Puzzle solved: New Orleans: Black people "loot." White people "find."

[just sent]
Dear Dr. Bear-

re your now closed thread New Orleans: Black people "loot." White people "find."

I came across the most desirable answer, from the source. I think it deserves posting.

-Orson

http://www.snopes.com/photos/katrina/looters.asp

"The photographer who took the Getty/AFP picture, Chris Graythen, also posted the reasons behind his caption:

I wrote the caption about the two people who 'found' the items. I believed in my opinion, that they did simply find them, and not 'looted' them in the definition of the word. The people were swimming in chest deep water, and there were other people in the water, both white and black. I looked for the best picture. there were a million items floating in the water — we were right near a grocery store that had 5+ feet of water in it. it had no doors. the water was moving, and the stuff was floating away. These people were not ducking into a store and busting down windows to get electronics. They picked up bread and cokes that were floating in the water. They would have floated away anyhow.

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the divergent labeling appears to have been not the result of racism, but a context inferred journalistic decision warranted by the facts.

-Orson

 

Or perhaps the "puzzle" isn't solved.

I posted the aboev in hast; i hoped it would answer the context issue about both photos. It does not. RE-reading the snopes source, i see that we still haven't heard from the other photographer as I'd assumed.

in other words, we only have half the "picture."

-Orson

 

Why are you stoking the fires, Orson? You'll be whining when the Liberals respond.

And...Bruce said to cool it so we should respect that in not starting new inflammatory threads on things related to Katrina.