Media Banned from Observation
Coast Guard and BP threaten journalists with arrest for documenting oil
spill
Meanwhile, oil
washes up on shore as
I never thought I
would say this, but for once I actually agree with Rush Limbaugh. The
right-wing radio host is attributed with calling the Gulf Oil Spill
"Obama's Katrina." It was an odd statement at the time, but now
nearly four weeks later, Limbaugh's brash statement is not at all off the mark.
Today, Louisiana
Gov. Bobby Jindal dispensed with his laid-back
attitude about the spill and in a local radio interview said that he had made
repeated, increasingly desperate pleas to get the Army Corps of Engineers to approve
an emergency retaining wall project that would have protected the fragile
marshlands of Louisiana from the onslaught of thick oil now oozing out of the
Gulf.
These marshlands
are often referred to as "the nursery" for good reason — they are the
breeding ground for hundreds of species of birds and marine animals and the
womb of
The Obama
administration, it appears, has higher priorities ... namely helping BP in its
frantic efforts to keep the public in the dark about what is almost surely the
worst environmental catastrophe in
Contacts in
"These are
BP's rules. These are not our rules."
But wait ... isn't
that a public beach? From my viewpoint, it looks as if the Coast Guard* has
been given direct orders to protect BP's PR interests above safety concerns
over air and water quality, above the outcries of local governments in need of
aid, and (worst of all) above the need for the American public to be informed
about what is really going on in the Gulf.
The Coast Guard, as
one of the branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, answers to the commander in chief
— President Obama. Despite Obama's half-hearted attempt at displaying anger
over the government's "cozy relationship" with BP, I believe Obama is
aiding and abetting a foreign oil company as it perpetrates an environmental
crime on American soil, a crime which fortunately (thanks to Sen. Barbara
Boxer) is now being taken to the Justice Department.
It's a well-known
fact that President Obama received a hefty campaign contribution from British
Petroleum (the largest of any of the candidates) and in the oily aftermath of a
thoroughly un-American corporate cover-up, Obama's credibility as the people's
president is quickly eroding. In the next few days — as the Gulf current pulls miles
of black ooze up the Eastern seaboard (the first tar balls landed today in the
At that point, the
president will have to ask himself if his allegiance to the polluting petroleum
giant was worth it.
CBS Evening News
reported they were denied access to oiled shoreline by a civilian vessel that
had clean-up workers contracted by BP, as well as Coast Guard personnel on
board. CBS News video taped the exchange during which time one of the
contractors told them (on tape) that " ... this is BP's rules not
ours."
Neither BP nor the
U.S. Coast Guard, who are responding to the spill, have any rules in place that
would prohibit media access to impacted areas and we were disappointed to hear
of this incident. In fact, media has been actively embedded and allowed to
cover response efforts since this response began, with more than 400 embeds
aboard boats and aircraft to date. Just today 16 members of the press observed
clean-up operations on a vessel out of
The only time
anyone would be asked to move from an area would be if there were safety
concerns, or they were interfering with response operations. This did occur off
The entities
involved in the Deepwater Horizon/BP Response have already reiterated these
media access guidelines to personnel involved in the response and hope it
prevents any future confusion.