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re: a matter of the philosophy of the different caption writers?

Speaking as one who has been out there doing the news photos and writing the captions I can tell you exactly how it happens and it's really not a matter of racism or philosophy. Usually it has to do with the circumstances surrounding the photo. In the one case the shooter is covering breaking news where dozens of people are breaking into businesses and taking items. The setting of the news story is the looting and when you get a shot of people who have come out of a business carrying items you know first hand the circumstances of the image. In the second case you are roaming around looking for pictures and down the street comes a couple pulling a tub filled with items. You really don't know how they came to have the items in their possession so you ask and are told "we found them". You don't see anyone looting, so you simple repeat what you were told. Believe me, shooting breaking news and spot news is way too stressful to be trying to use your captions as a way to express your racism! In a typical day the photographer will take several hundred photos and will be on a strict deadline to find the shots that tell the story and to caption them. A picture that does not get on the wire until late in the evening stands a good chance of never being published. Takes time to crop the photos, color correct them, caption them and then transmit them to your publication or to the wire service. When you write the caption you have a number of concerns such as identifying the people in the shot, spelling, adherence to the AP style book (not to mention your own publication's style book) and the accuracy of the info overall. Two or three mistakes in captions in a single year might well cost you your job with the paper. The style thing is especially tricky, like when you refer to a city do you also refer to the state? Are you certain your description of what's in the picture jives with what the writer doing the story is saying in the article?

This PC thing has gone WAY too far!