Who paid off the AP photographer? BYU at UCLA

ESPN's coverage of the BYU/UCLA game has a "photo gallery" that I assumed would capture the highlights of the game, or at least give a somewhat valid representation of how the game was played. Maybe I could even find a photo that I could use in a desktop wallpaper. Instead we get photos with the following captions. (I was going to select some, but instead present all of them (abbreviated, but quoted exactly) to illustrate how lopsided it is and that I didn't just "cherry pick" the "bad" ones.)

• UCLA's Nathaniel Skaggs, left, tackles BYU quarterback Max Hall while he attempts a pass (see right)
  
• UCLA running back Kahlil Bell, right, breaks the tackle of BYU's Quinn Gooch
• UCLA quarterback Ben Olson, left, and head coach Karl Dorrell, right, celebrate their 27-17 victory over BYU
• UCLA running back Chris Markey, center, runs for yardage as BYU's Kayle Buchanan (34), and Corby Hodgkiss (14) tries to stop him
• BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall watches the field
• BYU wide receiver Michael Reed, right, can't hold on to a pass
• BYU wide receiver Austin Collie, center, tries to catch a pass
• UCLA running back Chris Markey holds up the ball while scoring a touchdown
• BYU tight end Vic So'oto, right, fumbles the ball
• UCLA quarterback Ben Olson, right, drops back to pass with protection
• UCLA's Trey Brown, left, runs an interception back for a touchdown past BYU's Harvey Unga
• BYU quarterback Max Hall, right, is sacked

This is journalism? From these photos it looks like UCLA dominated ("tackles", "breaks the tackle", "scoring a touchdown", "with protection", "interception for a touchdown") and BYU was a pathetic bunch of losers that couldn't catch, tackle or hold onto the ball ("tries to stop him", "can't hold on to a pass", "tries to catch a pass", "fumbles the ball", "is sacked").

The only photo even remotely "neutral" is the one of Bronco but even that was is framed as him being mad about losing in the fourth quarter. Presumably the AP photographer got some good shots of the Cougars in action, but either didn't hand them over or ESPN decided they weren't worthy of their site. I would expect such one sided coverage from a local newspaper, but not from a national network such as ESPN.

While I don't think any of these photos and captions are wrong per se (they accurately represent the moments that were captured), it is disturbing that there is an obvious lack of photos with captions such as

• BYU quarterback Max Hall completes a pass to Michael Reed as he's being tackled
• BYU's Austin Collie catches a touchdown pass from Max Hall
• BYU's Kayle Buchanan picks off UCLA's Ben Olson

or the one found on the photo (see right) with the BYU press release:

• Linebacker Bryan Kehl sacks former roommate Ben Olson. The defense held Olson to just 126 yards passing.

While UCLA did win and is higher ranked, it would have been nice to see at least a token effort at balance. To be fair to ESPN overall, the written coverage of the game states:

• Much of the game he was outplayed by BYU quarterback Max Hall
• Hall was leading the Cougars on what looked like their third straight scoring drive when he fumbled after a Bruce Davis sack.
• BYU had not lost since a 23-20 overtime defeat to Boston College nearly a year ago.

The writeup is not very flattering to UCLA. Unfortunately the photos didn't match the copy. Thankfully we have Mark Philbrick :)