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.
If media types like Cooper start questioning the haloed one on TV, I’ll take it and I won’t focus on his prior support. We may believe that a tsunami for the GOP is coming in Nov., but frankly I’ll take help from anyone and any quarter.
AC = useful idiot
Congressional Report Claims Administration Misled About Efforts on Oil Spill
"Two White House officials visited [Nungesser] on Father’s Day and said, “What do we have to do to keep you off TV?” His answer was, “Give me what I need.”"
“it’s an attempt to give workers some room without a gaggle of JAFOs “helping”.”
Are you really aware of the size of the problem? Miles and miles and miles of beach.
Are you ok with BO keeping this under wraps?
Ah, the Hell with it.
Better that they turn up the heat on the frogs all the faster.
Perhaps Cooper should interview some of Castro’s incarcerated reporters. They weren’t the enemy either, until a tyrant deemed them so.
It's his turn... remember "first they came for the Jews, but I wasn't a Jew".
Hey Cooper, your turn is coming up...
” ... modern photographic equipment ...”
I think you’ve got a point.
But, it is mighty ironic to see the liberal media given a dose of reality.
Now let’s see them use some ingenuity to develop sources and get their stories and pix anyway.
They forgot to keep themselves honest first.
So our "Dear Leader" and his brownshirts want to...
Evacuate before the hurricanes hit those coasts.
Disarm all the people.
Put all the Tea Partiers in relocation camps.
In the past I’ve seen local reporters and such going out with fisherman, and others who have been out on the water - scientists, and others working within the ‘response system’.
It seems to me that needing CG permission before boarding ANY boat that is ‘involved in the cleanup’ would be INCLUDED in this ruling. Meaning that in practice instead of the press being allowed to ‘ride along’ with ANY of the boats they would need CG permission, FIRST.
I wonder what the rules are that are already in place regarding aerial ‘surveillance’? Someone posted something from Gore’s site regarding the press being denied permission to film from the air, but this isn’t the first time I’ve heard of that.
Despite the fact that the US MSM are idiots, and I don’t think Anderson or any of them would report everything anyway, BUT - this is still a questionable action (especially when one considers who exactly is making the new ‘rules’).
This man/child has NO idea how to lead.
&&&&
Only if you are assuming that he wants to go the same direction that you or any country/humanity-loving person would want to go.
He is so petulant, that he is actively denying the Gulf States the aid that they should have, because they have the gall to vote for Republican governors and presidents.
Some people call him cool, but he is cold as ice. He is as unresponsive to human need as any of the great dictators of the past century. He does not care if the economy of the Gulf states collapses. As a matter of fact, the thought of their collapse probably does give him a little bit of a warm feeling.
When ever I see a pic of him I want to smash my monitor. He despise him with my whole being.
This is communism at work. We need more reporters willing to stake their reputations and possibly even their lives to bring this kind of news to the American public, and we need a major media outlet with enough fortitude and honesty to broadcast it.
I wish I had the money to purchase a TV station like CBS or NBC. I'd turn it totally conservative and blast this governmental regime 24 hours a day!
As a cruising sailor who has lived the past twenty years on the water, I agree; at least as pertains to vessels, booms etc. on the water. I see no reason, other than politics, however for similar restrictions on the beach.
Oh really.
Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Maybe 66 feet would be an issue? Rules of the road on the water and laws regarding such are and have been in place. For instance a powered vessel should give way to a vessel under sail... This new rule is nothing more than the government inch that will allow the government mile. What exactly precipitates this rule -where are the safety incidents that now require a 65 foot buffer?
There will be reluctant conservatives born from this.
No doubt there will. But, always remember that lunatic over at LGF. A temporary ally at best, a fox in the henhouse at worst.
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