White House Allowed BP to Keep Video of Gushing Pipe from Public for Three Weeks

[Mari333]

The White House allowed BP to hide its video feed of a gushing oil pipe in the Gulf of Mexico from the public for three weeks, all the while that same video played live in the White House Situation Room, ABC reports.

This startling revelation comes just as Obama prepares to get really angry in public about the spill – just in time to cover up his administration’s collusion with BP to hide the true extent of the massive disaster in the Gulf.

Brian Ross and John Soloman of the Center for Public Integrity discussed ABC’s quest to obtain the video of the oil pipe and revealed that the White House consented to the release of a 30 second clip of the pipe.

"At the end of the day, the White House finally acquiesced to the 30 second piece because they understood the political and media pressure," said CPI’s John Soloman. "Why not sooner? It’s been going on for three weeks. People have seen this internally within government almost every day. Why can’t the American people see it?"











http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/47660

[ensho]

1. guess the oil barons are steady standing on White House necks

somebody there better get some courage

[tavalon]

2. Well, now, that's a surprise!

Not.

[Mari333]

3. yeah, the transparency is making me swoon.

[robinblue]

61. LOL

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

4. and the beat goes on....

[Nite Owl]

5. Change we can't believe in.

[Newsjock]

6. We are not intelligent enough to understand this five-dimensional chess game

Trust!

[tom_paine]

7. Government of, by, and for The Corporation

America and China are Sister Nations who use different rationales behind their Totalitarian Capitalism.

We are treated a little better than our Chinese Peasant counterparts, but that's just a holdover from the past which will one day be gone.

[havocmom]

30. Nations? What is the 'nations' of which you speak?

I vaguely recall something like that in the dim recesses of my memory.

[amborin]

46. +1000

[madmax]

8. It's things like this that really, really

make me miss President Bush. Where is that billboard, 'Miss Me Yet?' I think I'd climb up there and sign my name!


:sarcasm:

[Mari333]

10. why would you miss Bush? lots of the same policies are in place

never ending occupations, no accountability, corporate control , lobbyists and no campaign finance reform, drones murdering civilians , Gitmo, mercenaries...

you should be happy, then.

[madmax]

12. I'm delighted

In fact, so much so that I can't wait to vote Republican in the next election. I'm tired of this Regime - I want the old Administration back. I miss Condi and Rummy.

more :sarcasm:

[Mari333]

13. the old canard

if you critique the policies of the obama administration, you are suddenly a bush adherent.

thats not much of a counter argument. its just silly.

[newspeak]

83. with you there

just the same ol' policies of *. I guess some forget that * and his family are oil buddies from way back. But, what had disturbed me after the election, was some of the same old * people-some of the same old * policies, especially where it counts.

How's that the corporations can police themselves going for everyone?

[ima_sinnic]

55. I guess you don't really have anything to say, then

but you DID have to get onto this thread to make sure we all knew that.

[jaxx]

9. It really does make some sense,

knowing that some people would do their damnedest to make it seem even worse than it is. Trying to stop the blow out should be prime right now, there is plenty of time to dig the dirt.....and there will be plenty of that too. It's really a rotten shame that a disaster always turns into political fodder. Meanwhile the people living near the affected areas are working and trying to save what they can of their livelihoods. If you want to know what constant infighting results in, look at Katrina 5 years out....New Orleans half assed because of political bullshit. Don't you think the Gulf deserves better?

[muffin1]

15. W? Is that you?

Sounds like that song he used to sing, what was it? Oh yeah, "Now is not the time to play the blame game". We ALL hated that shit then, and some of us still do.

[jaxx]

16. Nope. It's me, a liberal Democrat.

Who is really pissed and then you spit that out and it proves my point.
Thanks, it couldn't have been done any better by Glenn Beck himself.

[Lance_Boyle]

21. Sorry, but the 'not the time to point fingers and assign blame' is pure Obama admin.

Doesn't want such "petty politics" as investigating torture or any of that messy business to get in the way of our collective "moving on."

[muffin1]

22. That's exactly what I was saying.

Obama has adopted the bush song - verse for verse. I didn't care for it when bush was singing it, and I care for it even less when Obama tries it. Difference is, some around here find it more melodious when it's Obama at the microphone.

[Bluebear]

25. "some people"

[sharp_stick]

11. delete, because ahh fuck it.

[ProSense]

14. "hide its video feed of a gushing oil pipe in the Gulf of Mexico from the public for three weeks"

The explosion happened three weeks and three days ago. How is that possible?

"The evidence is mounting that the White House is working in concert with industry to hide the truth about the extent and cause of the spill."

What utter nonsense.

[jaxx]

17. Nonsense is right.

But then someone just asked if I was dubya.

[Cha]

23. Says everything about that person and

nothing about you.:)

[sabrina 1]

45. John Solomon told Brian Ross that the tape was

being viewed by Government officials for weeks. And that the news media had been trying to get that tape.

Are you saying he's lying?

Did you watch the ABC News special where John Solomon explains how ABC and the rest of the media were trying to get the tape?

Here is the video of that interview. The conversation about the tape starts at around 4.35.

If it's utter nonsense, then these reporters are lying:

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/19829169

The tape was available for weeks, the WH had seen it. The news media tried to get it but did not succeed until after three weeks the government and BP agreed to release 30 secs of it because, John Solomon says, of the pressure from ABC.

I don't need FDL's interpretation of that video. I can see it for myself and from what I saw, Solomon believes that the WH did not want to release the tape.

As far as WHY the WH did not want it released, I do not know. It is merely speculation to say that they were pressured by BP.

I think it's likely that BP assured them they could stop the leak and that it would be better not to cause panic while they were trying to do that.

I could understand the WH agreeing to do that believing that it could be stopped. But when all efforts failed the WH realized that it was better to release it for political reasons mostly. They then probably pressured BP into doing so, or at least agreeing to it.

[ima_sinnic]

66. what is "nonsense" about it?

What is so hard to believe? Come on, you think Obama is this squeaky-clean, principled person who would go out of his way to leave no stone unturned to expose corporate malfeasance? Who would never, ever, EVER collude with a CEO to distort, obfuscate, obstruct information?
Yeah, he's so "stern"--I'm sure BP officials are quaking in their boots at his "wrath."

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[amborin]

18. K&R and told experts not to come

[Swede]

19. BP Releases Oil Spill Video After Pressure From White House and Media

This is right from ABC's Brian Ross's blog.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/bp-releases-oil-spill-video-pressure-white-house/story?id=10629165

[Cha]

24. Oh, no the fuck wonder..it's freakin' liar dog lake.

[ima_sinnic]

57. "liar"?

I consider that website more credible than certain anonymous Internet posters who spend ALL their time writing puffery and mocking any criticism of the present administration as "lies," "hate," "pony wishes," "nonsense," etc. ad nauseum while holding ears and singing lalalala.

So unless you have something constructive with which to rebut this, your noise is just that, purposeless noise.

[Bluebear]

26. Evidently the "pressure" to release was May 12, how does that contradict the original story?

Just curious.

[Egnever]

33. Why because the blog entry is from the 12th ?

That of course means thats the day the pressure from the white house started. :eyes:

[babylonsister]

27. You mean fdl is full of shit?

:wow:


:rofl:

[ima_sinnic]

63. the WH did nothing for 23 days except "refer reporters to BP"

How does that make FDL "full of shit"?

Sorry to burst your little smiley-bubble, but FDL is not the one "full of shit."

I'm sure the only reason there was "pressure" on BP was because the PR image of the WH was starting to go to hell over this. Otherwise, the WH would still be following its usual laissez-faire policy of letting the corpos do whatever the hell they want.

A 30-second snippet--big whoop.

[cornermouse]

70. #19 links to ABC, not FDL.

Just pointing the mistaken assumption out.

[Egnever]

32. Sigh and so another hit piece is posted at DU and people buy into it

Thanks for the link.

Sad that many will just read the OP and completely buy into it.

[KittyWampus]

34. Please note- it's the same small number of DU'ers who do this. Time and time again.

[Number23]

53. Abso-damned-lutely. But apprently, none of us are supposed to notice.

[AllentownJake]

54. This is growing really tiring

and I don't mean people debating, I mean the accusations hurled by a certain crowd against another crowd who are less than pleased by the Administrations response to this oil spill.

If the article is refutable, refute, hurling blanket accusations about people who are concerned over a large oil Volcano erupting underwater in the Gulf of Mexico is ridiculous.

If you have a way to defend the administrations actions, I welcome it.

I'd rather not think a person I worked to elect for a year is an asshole.

[ima_sinnic]

59. I notice you haven't offered any evidence to refute the facts in the article

Only sighing that it was posted at all.
Kind of like the republicans--the only thing that matters is not being found out.

[AllentownJake]

62. Have you learned to expect anything different

It has been the tactic for debate on here for over 9 months.

No substantial refutation, no logical back-up of an opinion, lots of accusations, and than maybe a link to an Administration shill with little substance other than talking points.

If you don't accept that, next step is to call you names.

You want Sara Palin elected, you never loved him (We are supposed to love politicians that we don't know personally before they accomplish much in office?), didn't you support candidate XY or Z in the primary, you are a troll etc.

Lastly, the final technique if all else fails is to goad you into saying something out of anger so that they can alert and get the Mods to come in and delete the whole exchange.

I learned this when talking about unemployment and a certain uninformed subset, would really get upset over the facts of what the report is and what it measures in discussion, because they didn't like being embarrassed of their ignorance and they didn't like that there is more to it than a final propaganda number they can repeat over and over again.

They practice at this, they have gotten this down to an art form. This is the standard operating procedure and when you think about it, it is quite sickening and Republican like.

[ima_sinnic]

64. ...

They're like a chirping chorus bobbing up in unison with their little one or two-liners that never really address the facts, only diss the source and the poster who posted it. No need to wonder what the REAL agenda is anymore or what they're up to. The only ray of light is that so many can see through the BS for what it really is.

If GWB had allowed BP to withhold a video of this disaster from the press for more than 3 weeks, the cries for head-removal would have been deafening.

[AllentownJake]

67. Yep

or countless other administration actions. What people are learning are who the people are that follow politics like a football game because they are too lazy to understand policy and the people whose views are bigger than a guy in a bathing suit flashing a grin in Hawaii.

[amborin]

50. the blog post at the link does not contradict the OP at all...

it's just a MSM sycophant glossing over the refusal to make this video public


as if the White House had to pressure BP to get the video...

:eyes:

[ima_sinnic]

58. a "hit piece"--as though somebody's ONLY goal is just to dig dirt for no reason

do you have some reason to give that hiding evidence of the oil leak was a good thing?
can you refute the article?

[IndianaGreen]

72. Ahhh, the Ministry of Truth has spoken

soon to be followed by the Ministry of Love's minions.

[BakedAtAMileHigh]

74. I've heard that choco-rations are increasing as well!

Think I'll go watch American Idol now. Ahhhhhh, that's better.

[WillyT]

75. LOL... Yep...

:rofl:

:applause:

:evilgrin:

:hi:

[BakedAtAMileHigh]

73. sigh - some people toe the party line no matter what the truth

Sad that so many people are incapable of putting their hero worship aside.

Of course they let BP hold the tape; these actions are no different than any other presidential administration in this nation's recent history: whores to industry and commerce with a concerned public face.

You've been suckered.

[amborin]

47. straight from a WH talking point

[Number23]

52. Thank you. The determination by some folks to continuously portray this President as a failure

has turned this place into Idiot Central.

[Raineyb]

86. 23 days after the fact. And what excuse was there for keeping the footage

under wraps? Could it be because the footage would let people who are in a position to know and calculate such things that the amount of crude being spewed into the gulf is about 12 times more than BP originally said it was?

That video has seen recording for weeks. There's no excuse for holding on to the footage for over 3 weeks. Your link doesn't disprove a damn thing.

[spanone]

20. why doesn't abc's brian ross investigate cheney's role in fucking up the gulf?

[Catherina]

28. Oil is good for fish. Relax

Next the USDA will be telling us that we can relax because oil is good for the fish.

That the US Government so blithely repeated BP figures for weeks, instead of getting OUR top environmental scientists and engineers on this at the very start, is all the proof of collusion needed.

Poison our water, Poison our soil, Poison our air, Poison our children and we're supposed to jump for joy that Obama is going to "scold" BP.

Whoever controls the capital gets to decide our destiny.

RIP America, killed by its love story with capital.

[blindpig]

56. Spot on

Capitalism or Nature, ya can't have both.

This cannot go on...

[Raster]

29. We know the petroleum mafia owned at least three of the last five Presidents.

I suspect four.

[Angry Dragon]

31. Nothing changes

It seems that it is okay to lie and hide things from the American people. The parties may change but the lies do not.

Tired of this bullshit.

[HughMoran]

35. KFMBBI

[Better Believe It]

36. White House Allowed BP to Keep Video of Gushing Pipe from Public for Three Weeks

White House Allowed BP to Keep Video of Gushing Pipe from Public for Three Weeks
By: Michael Whitney
May 14, 2010

The White House allowed BP to hide its video feed of a gushing oil pipe in the Gulf of Mexico from the public for three weeks, all the while that same video played live in the White House Situation Room, ABC reports.

Brian Ross and John Soloman of the Center for Public Integrity discussed ABC’s quest to obtain the video of the oil pipe and revealed that the White House consented to the release of a 30 second clip of the pipe.

"At the end of the day, the White House finally acquiesced to the 30 second piece because they understood the political and media pressure," said CPI’s John Soloman. "Why not sooner? It’s been going on for three weeks. People have seen this internally within government almost every day. Why can’t the American people see it?"

The release of even the 30 second video clip showing the oil spewing uninhibited into the ocean immediately led outside observers to conclude the disaster was far worse than the 210,000 gallon estimate of the NOAA and Coast Guard. One scientist predicted to NPR that the rate is more in the range of almost 3 million gallons a day based on an analysis of the video released by BP.

The revelation that the White House and BP kept the true extent of the oil disaster from the public coincides nicely with last night’s news that Obama plans to get "angry" in front of the White House press corps tomorrow about BP’s role in the disaster and its clean up.

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/47660

Underwater video of Deepwater Horizon pipes gushing oil into Gulf of Mexico
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWJ6rFCmfoE&feature=player_embedded

Brian Ross Investigates:
Cleaning Up the Oil Spill
ABC News
May 13, 2010

Video of ABC News Report referenced in the Michael Whitney article:

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/19829169

[AllentownJake]

37. The behavior is starting to come to a point

Where you need to be double jointed at the tongue to explain the behavior of the administration.:wtf:

[LARED]

38. Strange language

How does the WH ALLOW anything to be hidden by a corporation. It would seem to me BP is not under any legal obligation to release the film, so how does the WH allow or disallow anything from the public few?

BP should have of course immediately made the film available.

[ddeclue]

44. It certainly has the power to seize the tapes as part of the ongoing investigation and release them

as it sees fit.

For that matter the U.S. Navy has its own submersibles and could shoot its own video. The Navy needs to take operational control away from the f*ck *ps at BP.

[Swede]

39. BP Releases Oil Spill Video After Pressure From White House and Media

This is right from Brian Ross' blog at ABC. Funny how things get spun.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/bp-releases-oil-spill-video-pressure-white-house/story?id=10629165

[jezebel]

41. No it's not funny, it's pitiful. nt

[Nikki Stone1]

40. Unbelievable.

We will NOT get change in this government until we take corporate money out of politics. Corporations are NOT persons.

[HughMoran]

42. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=8334855

unrec and hide.

[Octafish]

43. Perception Management

Robert Parry's term for, eh, for how government handles information users.

[tomm2thumbs]

48. they may as well just weave a giant rug and sweep all the oil under it

it works on cartoons, and the response to this disaster has been quite cartoonish overall

[Duer 157099]

49. Transparency You Can Believe In

Not

[amborin]

51. could be 60,000 barrels a day

[ima_sinnic]

60. remember that whopper about "no lobbyists would be employed by this admin"?

and the one about "transparency"?

Hey, as long as BP is "protected" and its reputation and assets are safe, who gives a shit about a friggin ocean and the livelihoods and food supply of several million people, or a total environment, or the world's food web?

They've got theirs, what do they care?

[IndianaGreen]

76. You don't need lobbyists when it is a government of, and by, the industry

When the corporations own the government, there is no need for lobbyists.

[ecstatic]

65. maybe they were trying to protect local business owners?

That video truly sealed their fate.

[AllentownJake]

68. That is kind of silly

What is shown on that video sealed their fate, the acknowledgment of the reality did nothing to the local business owners.

Tourism is going to go down when oil washes on the beach and fumes make the air unpleasant.

Are you suggesting the administration was encouraging people to go to the gulf and spend their hard earned money they saved and worked for to have an unpleasant vacation knowing full well that it would be unpleasant due to an oil Volcano? That sounds like FRAUD to me.

[chrisa]

69. This is 'transparency?'

We have a big disaster, with a government's refusal to admit how bad it is. Instead of helping or asking for help, they're doing their best to cover it up.

Color me surprised. :cry:

[IndianaGreen]

71. Protect the industry at all cost, and Obama's offshore drilling policy

which is still on the table.

[lunatica]

77. What makes this video more damning than anything else we've seen?

I looked at the video. I saw oil gushing out of a pipe. I've been seeing video of oil gushing out of a pipe for weeks. This video is not any worse. They're all worse and anyone who thinks this video shows how much worse the erupting oil is hasn't been paying much attention.

As to how much oil is gushing, I can't think of any way anyone can actually measure it correctly. Is there a ticking counter that measures through the video exactly how many barrels are spewing? I doubt it.

It's a mile down. No human is there. And no one knows what will happen. All we know is that it's as as catastrophic as it's possible to be. This will affect the planet for the worse. The ocean's currents will take the oil everywhere eventually, even if some miracle happens and the eruption is stopped right now we are left with crude oil polluting the water with no way of cleaning it up. We might be able to clean up what we can see on land, but the poison is lose and we're incapable of doing a damn thing about it.

[amborin]

78. if you've read the news, scientists do have ways to estimate the flow

from the video

[lunatica]

79. I read the news

The news about scientists estimating the amount of the flow is one day old. But I also don't always believe everything I read. So keep your snark.

[berni_mccoy]

80. Original Headline: "BP Releases Oil Spill Video After Pressure From White House and Media"

Original article: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/bp-releases-oil-spill-video-pressure-white-house/story?id=10629165&nwltr=blotter_featureHed

The OP is twisting positive action by the Administration into something nefarious.

[amborin]

81. that link does not contradict the OP at all;

just a sanitized blog post from a WH sycophant

[berni_mccoy]

82. Actually, it does quite well. The original story reported by ABC says the WH pressured BP

to release the video.

They did not hide it as the OP claims.

FDL, the link provided by the OP, IS an opinionated blog post.

ABC reported the facts.

[Sheepshank]

84. Then there ws this

ABC contradicting itself...who'd a thunk?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8322060

ABC News:

Throughout the clean-up effort, BP has monitored the spill site around the clock using submarine-mounted cameras at the mouth of the spill. An official at Oceaneering International, the company that operates the submarines under a contract with BP, told ABC News he "could walk right down the hall and watch it, but I can't share it without BP's express permission."

Eric Smith, a professor at Tulane University's Energy Institute said that footage could help in making independent assessments of the scope of the spill. But it also could do public relations damage to BP. It has remained closely guarded and cannot be made public under the argument that it is "proprietary," according to Coast Guard officials who have received repeated requests to release the images.


And fwiw, I wish the Whitehouse would release and divulge every single document and video it has on everything, including codes for armaments, findings of every single research ever done, every aspect and manual and name of every covert operation, name of every covert operator, every discussion pertaining to war strategy, every nuance and strategy to implement insurance regulation and strategy for banking regulation even before it's presented to the Senate, every nuance and strategy of every regulation about to be brought to the table. The dates and times of bathroom visits of staff, the details of every operation, pictures of events without any information (subject to personal interpretation as if it were fact), everything, everytime,...because you know there's no picking and chosing what is released to the public and when and by whom and when it is claimed to have been made available.....transparency and all :sarcasm:

[amborin]

85. as if the WH was powerless to get the video! do you realize what you're saying?

either the WH has no power, and BP reigns supreme and controls all, as i'm beginning to think; or the WH definitely *could* and *did* get the video

[Sheepshank]

88. previous admins

had made deals with oil execs regarding public disclosures. Do you understand what you are implying when you say that WH has or should exert that type of control?

[branders seine]

87. Obama "angry"?

with a corporation?


:rofl: