While BP has denied that it is blocking the media from reporting on the Gulf oil spill, numerous press reports indicate otherwise. Today, while preparing for a Skype chat on his laptop at a public beach in Alabama, ABC News reporter Matt Gutman “was hassled by the manager of a nearby crew, asking Gutman why he was on the beach.” Gutman captured the interaction on video, and said “several people” had asked him “not to talk to any of the workers here”:
BP has said that “anyone on cleanup crews can share their views,” but Gutman and other reporters have found that field managers often prevent workers from doing so. As ThinkProgress noted, BP initially forced workers to sign a contract that explicitly barred them from talking to the media. Though that clause of the contract appears to have been removed due to a lawsuit, workers are clearly still paranoid about talking to the press. One contractor who broke the silence surreptitiously escorted a New York Daily News crew around some of the affected sites, saying he was frustrated with what he deemed the “coverup.” “They specifically informed us that they don’t want these pictures of the dead animals,” he said.
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June 10th, 2010 at 4:18 pmThe first rule of the cover up: Control the Message
June 10th, 2010 at 4:22 pmFunny. I thought BP had agreed to allow more press access. In a giant corporation, it’s very easy to get the message out. It’s called e-mail. It comes from Tony Hayward, CEO, to all employees, and it would say something like this: “Effective immediately all personnel involved in the clean up operations are not to interfere with the press, unless there are specific concerns for the safety of the press.”
Done.
June 10th, 2010 at 4:22 pmI would give BP some room on this one in that talking to the workers while they should be working could slow the workers down.
There is so much going on where BP is clearly in the wrong that I’d like to see them hanged for.
June 10th, 2010 at 4:24 pmMapleStreet says:
I would give BP some room on this one in that talking to the workers while they should be working could slow the workers down.
Seriously? Spending 10 minutes talking to the press?
June 10th, 2010 at 4:26 pmSo, our “free press” answers to BP now, huh.
June 10th, 2010 at 4:26 pmUmmmmmmm, EXCUSE ME???
June 10th, 2010 at 4:26 pmThese are OUR BEACHES!!!
straight up fascism
June 10th, 2010 at 4:28 pmTony Hayward – Stop the lying! You and your corporate officers have been telling one lie after another. Stop lying!
June 10th, 2010 at 4:34 pmDRxJ says:
Ummmmmmm, EXCUSE ME???
These are OUR BEACHES!!!
This may be one of many indications of how the corporate powers think they own US.
Campaign finance reform is a must.
June 10th, 2010 at 4:39 pmFor what it’s worth, Gutman expressly told the BP Troll that he was NOT trying to talk to any of the workers and still got hassled. That isn’t BP trying to maintain worker safety or worker discipline. That is BP trying to control the message it still doesn’t realize it lost weeks ago. If this company ever drills another well in this hemisphere something is seriously wrong.
June 10th, 2010 at 4:43 pmI think BP is doing a great job of demonizing themselves.
June 10th, 2010 at 4:44 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Group of students, teachers and parents took field trip to Arizona last month to protest state’s immigration law.
last month. man fox news is on the ball!
June 10th, 2010 at 4:49 pmT.F. THURSDAYS
June 10th, 2010 at 4:51 pmother impotent fox news
linday *yawn* lohan likely to become jailbird
yay.
June 10th, 2010 at 4:52 pmthats not a bp worker. thats dubby in disguise.
June 10th, 2010 at 4:52 pmBP laying claim to the beach makes me think of Simple Sarah and her family’s swimming hole, 350 acre Lake Lucille that has a public beach on it.
June 10th, 2010 at 4:53 pm“They specifically informed us that they don’t want these pictures of the dead animals,” he said.
Wow, deja vu all over again. Sounds just like the filming of coffins arriving from Viet Nam.
“Fer Gawd’s sake, don’t show folks what’s really happening. They’ll just freak out!”
June 10th, 2010 at 4:54 pmbp doesnt want pictures of toothpaste covered dead animals.
shocker.
June 10th, 2010 at 4:56 pmI can imagine the ire at BP.
“How are we supposed to make ourselves look good with our PR campaign when these damned reporters keep showing all the destruction we’ve caused and are fighting doing anything about?”
June 10th, 2010 at 4:59 pmpatrioticusglory says:
had enough says:
Campaign finance reform is a must.
>>>
No it’s not. It violates fundamental freedom.
Have any suggestions how we the people will be able to elect our best candidate to represent us rather than the richest buying their candidacies? The SCOTUS ruling giving an OK unlimited funding opens the door wide open for more corporate buying of our elections.
June 10th, 2010 at 5:00 pmTag Team Trolls Try Tipping TP?
Phox Phuckers Phoul Phacts?
June 10th, 2010 at 5:05 pmHerr Goebbels would be proud.
June 10th, 2010 at 5:05 pmHave any suggestions how we the people will be able to elect our best candidate to represent us rather than the richest buying their candidacies?
I’m leaning towards studying yoga so I can kiss my azz goodbye.
June 10th, 2010 at 5:05 pmReggie, sponsored by Brawndo ™ says:
Do your part to keep this Troll Free Thursday going, please do not feed
sorry, I think I gave a few crumbs.
June 10th, 2010 at 5:07 pmIt is kind of interesting. With Viet Nam, the government was able to get sneaky about body bags and napalm because of distance. Same for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Now we are seeing the same crap on our own Gulf coast. That national security blanket ain’t for security, it’s for hiding the nasty.
June 10th, 2010 at 5:10 pmBP’s theory of PR is out of sight, out of mind. They are losing the battle.
June 10th, 2010 at 5:37 pmpatrioticusglory says:
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
How’s the campaign to demonize BP going today?
June 10th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
___
June 10th, 2010 at 5:47 pmTP can never demonize BP. A Rasmussen poll showed that 90% of the American people appreciate the job the men and women of BP are doing striving to meet our country’s energy needs. Whenever I looked at a walrus or a sperm whale I think of BP.
Corporations are run as dictatorships, subject to whatever constraints civil authorities place on them. It is becoming more evident that in the first few weeks of this Gulf oil gusher/disaster that the Obama Administration was following the lead of BP in trying to minimize the size and the negative effects of the oil gusher/disaster.
It seems that the Obama Administration is still under the authority of British Petroleum. I thought that we threw off the reins of British authority back in 1776… Are we now operating under the British Crown again, or the Royal BP Crown?
June 10th, 2010 at 5:53 pm5. gumnmitch says, “Seriously? Spending 10 minutes talking to the press?”
You get into the problem that it isn’t just one time talking to one press. Especially for a national story like this, you can have all sorts of press critters running around trying to get a story.
One way of dealing with this would be to have an official worker spokesperson who is there strictly to give interviews (but then you have to worry if the spokesperson is a real worker or a corporate schill).
It isn’t at all that I think well of BP. At this point, an international corporation has destroyed an ecology that is an international trust. With likely weather patterns, it is not out of consideration that their mess is going to destroy areas in various island nations. So I say if SCOTUS says they can finance political campaigns, then SCOTUS (or international court) should treat the CEOs as the environmental catastrophe they are (If intentional, I’d raise the tenor to “environmental terrorism”).
June 10th, 2010 at 5:56 pm“BP manager hassles journalist reporting from a public beach, makes cleanup crew move away from him.”
Not surprising..
OT
Another ex-Bushie official is now hired for BP’s PR and for repairing their image:
The company has even hired Anne Womack-Kolton, a former top aide to Vice President Cheney, to be its new spokesperson.
Now, joining Womack-Kolton in helping BP repair its image is former chief of staff to President Bush, Josh Bolten:
The former European Commission president Romano Prodi is understood to be assisting BP in its attempt to restore its battered reputation in the United States.
The Times understands that Mr Prodi, who twice served as Italy’s prime minister, is a key member of an “international advisory board” assisting BP that also includes Josh Bolten, the former chief of staff to President George W. Bush. Both Mr Prodi and Mr Bolten are former employees of Goldman Sachs, the investment bank that advises BP. BP’s former chairman Peter Sutherland also held a senior role at Goldman.
The group has been helping the oil giant to defend its interests against a fierce onslaught from the US Government, which intensified yesterday as it emerged that 44 US Senators have signed a letter demanding that BP does not pay a dividend next month
http://www.truthout.org/former-bush-official-josh-bolten-advising-bp-on-how-to-defend-its-interests-and-restore-its-reputati
The more ex-Bushie officials are hired for restoring BP image, the more of their profits, image, and reputation of BP plummets. Heckava job, BP!
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