Many journalists covering the oil spill off the Gulf Coast of Louisiana are finding it difficult to cover the U.S.’s biggest oil spill disaster because of restrictions set by the British-owned company, BP. As during Hurricane Katrina, when reporters were asked by FEMA not to show dead bodies being removed, BP and government agencies are limiting journalists’ access to the worst damage.Media organizations such as the Associated Press and CBS have reported experiencing limited access to public areas off the Gulf coast of Louisiana where there are crude-covered beaches and wildlife saturated with oil...
The reporter was unable to book a flight over Grand Isle because BP, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Coast Guard were denying access to planes flying reporters. CBS reported that a Coast Guard crew threatened to arrest its reporters if they did not leave a restricted area. “This is BP’s rules. Not ours,” they were told...
Here's the tale of one AP reporter who made his own access:
Some 40 miles out into the Gulf Of Mexico, I jump off the boat into the thickest patch of red oil I've ever seen. I open my eyes and realize my mask is already smeared. I can't see anything and we're just five seconds into the dive.
Dropping beneath the surface the only thing I see is oil. To the left, right, up and down — it sits on top of the water in giant pools, and hangs suspended fifteen feet beneath the surface in softball sized blobs. There is nothing alive under the slick, although I see a dead jellyfish and handful of small bait fish.
I'm alone because the other divers with me wouldn't get in the water without Hazmat suits on, and with my mask oiled over and the water already dark, I don't dive deep.
It's quiet, and to be honest scary, extremely low visibility. I spend just 10 minutes swimming around taking pictures, taking video. I want people to see the spill in a new way, a way they haven't yet.
I also want to get out of the water. Badly...
The cleaning process goes on for half an hour before the captain will even think about letting me back in the boat. I'm clean, so I stand up. But the bottoms of my feet still had oil, and I fall back in the water. The process starts again. Another 30 minutes of cleaning and finally I'm ready to step into the boat.
Keeping reporters from "the scene of the crime" doesn't make the crime go away. And the evidence in this crime isn't going to go away. BP, the Coast Guard, and the Obama administration are thus making things a lot worse for themselves.
We've already seen how disingenuous and false were Barack Obama's promises of a more responsible, transparent, ethical government. The oil spill is underscoring his hypocrisy in a dramatic (and disgusting) new way.
As the editors of the Palm Beach Post put it:
...BP and the Coast Guard can't dictate to journalists what risks they are willing to take. If journalists can cover wars, they can find a way to safely take photos of sick birds. It's legitimate for BP and the Coast Guard to control air space for safety reasons, but not to ban independent journalists entirely. And it's unacceptable to ban scientific expeditions that happen to have journalists aboard.
Access soon will matter a lot more to Floridians. Last week, the first state fishing areas were declared off-limits because of oil. To a public disgusted by BP's inability to plug a leak, restriction is offensive. BP needs to cover up that hole, not cover up the damage from that hole.
That last line should include the U.S. government as well.
