At this point I just assume that photos with news articles don't really have any direct connection to the content of the article. It's either laziness, an attempt at emotional manipulation, or a combination of the two. I'm always pleasantly surprised to find that a photo is actually the exact thing being discussed in the article.
I don't have first hand knowledge but have been told that there is now automated software that is used pretty widely for finding news article photos. It certainly explains some of the weird pairings I've seen with photos that match some of the words in an article but totally miss the point.
All of news is emotional manipulation at this point, why stop at pictures? /s
haha, whatever you do, don't watch _The Graduate_ !