Adam.....

The point is Google won't butcher the SERP listing on the new. It's designed to counter the changes that happened in the update prior Bourbon, promoting GOOGLE Image listings through alt tags harder than before.

When I first discovered it, I published an article that got picked up many places. Here's one for you:
http://www.bullmarketer.com/article.php?n=573

Just fixing that problem in the new updated fprmat, and wanted others who were experiencing the same to know what to do.

I have seen this issue affecting several Site's SERP descriptions.

That's all there is to it.

Ken