A troubling article from Newsweek (5/26/10) reports on efforts by both BP and government officials to limit media access to the aftermath of the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico:
As BP makes its latest attempt to plug its gushing oil well, news photographers are complaining that their efforts to document the slow-motion disaster in the Gulf of Mexico are being thwarted by local and federal officials–working with BP–who are blocking access to the sites where the effects of the spill are most visible. More than a month into the disaster, a host of anecdotal evidence is emerging from reporters, photographers, and TV crews in which BP and Coast Guard officials explicitly target members of the media, restricting and denying them access to oil-covered beaches, staging areas for clean-up efforts, and even flyovers.
Last week, a CBS TV crew was threatened with arrest when attempting to film an oil-covered beach. On Monday, Mother Jones published this firsthand account of one reporter’s repeated attempts to gain access to clean-up operations on oil-soaked beaches, and the telling response of local law enforcement. The latest instance of denied press access comes from Belle Chasse, La.-based Southern Seaplane Inc., which was scheduled to take a New Orleans Times-Picayune photographer for a flyover on Tuesday afternoon, and says it was denied permission once BP officials learned that a member of the press would be on board.
It sounds like the crisis managers have learned the lessons of Gulf War and Iraq War media control only too well:
The problem, as many members of the press see it, is that even when access is granted, it’s done so under the strict oversight of BP and Coast Guard personnel. Reporters and photographers are escorted by BP officials on BP-contracted boats and aircraft. So the company is able to determine what reporters see and when they see it….
[AP photographer Gerald] Herbert accompanied local officials from Plaquemines Parish in a police boat on a trip to Breton Island, a national wildlife refuge off the barrier islands of Louisiana. With them was Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of Jacques, who wanted to study the impact of the oil below the surface of the water. Upon approaching the island, a Coast Guard boat stopped them. “The first question was, ‘Is there any press with you?'” says Herbert. They answered yes, and the Coast Guard said they couldn’t be there. “I had to bite my tongue. That should have no bearing.”
UPDATE: Date of article corrected.
Well, they’re pros when it comes to one type of damage control, aren’t they?
Priorities is priorities.
Don’t buy any BP or ARCO gasoline! FYI: BP owns ARCO!
Press: Go ANYWAY! The air is free, as are the navigable waters of US (freedom of the seas) AND the public lands impacted!! Bugger BP AND Obama!!!
Where are the questions about the video feeds that BP has provided? First we see the spewing pipe that is supposed to be the source of the spill, but now, while they are supposedly pushing mud and junk shots, we see some other location. If you read and listen carefully, however, it appears that there are multiple cracks or sources for multiple huge leaks. Will someone clear this up? Were the containment boxes dropped on the biggest source of spill, or is there another leak that is responsible for a huge bottom-hugging river/lake that dwarfs the surface slick? The graphics being spoon fed the media by BP seem to be intentionally deceptive, like some sort of misdirection. I saw one independent expert on CNN or MSNBC who was more informative with his own hand-drawn diagram than any of the fancy graphics presented previously. His drawing showed two separate plumes/leaks at some distance from the Blow Out Preventer that we have been led to believe is the location of the big leak.
What interest exactly does the U.S. Coast Guard have in protecting BP’s public image from media coverage beyond the oil company’s controlled releases? Is it even legal for the Coast Guard to cooporate with BP in this sort of public relations capacity? Clearly if the only personas non grata aboard these boats are the press, the Coast Guard cannot pretend to have a national security basis for their blockade. If a company cannot manage to protect the environment in which it is allowed to profit as a guest, if it’s interests are so insular that it sees this environment as an entitlement, rather than a sacred trust, for which it owes no transparancy to the citizens invested in the same land, should’nt that company’s public relations enforcement also be handled in-house, and not by the enforcement arm of a government funded by the citizens whose livelihoods and habitats it has already effectively destroyed by its carelessness?
Ugh… I apologize for the run-on rhetorical questions. But it gets more and more difficult to simply state opinions when such cozy ties between military and industry become so commonplace as to be taken for granted, and left out of the dialogue altogether as accepted givens.
Armageddon gets closer….and we should have been able to stop it.
SOME SIMPLE PROPOSALS,
THE BLOWOUT STARTED BECAUSE B.P. TRIED TO SALVAGE DRILLING MUD FROM THE WELL BY SUBSTITUTING SEA WATER.
THE RECENT ATTEMPT TO REPLACE THE MUD FROM THE TOP DOWN FAILED FOR THE OBVIOUS REASON THEY COULDN’T GET A TALL ENOUGH COLUMN OF NEW MUD IN THE HOLE. SURPRISED?
– 1) WHY NOT MIX A FINE POWDER OF IRON ORE CONCENTRATE WITH THE MUD TO THE MAX POSSIBLE & HAVE IT STILL PUMP IT? IT SHOULD BE A LOT HEAVIER THAN PLAIN MUD.
– 2) THE PIPE IS NO DOUBT A STEEL ALLOY – SO MAGNETIZE THE IRON-ORE IN THE MUD TO THE RIGHT DEGREE AND IT WILL BE ATTRACTED TO MOVE IN A FILM DOWN THE INSIDE OF THE PIPE, WHERE THE BOUNDARY LAYER EFFECT DECREES THAT THE FLUID COMING UP THE WELL WILL BE MOVING MORE SLOWLY.
– 3) IF THIS DOESN’T WORK, DUMP IN A FEW TONS OF LEAD BIRD-SHOT – YES, LEAD IS A CONTAMINANT, BUT WHAT STAYS IN THE WELL CAN BE BURIED IN DEEP STRATA EVENTUALLY – AND WHAT COMES BACK UP WITH THE OIL CAN BE SALVAGED EASILY – IT WON’T WANDER FAR ONCE IT’S OUT OF THE RAPID FLOW – IT’LL JUST FALL ON THE SEA-BED NEARBY.
– 4) IF ALL ELSE FAILS, DRILL INTO THE GAS RESEVOIR THAT’S DRIVING THE FLOW AND TRANSFER THAT GAS ELSEWHERE – OR BURN IT OFF – ‘TIL THE FLOW SLOWS ENOUGH TO BE POSSIBLE TO CHOKE IT.
I just heard a good report from a geologist at a CA university. He corroborated the story that BP has covered up the fact that there are multiple cracks in the pipes. The geologist said BP’s b.s. about “pumping mud into the hole” was a farce because the pipe system is badly damaged and it is leaking from multiple points.