Efforts to Limit the Flow of Spill News

[Donnachaidh]

Source: NY Times

When the operators of Southern Seaplane in Belle Chasse, La., called the local Coast Guard-Federal Aviation Administration command center for permission to fly over restricted airspace in Gulf of Mexico, they made what they thought was a simple and routine request.

A pilot wanted to take a photographer from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans to snap photographs of the oil slicks blackening the water. The response from a BP contractor who answered the phone late last month at the command center was swift and absolute: Permission denied.

“We were questioned extensively. Who was on the aircraft? Who did they work for?” recalled Rhonda Panepinto, who owns Southern Seaplane with her husband, Lyle. “The minute we mentioned media, the answer was: ‘Not allowed.’ ”

Journalists struggling to document the impact of the oil rig explosion have repeatedly found themselves turned away from public areas affected by the spill, and not only by BP and its contractors, but by local law enforcement, the Coast Guard and government officials.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/us/10access.html?WT.mc_id=US-SM-E-FB-SM-LIN-JST-061010-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click

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more at the link --

[Juneboarder]

1. Thank you for posting this...

It's good to see MSM reporting this, but sad that it's now day 52 that this is coming out...

[annabanana]

2. IT IS BEYOND INFURIATING THAT THIS IS STILL GOING ON..

and, yes, I meant to use caps...

I doubt we have even seen the worst of the animal-kill pictures..

[Magleetis]

3. I really thought

this kind of shit would end when Obama took office. What now?

[Triana]

4. The Coast Guard commander told BP they had to

be more transparent, let media into the airspace, etc. No? BP can just ignore that?

[DBoon]

15. that tells you who is really in charge

We are not citizens of the United States, we are serfs of BP (and other corporations)

[Oceansaway]

5. K&R...n/t

[mopinko]

6. ok, of all the ordinary things that have been ginned up into controversy-

this is the number one mind boggling entry, to my mind.

first of all the story about them buying the google algorithm is plain false. i heard howard finemen on ko stating it as a fact the the whole first page of google was linked to bp's pr site. i looked and there was no such thing. the first page of "oil spill" had 1 bp link besides the paid link at the top, the rest were pictures of oiled birds and all that. so, they took out an ad on the google. hardly a hanging crime.

but second, although perhaps there are certain excesses here, message control, damage control, pr, whatever you would call it in ordinary english, is not only an ordinary response to any accident, it is probably a fiduciary responsibility for the ceo of the company. the share price drop sounds like a great thing to many, but lots of ordinary folks are looking to retire on 401k's that will be hit. be nice if there was something left to clean up with. yes, i know they have vast holdings, and it will likely be enough. but bp in bankruptcy, well, there could be some wide spread wiggling out of accountability in bankruptcy court.

there is a lot in the gap between black and white that gets drowned out in the outrage du jour. including things that are completely ordinary cast in a sinister light.

[Cal Carpenter]

8. Some 'ordinary' things *are* sinister

The fact that the CEO's fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders trumps the needs and interests of everyone else, and the natural world on which we all rely, for example.

Sure, it's an inevitable result of our capitalist economic system, you seem to be implying that that makes it okay, or somehow more acceptable.

I'd prefer that this horrible disaster becomes a shining example of what a failure our economic system is, an experience that gives people the opportunity to imagine some other way. But if it is swept under the rug, that can't happen. The very fact that this *huge* disaster is being hidden from view so effectively is a terrifying indictment of the power of capital and industry, and an indictment of our government's inability/unwillingness to do anything about it.

[mopinko]

14. try imagining what the opposite of that is.

i'm not saying that it is ok. i am just trying to point out the these people are just trying to do what they think is right. that there are reasons for the things they do.
as far as the evils of capitalism, no goose no golden egg. i understand the breadth and depth of the wrongs involved, but a lot of people would also be hurt by tipping it all upside down. i hope more reasonable regulations come out of this, and agree that to much concentration of power is our worst enemy. hell, it is the reason that president obama has had a hell of a time accomplishing anything.

but no complicated situation was ever solved by painting everything in black and white. the common good is in the grey.

[Cal Carpenter]

18. A lot of people 'would also be hurt'?

The reality is that billions of people on this planet (an the planet itself, fwiw) are being hurt every day by this system. And frankly 'it all' seems these days to be tipping *itself* upside down. It is a bad system based on a weak theory and it is hard for me to imagine anything much worse, frankly, as far as economic systems go. The disparity between rich and poor, both domestically and internationally, just grows and grows. More and more people are in poverty, and efforts to legislate regulations or services to improve people's conditions become harder to achieve and terribly weak when they are. power and wealth are so incredibly concentrated there is no way to penetrate it. And god forbid any person or nation tries to exist outside the economic system, they will get crushed like a bug, or completely isolated and ruined.

It goes way beyond President Obama and his motives or abilities.

I really find it shocking when people talk about how 'bad' it would get. So few people in this world even have anything to lose at this point. That type of statement implies that the speaker wants to protect the uber-rich, because they are the only ones who have much to lose, and quite frankly, they are the least of my concern. Why do we always default to protecting the status quo? It's a sign of either being among the very privileged, or identifying with them. And it comes down to a choice of whether or not we work to protect the uber-rich and hope to god they let some of the resources trickle down to us, or deciding to work on behalf of bettering the people and the planet as a whole. Can't have it both ways because nothing is going to get better for 95% of the people on this planet if we keep up the status quo. And as I said, it's doing a good job of self-mutilation as we speak.

It becomes clearer to me all the time that when it comes to my control over my livelihood and my actual 'freedom', I have much more in common with poor peasants across the globe than I do with George Soros or Warren Buffet or whomever.

So pardon me but I disagree vehemently with what you say.

[wordpix]

17. +1

[pdefalla]

7. Dept. of B.P.

So it appears that British Petroleum has achieved the status of a Government Agency, with the power to prohibit U.S. citizens from accessing U.S. airspace and land. They apparently have the power to threaten arrest, they override the F.A.A., and seem to be asserting sovreignty over a large amount of American coastline and the Gulf of Mexico. It seems that the Obama administration is not content with letting B.P. write its own rules and clean up its own messes, but also is willing to cede a high level of administrative control over the entire region.

[Larkspur]

9. And this is another thing Obama can do. He can allow journalists to photograph the spill.

[era veteran]

10. This BP controlling the airspace is BS

Email to FAA: .........Why is the airspace over the Gulf of Mexico restricted? Did BP tell the FAA what to do?? The Coast Guard has told BP to be more transparent why is the FAA keeping media from photographing the spill? The canard that the airspace is to congested is pure government double talk for coverup. I am tired of corporate not American companies telling US citizens where they can or cannot go using a US Government Agency ( YOU ) to enforce their rules. You are not representing or protecting the public with this stance on the gulf. EOM Richard ...... we'll see if they answer

[louis-t]

11. CNN has been running interference for BP

Saw a bit where they were trying to garner sympathy for BP CEO. 'Wah, wah, poor him, he's a good guy', etc. Then they were interviewing family members of those killed on the rig. First question from the female interviewer (sticking mic in their face) "Is the president doing enough?"

[Flora]

12. What??!

The called made to the Coast Guard-Federal Aviation Administration command center was answered by a BP contractor?? Does BP provide the Coast Guard with contracted help? I'm not understanding this..

[Plucketeer]

13. Has anyone considered???

Why, beyond the suspected notion of cover-up, there might be restrictions against flying over the Gulf???

Who's going to cooridinate the flights? Who's going to be the air traffic controller that monitors the traffic close enough to keep from having mid-air collisions to contend with on top of the obvious debacle??? Imagine a bunch of planes and helicopters from private agencies, news organizations, BP's copters, Coast Guard planes and looky-loos! A certain recipe for disaster. But call it conspiracy if it makes you feel good.

[Devil_Fish]

16. ince when did we become the united states of BP?

Why is a BP contractor answering the phone at the FAA????