BP Media Clampdown: No Photos Of Dead Animals, Please - HuffPo

[WillyT]

BP Media Clampdown: No Photos Of Dead Animals, Please
Jason Linkins - HuffingtonPost
First Posted: 06- 2-10 04:04 PM | Updated: 06- 2-10 06:25 PM

<snip>

When we last left Mother Jones' reporter Mac McClelland, she was in the Gulf Coast region, caught up in the surreal tangle of media roadblocks that were being erected by British Petroleum to keep reporters at bay. How have things done since then? Not well, as it turns out!

Indeed, when I ran into some packing up on the Grand Isle beach twenty minutes later, I asked them only if they were done working for the day, and they refused to tell me. One woman said, "I can't talk to you," and then another worker ran up to her and grabbed her arm and said, "Just ignore her, ignore her," and the whole interaction was unsettlingly rude and sort of sad. The workers who were staying next to me in my Grand Isle motel last week told me that when BP (not, in this case, and for the record, a subcontractor) had instructed them that they couldn't talk to the press, it'd involved a warning that media organizations would go so far as to dub audio propaganda over their videotaped commentary, putting unflattering words in their mouths.

The New York Daily News' Matthew Lysiak is also in Grand Isle, where he was the fortunate beneficiary of a "surreptitious tour of the wildlife disaster unfolding in Louisiana."

"There is a lot of coverup for BP. They specifically informed us that they don't want these pictures of the dead animals. They know the ocean will wipe away most of the evidence. It's important to me that people know the truth about what's going on here," the contractor said.

"The things I've seen: They just aren't right. All the life out here is just full of oil. I'm going to show you what BP never showed the President."

A dead dolphin, stuffed with oil, figures prominently in the account. It's all very sad, and not a little bit enraging. As Allison KilKenny puts it: "In a sane world, a company guilty of gross negligence that resulted in the deaths of 11 workers would be under criminal investigation, and not be parading around the coast, telling the media where they can go and who they can talk to, while forbidding their clean-up crews from wearing protective gear."

Meanwhile, remember BP CEO Tony Hayward, who this past Sunday said that he "wanted his life back?" Well, he's very sorry about how that must have sounded, to humans:

"I made a hurtful and thoughtless comment on Sunday when I said that "I wanted my life back." When I read that recently, I was appalled. I apologize, especially to the families of the 11 men who lost their lives in this tragic accident. Those words don't represent how I feel about this tragedy, and certainly don't represent the hearts of the people of BP - many of whom live and work in the Gulf - who are doing everything they can to make things right. My first priority is doing all we can to restore the lives of the people of the Gulf region and their families - to restore their lives, not mine."

Naturally, that bit of flackery was emailed to reporters and posted on the BP America Facebook page, in keeping with BP's tradition of keeping anything too troubling as far away from cameras as possible.

<snip>

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/02/bp-media-clampdown-no-pho_n_598119.html

Notice the graphic at the above link...

:applause:

:kick:

[nashville_brook]

1. here's one native LA photographer who got thru --

as someone who does a little bit of wildlife photography, i'm thinking it'd suck to be a national photographer trying to document the damage. you need to get past the barricades, and it's not impossible to do. it's the nature of coastlines that there's a million hiding places. they are going to need natives who can show them around, and provide photos of what the areas looked like pre-oil.

i think it would be awesome to get pics from local kayakers...hmmm...a googling activity for later... :evilgrin:


http://nativeorleanian.com/bp-smoke-mirrors-and-oil-2/?nggpage=3

Made 2 trips down to Grand Isle last week, the first was on Tuesday 5/25/10. Spent some time initially on the West End of the island by Caminada Pass……things looked pretty clean at first, Anderson Cooper of CNN was arriving that day so this is no surprise, we started to find oil in very strange places, one being on the dry side of the jetties, which appeared to have been moved out a bit. I am very familiar with the area having spent a considerable amount of time shrimping and fishing on Elmers Island and Grand Isle, we have a family home down there….I was accompanied by friend and fellow photographer Andy Levin on my trips, when I suggested we stop looking on the sand and go back towards the marsh grass, he seemed a bit puzzled, but knowing the mindset of the locals, and trusting my gut, I felt that if there were shortcuts to be taken, that would be the place to look.

Immediately upon entering the brush, the STRONG stench of death overcame me, and this is where we found at least 13 Bull Redfish, whole bodies, some covered in oil, discarded and rotting. No one would ever throw away such a catch and it was obvious to me what the cause of death was……..additionally, we found the exposed freshly rotting head of what appeared to be a dolphin, at the top of an unnatural sand mound about 20 yards away. On my return trip, I attempted to dig, but the smell was overwhelming, all kings of bones were surfacing and it was obvious to me what was under there. To me that would explain many strange occurrences at the west and east end of the island, namely solid oil being exposed under some places where one would walk, under the sand…….so how does oil get under the sand…….behind the jetties, the scary thing is that these are heart fish. Redfish this size would take 20 to 30 minutes to reel in for a fisherman, yet they apparently succumb to oil rather easily, as dolphins apparently do to. Why hasn’t anyone heard about this, and why is BP burying such things without any reporting, warning, things are not as they appear through the media, and I am afraid that it will get a whole lot worse sooner than later…..And btw, on my return trip 5/28 the Dolphin head was nowhere to be found…….I have aso poste some of the images from the great performance for the President…

[nashville_brook]

2. here's a more recent trip to Venice -- June 1

http://nativeorleanian.com/bp-images-from-venice-louisiana-june-1/

click the link to see photos...

On way home from Venice, spent time in Redfish Bay area, no visible floating oil, but is disturbingly obvious that the oil has been there with the marsh obviously suffering, and dead in some areas, walked one of the islands, kind of surrounded by boom, there is oil all over it, but it’s black and flat, smells, grey powdery crystallized stuff all over the surface, perhaps the corexit but not sure(definetly not salt), I don’t know….animals……dead redfish, and remains of a bird. Maybe 2 or three birds, and NO bugs and no mosquito bites point blank while walking through high marsh grass………..Since there really has been no SE winds the last week, no more “fresh” oil is visible here…..as opposed to the reports the last few days from Grand Isle where its infiltrated the marsh destroying oyster beds, and who knows what else…..

[WillyT]

3. Fuck...

:cry:

:mad:

Very valuable link... thank you.

[nashville_brook]

5. yeah -- his commentary has been pretty amazing. after the big freeze here in FL, we paddled Mosquito

Lagoon and the smell of death was overwhelming. locals didn't have a problem with it -- Haulover Creek was packed with people fishing. As we paddled out i could believe the number of dead sea turtles -- they were everywhere. big ones -- like man hole covers. little ones as big as a gopher tortoise. fish died off in schools, it seemed. we never saw any large mammals, but there had to be plenty around.

it was the most depressing day on the water i can remember -- it makes you feel hopeless. and, it was a natural event. this! this is wanton.

one bright side to the freeze -- it killed a lot invasive species, like Plecostomous, which is a big problem in the rivers. they eat all the other fishes' eggs:

[Kalyke]

4. Fuck Bayou Polluter (BP). I'll post 'em anyway:

Dead dolphin carcass rotting on the shoreline.




Dead Hermit crab.



Dead bird



Dead dolphin or small whale (hard to tell with all that oil on it).



Not dead yet, but unsure how it has, thankfully, survived.

[nashville_brook]

6. the power of photography is awesome.

[amborin]

7. K&R