Using get_posts() with tax_query parameter set isn't working with attachments

Question

I'm working on a project that requires searching for attachments with a given taxonomy-slug pair (in this case, category=javascript). I'm using get_posts() with tax_query set to achieve this, but it is returning zilch.

The array being passed to get_posts() is the following:

array(8) {
  ["tax_query"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    array(3) {
      ["taxonomy"]=>
      string(8) "category"
      ["field"]=>
      string(4) "slug"
      ["term"]=>
      array(1) {
        [0]=>
        string(10) "javascript"
      }
    }
  }
  ["numberposts"]=>
  int(-1)
  ["orderby"]=>
  string(10) "menu_order"
  ["order"]=>
  string(3) "ASC"
  ["post_status"]=>
  string(7) "inherit" // 'any' also tried
  ["post_type"]=>
  string(10) "attachment"
  ["post_mime_type"]=>
  string(34) "application,video,text,audio,image"
  ["post_parent"]=>
  string(0) ""
}

There is an image in category JavaScript (which has javascript as the slug), but it is not being returned.

Also, on the off chance it's relevant, category is being set through use of Media Categories.

EDIT: post_status=>inherit and post_status=>any were tried with no change in the end result.

EDIT 2: Creating a new WP_Query object, leaving out the meta_query creates valid SQL, but including meta_query adds this: AND 0 = 1, which obviously makes the entire query return nothing. The entire SQL generated is below:

SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS  cms_posts.ID 
FROM cms_posts  
WHERE 1=1  
AND 0 = 1 
AND (
    cms_posts.post_mime_type 
    LIKE 'application/%' 
    OR cms_posts.post_mime_type 
    LIKE 'video/%' 
    OR cms_posts.post_mime_type 
    LIKE 'text/%' 
    OR cms_posts.post_mime_type 
    LIKE 'audio/%' 
    OR cms_posts.post_mime_type 
    LIKE 'image/%')  
AND cms_posts.post_type = 'attachment' 
AND (cms_posts.post_status <> 'trash' 
    AND cms_posts.post_status <> 'auto-draft' 
    AND cms_posts.post_status <> 'spam') 
GROUP BY cms_posts.ID 
ORDER BY cms_posts.menu_order 
ASC LIMIT 0, 10

Answer 1

I don't know if you've tried this but try adding post_status => inherit to your query. I've found that get_posts defaults to publish and therefore will not return any attachments, since their post_status is always inherit. The codex page on get_posts confirms this.

Edit: looking at your query again, you have term in the tax_query where it should be terms: http://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query#Taxonomy_Parameters