUST do, people are free to do whatever they like (if Barnes and Noble decides to have a sale on Mein Kampf and give prizes to the best Hitler costumes, it is legal, except perhaps in Germany, but it is in extremely poor taste and insensitive, to boot) it's just that the exercise of common sense, and the treating of all people with dignity and respect, are virtues.

And not enough people or organizations are truly virtuous anymore.

[JuniperLea]

3. I'm so sick of ragging on looters!

Those shops and warehouses should have been opened up to the public by the authorities!

Wait, there were none there when needed. Never mind.

This is just getting more and more disgusting.

[Tanuki]

4. "carrying"?

The explanation is bogus, because the caption didn't say "carrying", it specified that they "found" the items!

[Mythsaje]

5. They were

simply running loose on the street so the white couple picked them up. Right?

See...simple explanation.

:sarcasm:

On edit...they "found" the stuff like a lost dog.

Yeah. That's the ticket.

[xultar]

14. They were 2 different news organizations. AP and AFP.

[StrafingMoose]

6. Red herring!!

Jees... I'm in NO, the authorities don't seem to give a sh*t about me, I can't get out of that hellhole (which it has become since the hurricane), I'm starving, I get in a store. Guess what?? There's no cashier to take my cash (which I would be glad to give for the goods) what do I do? I take what I need to take to survive!

God, it's not like these people loot the whole stores to sell perishable goods 10X the price after the hurricane and its aftermath's gone! Hell, I'd have a food grocery I'd encourage people to take what they need if I can't be there to proceed the transactions! Anyways, all the perishables will be rotten by the time these slow ass authorities do something about it! They better be used by people who need it.

Instead, I'd like to see pictures of these people "shooting at helicopters" that are so convenient and used as an excuse for authorities not to do sh*t about anything.

[Child_Of_Isis]

7. may have suggested a racial bias??????????

Suggested? Pu-leeze.

[dogman]

8. And when they meet Bush with their garbage bag in hand

they are salvaging.

[BrendaStarr]

9. They are lying. I have proof

I have an AP photo on my blog and I copied the caption they apparently supplied with it to Yahoo.

It clearly shows a white woman walking out of a store with goods and the word looting is not used.

http://thunderinthehouse.blogspot.com/

I found via searching through the hurricanes and Tropical Storms slide show. (Which I was doing last night. When I read about Kanye's remark, I remembered this one photo and went to check to see if the word looting was used in relation to the lady's actions.

This photo will eventually be disappeared along with the caption at Yahoo, so I have saved the moment for when the right wingers come back and lie in the future when the info is not available.

[DemBones DemBones]

19. Good job, Brenda Starr! The caption says

"A resident emerges from the destroyed K Mart store in Bay St. Louis, Miss., with supplies on Friday, Sept. 2, 2005. The area was left devastated by Hurricane Katrina when it made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)"

I'm betting they did not see the white woman pay for those "supplies" in "the destroyed K Mart store." Therefore, she was looting, as anyone would do in such a situation if they wanted to survive.

[wellstone dem]

10. And I saw one clip

sorry don't remember the station where a black man talked about taking items to save his family, and about leaving a note about what he took and who he was. He clearly intended to pay when the store was reopened.

[flamingyouth]

11. I'm glad Yahoo! at least withdrew it.

Really disappointed in the AP. Frankly, I didn't think I had much more disappointment in me to spread around... :(

[progressivebydesign]

15. I know we really want to claim racism here..

but I also stand by my suggestion that the photographers in question witnessed both incidents (considering they were there), and one was finding floating bread, the other was hauling a bag of stuff from a store.

[Lenore]

17. I saw a report by the photographer, somewhere 'round here...

He says that he personally saw the person/people, the one not described as a looter(s), reach out and glean the bread and bottles from the water as they floated passed the people.

[DemBones DemBones]

20. What about the white woman walking out of a

destroyed K Mart with sacks of "supplies"? See Brenda Starr's post above and my reply to her. The AP photo has been saved -- Brenda gives the URL -- and the caption says

"A resident emerges from the destroyed K Mart store in Bay St. Louis, Miss., with supplies on Friday, Sept. 2, 2005. The area was left devastated by Hurricane Katrina when it made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)"

Shouldn't he have checked up to see if she paid for those "supplies"? I doubt there was a cashier in "the destroyed K MArt."

[Lenore]

22. I ain't here to defend EVERY photo caption...

Just reporting that the photographer of the one where the people were "finding" food actually SAW them FINDING the food as it *floated* passed them. Was the photographer supposed to say that they looted that stuff rather than rescuing it from the flood water because you have seen some other white person actually looting items?

Being a photographer myself I personally believe that journalistic integrity (oxymoron I know) should reign and that people gleaning items from the flood waters, as the items float passed them, shouldn't be portrayed as "looters" even if there are real looters in operation three blocks over.

Just my take on the situation and this *one* "finding food" picture that people have taken issue with.

[still_one]

16. AP is a POS organization

They broadcast same stories with different flavors and headlines to the U.S. verses Canada

I have seen them do this before

[hadrons]

21. please help me understand, Santiago Lyon ....

How do you draw the difference between one looting and one carrying from these photos???

[Trillo]

23. But that's not what the photos showed!

"When we see people go into businesses and come out with goods, we call it looting," said Santiago Lyon, AP's director of photography. "When we just see them carrying things down the road, we call it carrying items."

It's amazing that a picture can say a thousand words, but that a thousand words can claim a picture says something other than what it does.

In each of those photos, all that was showed in both of them (the commonality of the two) was a human carrying a loaf of bread while wading through water.

[Name removed]

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