Posted on 07/03/2010 9:03:54 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
White House Enacts Rules Inhibiting Media From Covering Oil Spill By Noel Sheppard Created 07/03/2010 - 11:28
The White House Thursday enacted stronger rules to prevent the media from showing what's happening with the oil spill in the Gulf Coast.
CNN's Anderson Cooper reported that evening, "The Coast Guard today announced new rules keeping photographers and reporters and anyone else from coming within 65 feet of any response vessel or booms out on the water or on beaches -- 65 feet."
He elaborated, "Now, in order to get closer, you have to get direct permission from the Coast Guard captain of the Port of New Orleans. You have to call up the guy. What this means is that oil-soaked birds on islands surrounded by boom, you can't get close enough to take that picture."
As the segment continued, Cooper expressed disgust with this rule repeating several times, "We are not the enemy here" (video follows with transcript and commentary, h/t Cubachi [1] via Hot Air [2]):
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: But we begin, as we do every night, "Keeping Them Honest".
This time, however, we're not talking about BP. We're talking about the government, a new a rule announced today backed by the force of law and the threat of fines and felony charges, a rule that will prevent reporters and photographers and anyone else from getting anywhere close to booms and oil-soaked wildlife and just about any place we need to be.
By now, you're probably familiar with cleanup crews stiff-arming the media, private security blocking cameras, ordinary workers clamming up, some not even saying who they're working for because they're afraid of losing their jobs.
BP has said again and again that's not their policy. Yet, again and again, it has happened. And we have seen it. But that's BP.
And now the government apparently is getting in on the act, despite what Admiral Thad Allen promised about transparency just nearly a month ago. Here is what he said back then.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN (RET.), NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: I have put out a written directive -- and I can provide it for the record -- that says the media will have uninhibited access anywhere we're doing operations, except for two things, if it's a security or a safety problem. That is my policy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Uninhibited access, unless it's a security or safety problem.
Well, the Coast Guard today announced new rules keeping photographers and reporters and anyone else from coming within 65 feet of any response vessel or booms out on the water or on beaches -- 65 feet.
Now, in order to get closer, you have to get direct permission from the Coast Guard captain of the Port of New Orleans. You have to call up the guy. What this means is that oil-soaked birds on islands surrounded by boom, you can't get close enough to take that picture.
Shots of oil on beaches with booms, stay 65 feet away. Pictures of oil-soaked booms uselessly laying in the water because they haven't been collected like they should, you can't get close enough to see that. And, believe me, that is out there.
But you only know that if you get close to it, and now you can't without permission. Violators could face a fine of $40,000 and Class D felony charges.
What's even more extraordinary is that the Coast Guard tried to make the exclusion zone 300 feet, before scaling it back to 65 feet.
Here is how Admiral Allen defends it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Well, it's not unusual at all for the Coast Guard to establish either safety or security zones around any number of facilities or activities for public safety or for the safety of the equipment itself. We would do this for marine events, fireworks demonstrations, cruise ships going in and out of port.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So, this is the exact same logic that federal wildlife officials used to prevent CNN on two occasions from getting pictures of oiled birds that have been collected, pictures like -- like the -- well, that we're about to show you which are obviously deeply disturbing, pictures of oiled gulls that we just happened to catch. Suddenly, we were told after -- after that day we couldn't catch it anymore. So, keeping prying eyes out of marshes, away from booms, off the beaches is now government policy.
When asked why now, after all this time, Thad Allen said he had gotten some complaints from local officials worried people might get hurt. Now, we don't know who these officials are. We would like to. But transparency is apparently not a high priority with Thad Allen either these days.
Maybe he is accurate and some officials are concerned. And that's their right. But we've heard far more from local officials about not being able to get a straight story from the government or BP. I have met countless local officials desperate for pictures to be taken and stories written about what is happening in their communities.
We're not the enemy here. Those of us down here trying to accurately show what's happening, we are not the enemy. I have not heard about any journalist who has disrupted relief efforts. No journalist wants to be seen as having slowed down the cleanup or made things worse. If a Coast Guard official asked me to move, I would move.
But to create a blanket rule that everyone has to stay 65 feet away boom and boats, that doesn't sound like transparency. Frankly, it's a lot like in Katrina when they tried to make it impossible to see recovery efforts of people who died in their homes.
If we can't show what is happening, warts and all, no one will see what's happening. And that makes it very easy to hide failure and hide incompetence and makes it very hard to highlight the hard work of cleanup crews and the Coast Guard. We are not the enemy here.
We found out today two public broadcasting journalists reporting on health issues say they have been blocked again and again from visiting a federal mobile medical unit in Venice, a trailer where cleanup workers are being treated. It's known locally as the BP compound. And these two reporters say everyone they have talked to, from BP to the Coast Guard, to Health and Human Services in Washington has been giving them the runaround.
We're not talking about a CIA station here. We're talking about a medical trailer that falls under the authority of, guess who, Thad Allen, the same Thad Allen who promised transparency all those weeks ago.
We are not the enemy here.
Actually, Anderson, to this administration, anyone trying to tell the truth to the American people is the enemy.
Maybe if folks like you would have accurately reported the background of Barack Obama when he was running for president he wouldn't have assumed you were going to continue to misrepresent and ignore facts for his benefit after if he got elected.
To anyone with even a lukewarm intelligence quotient, this was an eminently foreseeable consequence of the media treating candidate Obama like a rock star. If they had acted like journalists back then instead of groupies, maybe they'd be treated with more respect today.
Now that some press members actually want to act like reporters again and aggressively try to cover what's going on in the Gulf Coast, the White House must feel somewhat spurned by his previously complicit press thereby necessitating rules to keep them from getting close to the truth now that they mysteriously seem interested in reporting it.
Of course, those on the other side of the aisle are not at all surprised, for like so many of the promises this man made during the campaign, we didn't believe his most transparent administration in history pledge either.
Maybe in the future media won't allow their love for a candidate to make them so gullible and compliant, but I wouldn't count on it.
We need to shake these Nazi Vermin off our backs.
I don’t agree with him on a lot, but he is the only reporter who sticks with a big story and follows up. He did excellent reporting on the tsunami and Haiti and is the only reporter even covering the gulf right now. I’m glad he brought this to light. We need more reporting of facts and less covering up for obama.
Perhaps, but I know what side they'll ultimately come down on.
The MSM are marxist ideologues, first & foremost. Journalism is merely a vehicle for their politics.
Brilliant point. Lets see which reporter has the nerve to ask O that exact question at his next press conference. But none of them will because they're still treating him like a rock star.
Well no you haven't been, in fact, you and your lying socialist comrades have been doing everything you could to prop up this illegitimate authoritarian.
"We are not the enemy here"
Actually you are, to the American people.
"We are not the enemy here"
Caught red handed, just like Dan Rather and the other fabricators.
"We are not the enemy here"
I'll bet you feel like a total useful idiot.
"We are not the enemy here"
Prepare for incoming.
And why wouldn’t they? So far every tyrannical move they have made has been met with nary a whimper.
My buddy went to Grand Isle to cut grass at his camp, and afterwards he decided to check out the beach to see if he could see any tar balls or oil.
There was an oil boom along the sand on the beach, so he stepped over it and started to walk to the water. After about ten steps past the boom, a Jefferson Parish Sherrif officer called him back and told him he wasn't supposed to go past the boom.
He asked if he was going to be fined for being on a public beach, and the officer told him no.
My buddy started to step back over the boom to go back to his car, and the officer told him to stay on the other side of the boom and don't cross over. He asked if he wasn't being fined or arrested, why he couldn't go home.
The officer said he had wait to be picked up and brought to the decontamination tent.
Now this guy hadn't seen a drop of oil on the beach, and the goobermint is going to waste taxpayers resources and money to have a clean guy decontaminated.
THAT is priority one and hoping it works.
I don't know if BP cut corners, but if so, they should pay. However, it seems to me they are doing everything within their engineering prowess to stop this and clean it up. They are already paying out millions to gulf victims, not to mention the 20 billion obambi extorted from them, far beyond the current international legal liability.
That alone shows a reasonable person that BP is willing to go the extra mile. They didn't need to succumb to obambi and could have fought far into the future through the courts, while they still reaped profits from their world-wide ventures. Looks to me like they did right thing to maintain their viability and worth for the thousands of stock holders. It's called - free enterprise.
Cry all day about how bad BP is, but in the end, there are thousands of retired Americans and Britains who worked their lives and invested in a company that has paid huge dividends over the years, to find that they won't get that fixed income for (3) quarters. More loss buying power. Think those retires will pull back on their purchases? I do.
I've been truly amazed that BP has kept a camera on the riser since almost day one. Anybody who thinks BP is not doing all they can (PR aside) is out of touch of with reality.
The true conspiracy lies with obambi who finally accepted the offers of 17 nations to help, after what? 70 days? And just how many of those offers did he accept? And what is the reasoning if he excluded some? And what are the limitations? And why is the giant skimmer still sitting in Newport? Weather? Possibly.
This is going to be discussed and debated for years to come. It's going to look bad for obambi, eventually.
Obambi's priority one has been golfing, concerts with Sir Paul-the-Cute-Beatle...eww, and vacations, while letting the bureaucrats at the EPA dictate to the States affected to slow their own efforts. Once people understand the comparison of State responsibility for Katrina and this Federal waters mess accountability, the shoot is definitely going to hit the fan.
Here's a sound bite and/or clip: Bush asked Governor Blanco for permission (in writing) to send in help prior to Katrina making landfall, while he was mobilizing FEMA and other resources. That is official record. Blanco waited for days after Katrina made landfall to say yes, please.
Nagin was missing in action and didn't have the foresight to load 10's of hundreds on the busses we've all seen sitting in a parking lot. What would you have done with the worst hurricane bearing down on you? Got commonsense?
Obama needed no such permission due to Federal waters and could have activated every resource at his command, including accepting the offers of some 17 countries for their skimming resources. After 70 days, he finally got around to saying "okay" for a few between rounds of golf.
Yes, I'm being repetitive. It needs to be hammered home to the I-hate-bush-for-a-hurricane-devasting-a-below-sea level-city-and-not-sending-in-FEMA-or-the-National Guard-early-enough-due-to-its-Governor-not-making-the-legal-request. Law dictates the Governor MUST request assistance from the Fedgov. Blanco (who is now replaced by Jindal) didn't do such.
Botton line: Obambi has had the authority from day one to declare this situation a national disaster. He also had the authority to declare Tennessee's flooding as a natural disaster. This man/child has NO idea how to lead. He is all about campaigning and talking points, and making kissy face with the World...which is not turning out so well as his socialist mindset told him it would.
Sheesh, even I, as a lowly owner/operator of a company of some 30 employees could understand crisis management. When the Northridge quake hit us back in early '90's, got on the phone and directed my second to evacuate the building in case of a larger shock. She told me, "I have to ship so much...blah, blah". I told her if you don't get you and our employees out right NOW, you may not have the chance to argue with me again. MOVE THEM OUTSIDE NOW OR LOSE YOUR JOB WHEN I GET THERE! She did so. That's called leadership, coming from a lowly E-6 Navy puke.
Sorry to get off point. I just know BS and poor leadership when I see it.
What do you call a hundred "journalists" on the bottom of the ocean?
65 feet is not too far at all, considering that wind and current pushes the booms and boats around. Sounds like the folks in charge are trying to get some elbow room.
I wonder if there have been incidents of “journalist” boats colliding with booms or recovery vessels while trying to get that critical 9000th shot of a bird or glob of oil?
Sorry, I don’t see this as a repressive regime clamping down on the honest “journalists” merely trying to do their job. I hear whiny self-important “journalists” complaining that they must use a 300 mm lens instead of a 200 mm lens to get that all-critical shot of blobby water.
If “journalists” were actually reporting on important issues there rather than being Obots I might cut them some slack.
agreed, the details matter — if they were saying “6500 feet” that would be one thing, but “65 feet” is no obstacle to modern photographic equipment — sounds like this fuss is more about close personal access to the people doing the clean-up work than about any photographic issues
So I guess calling him a warmongering chimpy bushitler is totally unlikely.
They’re not stopping Fox News cause Fox News has not been attacking the administration the way CNN has been on the spill coverage when Carville blew his gasket & continues to cover the spill from Louisiana, when they have regular Jindal tours and the Parrish Mayor who is always nipping at the heels. Obama finally has had enough and will try to punish them for their insolence.
‘If “journalists” were actually reporting on important issues there rather than being Obots I might cut them some slack.”
Ahh so the first amendment applies to some people?
The sheriff probably has a ‘friend’ who owns part of the company doing decom.
Not a First Amendment issue, it’s an attempt to give workers some room without a gaggle of JAFOs “helping”.
Not worth the risk if the “journalists” are doing what they do best.
CNN is learning that Marxists don’t do embarrassing news coverage very well.
I should have learned not to be shocked by now, when Dear Leader does such things.
It would not surprise me if this mandate came straight from the top. Like I said before, Marxists don’t do embarrassing news coverage well.
For the record, if somebody told me to back off, because he was loading a ship, I would.
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