The picture thing is a jounalistic tactic to help evoke an emotional response from the viewer. Basically, it associates disaster with the story and subconciously ties the two together for the non-thinking reader. This happens in both print and broadcast media and is an example of sensationalism.
It also portrayed Americans as wreckless, and judges and US law lenient. (Certainly as compared to UK laws, I'm sure, where freedom is even more illusionary than in the US.) The reader is clearly supposed to read this and think: "Those crazy Americans. Glad this can't happen here!"
I don't know how this differs from yellow jornalism, though.
Every once in a while I watch BBC television, and a news broadcast from Germany and abroad. And, I see this type of visual association a lot. Background and pictures with the verbal story are, more often than not, not topicly related.
It does seem that much of the news I see from outside the US (and certainly some form within), Is predominatantly anti-US. In fact, I can't think of a single news story from abroad that showed the US in a positive light. Any US story that shows "normal" or good behavior is surrounded with 2-10 stories exemplifying aberant or distasteful behavior.
The US media does this, too for foreign countries. And, there is also an anti locale-other-than-this-one bias, to the news shows and local papers.
To some extent people like this, as they then believe it worse to live anywhere but where they are and feel better and more comforable in their current living situation, regardless of how good or bad it actually is in other locales.
I think most people just do not understand how they are being emotionally manipulated.
