Posted on 06/09/2010 7:43:43 PM PDT by balls
When the operators of Southern Seaplane in Belle Chasse, La., called the local Coast Guard-Federal Aviation Administration command center for permission to fly over restricted airspace in Gulf of Mexico, they made what they thought was a simple and routine request.
A pilot wanted to take a photographer from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans to snap photographs of the oil slicks blackening the water. The response from a BP contractor who answered the phone late last month at the command center was swift and absolute: Permission denied.
“We were questioned extensively. Who was on the aircraft? Who did they work for?” recalled Rhonda Panepinto, who owns Southern Seaplane with her husband, Lyle. “The minute we mentioned media, the answer was: ‘Not allowed.’ ”
Journalists struggling to document the impact of the oil rig explosion have repeatedly found themselves turned away from public areas affected by the spill, and not only by BP and its contractors, but by local law enforcement, the Coast Guard and government officials.
To some critics of the response effort by BP and the government, instances of news media being kept at bay are just another example of a broader problem of officials’ filtering what images of the spill the public sees.
Scientists, too, have complained about the trickle of information that has emerged from BP and government sources. ...
Officials at BP and the government entities coordinating the response said instances of denying news media access have been anomalies, and they pointed out that the company and the government have gone to great lengths to accommodate the hundreds of journalists who have traveled to the gulf to cover the story.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A BP contractor answers the phone at the Coast Guard office?
“Make no mistake, we’ve been in charge since Day One,” Zero.
BP has no power to stop the media from investigating, flying over, taking pictures, etc. Unless, of course, the Obama Administration is giving them cover.
I have heard from a family friend in LA that it is so much worst than anything shown on the media and that the rest of the U.S. isn’t getting the true picture. If the media was worth its salt, they would find a way to fly over or take pictures where they aren’t allowed to be. Isn’t that called Investigative Journalism? The WH is getting flack so they are keeping it more covered up. I predict in the next 6-12 months a “scientific report” will be released showing the gulf is more healthy and all is well. Yeah, right.
I’m waiting for Sean Penn to show up and investigate.
What we have seen (or permitted to see) so far is probably just the tip of the ice berg.
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