Why are there no aerial photos of the area from above the spill?
And no pictures of the beaches?
And no pictures of dead birds?
And no pictures of oily marshes?
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.
Except for Anderson Cooper and CNN.
They are asking for non-govt controlled access to the spill area.
They already have it. They just can't get any closer than 65' to skimmers or other craft, and to the oil booms protecting the shorelines. AND, they can ask for permission to get get closer.
Or do you think 100% govt control is a good thing?
OH, I see. First it's "BP is in total control, not the government".
Now it's "the government is in total control".
Which is the biggest joke of all.
The Coast Guard has been instructed to take over security and safety precautions and enforce the rules that are already on the books for dealing with such emergency situations.
The COAST GUARD is not keeping the MSM from telling us 'the truth'. The MSM has been keeping it from the public. Now they are trying to blame the government because the MSM has been caught (once again) with their pants down and their heads shoved securely up their posteriors.
An important, but completely different issue.
Why isn't Anderson Cooper complaining about that?
What stops Anderson Cooper and CNN from using a computer and the Internet to gather enough PHOTOS and VIDEO to supply their news programs with info 24/7 since the spill began?
I've seen the photos and videos, why can't they find them?
The officials who met with Anderson Cooper were able to count the booms and skimmers, and get the data for the government's list of booms and skimmers. If they can get it, why can't CNN?
http://www.ualist.com/video/video/-zs22Zm7y-Q/Operation-Swift-Fox-Evacuation-of-the-Gulf-States.html
Definite high tin foil hat factor.
Normally I would agree, but in the midst of the secrecy being forced on everyone in the Gulf region, you never know and have to wonder.
Why are there no aerial photos of the area from above the spill?
And no pictures of the beaches?
And no pictures of dead birds?
And no pictures of oily marshes?
Nothing wrong with being skeptical.
BUT, to accept Anderson Cooper and CNN's 'word' that it was OBAMA hiding the facts, and not the MEDIA???????
The MEDIA knew that OBAMA had a special meeting with BP execs and was told of all the options and dangers, right after the RIG sank.
Did the MEDIA inform the public of that ?
Nope.
There was no bomb.
We know corners were cut and risky procedures were followed.
If you break something because you cut corners or did risky procedures to save money its negligince.
If you cut corners and do risky procedures to break something on purpose it’s sabotage.
BP had a history of cutting corners and doing risky procedures to save money.
The probability of it being negligence in this case is high.
The probability of it being sabotage in this case is low.
Intent defines the difference.
At that depth, a little bitty bubble of natural gas is all that it would take to envelop the platform when it reached atmospheric pressure at the surface. There are a lot of engineers who can new tell BP, “I told you so.”
First, the photos you posted are environmentally horrific...but when were they taken. How many days, weeks ago? Its July 6...the ruling came down (from the White House) via a briefing with Obama apointee, Thad Allen, approx the 30th of June. Since then, the remnent of TS Alex have impacted oil disbursement as has the continuation of the flow from the sea floor.
Timeliness, real time, reporting is what is needed. Not ‘here’s some photos.k Don’t know how ‘old’ they are or how much further the damage has spread; or if the dispearant fumes can be smelled X number of yards away or miles inland.
The thousands of photos you keep mentioning are dated, in this fluid (no puns intended) HOURS after they are published. That is why the 6/30/10 WH ruling reeks of censorship. Per WH (and many FReepers) ‘see people there ARE thousands of pictures and millions of words in cyber space about the Gulf. Now move along like good little sheeple.’. Don’t mind that the photos are three weeks old...
Sounds like a dictatorship to me.
Why are we putting up with all this crap? The “powers that be” in DC think they’re rulers!
Just wait till they start messing with the internet, if they haven’t already.
Of course you can get pictures at 65 feet. Zoom lenses are wonderful things.
That’s not the point.
The point is that Obama issued an edict, limiting the press’s as well as the average citizen’s ability to get information out. The spill is making him look bad and he can’t have that.
I thought the environmentalists would be raising hell by now, but their motto is: Democrats good. Republicans bad.
Such eloquence in defense of an idiotic position.
If I recall, there was at least one engineer who told them I told you so before it even blew.
Man that is so sad and think of everything in the deep water too.
Obama was golfin’ when he coulda saved a dolphin.
And how do we "know" this? So far all I have heard is a handful of memos (possibly taken out of context) and some statements by some Transocean employees who have every motive in the world to pin the blame on BP. If you have ever been an expert on a subject the media reports on, you would know how WRONG the media usually gets it. They pretend to get to the "truth" of situations where, in actuality, they have neither the background or capability to comprehend the truth.
I'm only defending BP up to the point of "innocent until proven guilty". My instincts tell me you are probably right and corners were cut (although one man's idea of "not going to ridiculous extremes" is another man's "cut corners"). But I haven't seen or heard of anything that gives me confidence that I "know" what happened - or that anyone else does at this point. Maybe, for instance, the cut corners were Halliburton cement that wasn't up to spec, not dangerous behavior by BP. I think it is far too early to "know".
Very true about the media can get things wrong. Sometimes it is even humerous.
It well may not be all of BP’s fault. There was a combination of things that went wrong. I just think we have a good idea of what happened in the broad picture.
Common sense tells us that if they were like that three weeks ago, it is worse now. Those 'three week old' pictures should be enough to raise the concern and ire of just about anyone who isn't blind.
Again, It's difficult for BP/Coast Guard/Obama to hide what's going on. But, it is easy for the MSM to hide it from much of the public.
WHY wasn't CNN/ABC/CBS....etc. all over this from the beginning? Why weren't they putting those (now) three week old pictures on the NEWS? They would have been 'new' three weeks ago.
NOTHING IS STOPPING CNN from fully informing the public but CNN.
Matter of fact, IF OBAMA were the one telling CNN they were not allowed ANY ACCESS, you can bet your last dollar they would be ALL OVER IT.
One candle can bring light even though surrounded by an infinity of darkness.
That is, unless it rains.
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