Oil Spill Media Access: Government Wants Press Freedom, Pushes BP To Not Restrict Access

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government generally is not restricting news media access to oil spill disaster areas in the Gulf of Mexico and wants oil giant BP to do likewise, unless there are good security or safety reasons, a Coast Guard admiral said Monday.

Thad Allen, who is overseeing the federal response to the Gulf oil spill, said that "general guidance" had been issued that there were only two reasons why the media should be prohibited from an area: "If it's a security reason or a safety reason because of personal protective equipment."

"Other than that, we are putting no restrictions on access," Allen told a White House news briefing.

He was asked about complaints about instances in which journalists were being denied access to disaster sites.

"Now, we can't tell somebody to talk to somebody they don't want to. But my policy is, unless it's a security or safety reason, there is no restriction on access," Allen said.

Asked what he would do if a journalist wanted to take a picture of an oil-coated bird and was barred from doing so, Allen said that was "hypothetical."

"I guess somebody would have to give me the specifics of an incident and we'll go take a look at it," he said.

But in general, he said, "we'll follow up...I'll have a call with Tony Hayward," the London-based oil company's CEO.

Comments

[noratoo]

04:00 AM on 06/15/2010

Censorship by a CORPORATION?

Does that fit the definition of Fascist government?

BP's censorship of information and news is wrong however it is defined.

[scraplady]

12:56 PM on 06/11/2010

Why is there news censorship at all? BP is destroying the Gulf. Everyone should be allowed to see what is happening. The government has the ability to stop BP from censorship. They should do so immediately!

[Scott Parsons]

09:16 PM on 06/08/2010

Were you beginning to feel sorry for BP? Don't! An article in today's Washington Post documents a long history of problems and ignored recommendations. A series of internal investigations over the past decade warned senior BP managers that the oil company repeatedly disregarded safety and environmental rules and risked a serious accident if it did not change its ways. These included instances in which management flouted safety by neglecting aging equipment, pressured employees not to report problems and cut short or delayed inspections to reduce production costs.

http://www.sustainablefisheries.ca/

[hypnotoad72]

05:10 PM on 07/16/2010

An end-run around QC and other cheap tactics to make profits look big.

Zero responsibility.

Why the hell do some want taxpayers to clean up BP's first degree, conscious, cheating?

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/boehner-government--ie-taxpayers--should-help-pay-for-oil-spill.php

[SueMVetforObama2]

07:38 PM on 06/08/2010

The Gulf is still filling with oil.

Clouds of oil globules 142 miles southeast and 45 miles north of the blown well.

[catbite]

07:09 PM on 06/08/2010

Tony Haywire should be fired.

[had-enough]

09:12 PM on 06/08/2010

Tony has now got his little life back! Champagne and rolls royces in Britland!

[hypnotoad72]

05:10 PM on 07/16/2010

He should be jailed.

[mrJJ]

12:51 PM on 06/08/2010

Source: ProPublica

Years of Internal BP Probes Warned That Neglect Could Lead to Accidents

A series of internal investigations over the past decade warned senior BP managers that the company repeatedly disregarded safety and environmental rules and risked a serious accident if it did not change its ways.

The confidential inquiries, which have not previously been made public, focused on a rash of problems at BP's Alaska oil-drilling unit that undermined the company’s publicly proclaimed commitment to safe operations. They described instances in which management flouted safety by neglecting aging equipment, pressured or harassed employees not to report problems, and cut short or delayed inspections in order to reduce production costs. Executives were not held accountable for the failures, and some were promoted despite them.

http://www.propublica.org/feature/years-of-internal-bp-probes-warned-that-neglect-could-lead-to-accidents
http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/2007-bp-commissioned-study-on-safety-culture
http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/2001-bp-operational-integrity-report

[Levonsky]

12:38 PM on 06/08/2010

Some seem to forget that the US Govt is now a wholly owned subsidiary of multinationals.

The corps tell the govt how it is going to be and its all over but the campaign contributions and lobbyist gifts.

[mrJJ]

11:40 AM on 06/08/2010

Rate of offshore oil spills more than QUADRUPLED in the past 10 years: USAToday

The number of spills from offshore oil rigs and pipelines in U.S. waters more than quadrupled this decade, a trend that could have served as a warning for the massive leak in the Gulf of Mexico, according to government data and safety experts. The spills — and the amount of oil that leaked — grew markedly worse even when taking increases in production into account, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data shows. The leaks came as the oil industry repeatedly claimed that offshore drilling was never safer.

The company with the most spills from 2000 through 2009 is BP, which leased the well spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf since April 20, according to the data. The oil giant and its affiliated companies reported 23 spills of 50 barrels or more, not including the latest blowout. Oil firm Shell was next with 21, according to MMS spill reports.

Environmental activists and safety experts said the increasing numbers of spills should have been a red flag that the industry needed to tighten safety practices and that federal regulators needed to improve oversight

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-06-07-oil-spill-mess_N.htm

[lioness39]

11:33 AM on 06/08/2010

BP has proven to be the supreme vulture among corporations. Not only would I like to see them lift the ban of secrecy on the biggest ecological disaster in the United States, I would also appreciate it if they would cease and desist from their repugnant and hollow-ringing PR commercials. They make my skin crawl.

[drama is a drug]

07:38 PM on 06/08/2010

Biggest eco disaster in the world. Love the av!

[had-enough]

09:20 PM on 06/08/2010

Trying to actually BOYCOTT BP???Harder than one thinks. They own LOGAN ALUMINUM and the aluminum that produces all the Cokes and beer around the USA...guess who owns LOGAN ALUMINUM??? BP! BP is in 10-15 countries operating as diverse a bunch of global polluters as one can possibly imagine. So, the next time you drink a beer or canned Coke...think BP!

The filthy British snuck into the USA over the past 8 years and bought up anything and everything possible. They just bought the actual links on GOOGLE so no one can leave insulting comments on BP on GOOGLE AND YAHOO!
Pass on the British Polluters who are nickel & diming our fishermen in the beaten up SOUTH! Texas has now reported dead birds covered in oil washing up on the beach. TEXAS JUSTICE FOR BP!!!

MEDIA AND INTERNET CONTROL! Corruption as thick as the crude they pump all over the Gulf!

[GeoNorth]

11:13 AM on 06/08/2010

Nothing that BP says or does surprises me or anybody. They have been responsible for many of the world's tragedies in the last century. Of course, we know of this spill and the broken pipeline (due to poor maintainence) in Alaska. The country of Iran was once Persia, until BP got there. In 1953, when Iran's leader nationalized the oil industry, BP, along with the US, overthrew him and installed the Shah.

To think that BP wouldn't tamper with media is naive. They want to pepper the slick with dispersants, not because it will help the environment that they are destroying, but because they feel that if the slick goes underwater, or can't be seen without fancy equipment, people will lighten up on them. There is no way that they would ever cap this well unless they could recoup their losses with the remaining oil in that well. They are perfectly willing to make things worse as long as they have the opportunity to retrieve that oil.

And while we express our outrage right now, we are willing to forget about it as long as gasoline stays below three bucks a gallon.

[lioness39]

11:40 AM on 06/08/2010

".....we are willing to forget about it as long as gasoline stays below three bucks a gallon."

Not me, my friend. Although, BP stations are very convenient to me, I have cut up my card and refuse to buy at their stations.

[Alexander2791]

11:10 AM on 06/08/2010

1) the government was thankfully pressured into addressing that issue and finally relented because, their previous dismissal of those repeated facts/claims was starting to hurt them.
2) since T Allen stated that, if and when presented with factual evidence denial of access, he will need to call BP's CEO in England to talk to him, which shows who he is taking his marching orders from. He should have provided the reporters with a Coast Guard contact that would immediately take care of the problem without even involving BP.
3) it is great time that the media pools their act together and sue BP for illegally blocking access on land that does not belong to the corporation.
4) it also evident that this has occurred with the tacit approval of T Allen and maybe the WH.
5) the strangest part of Allen's statements is the exceptions advanced to his open access rules, i.e., except of case of health hazards. BP and some of the federal agencies (EPA) have been arguing together that there is no health dangers for people and BP has even threatened to fire workers who want to wear their own mask or goggles, so those exceptions are contradictory to BP's own position that there are no toxins in the air.

[saranaghati]

11:05 AM on 06/08/2010

It won't work, anymore than the $50million ad campaign will work. They have absolutely 0 believability to not just America , but the world. The only interesting thing about this catastrophe is watching the mask ripping off the corporate face and understanding it is the real face of mega business we are seeing. Can there be anyone left who thinks that big business should be unregulated?

[Ergon]

10:31 AM on 06/08/2010

Funny, but my posts that got censored by "trolls" were the ones that asked the President to be, er, presidential. And I'm an environmentalist, not a Republican, but I really think it was a green badge overstepping her authority.

[jdrourke]

10:21 AM on 06/08/2010

Who the f**k exactly is BP to say what can and can not be shown by our media?! What a bunch of tools...

http://jdrourke.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/dear-b-p-oil/

[Equinator]

09:41 AM on 06/08/2010

It boggles my mind to think that the freedom of the press to access public information in public areas is being limited by corporations and the government is being complacent.