Gee, libtards, maybe all that government-love ain't all that after all? Aren't you just so glad you voted for Mr. Hopeless and Chains?
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.
Didn’t somebody there take an oath to support and defend the Constitution?
Somebody?
Anybody?
Oh, I forgot.
He flubbed it...
“Secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy . . . censorship. When any government, or any Church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects “This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,” the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything-— you can’t conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.”
Robert A. Heinlein, Revolt in 2100
You have company. Sixty-five feet doesn't give you much room for maneuvering a boat if something goes wrong. That's all we need - a collision with possible deaths on top of everything else.
Art Bell only fills in on an occasional weekend. George Nory has been the mc for years. I don’t listen often, but once in a while a creditable guest will appear on the show. I don’t think this news is a laughing matter.
CRIME, INC has long hated the spot light of truth placed upon it......huh, Jack Squat Barry? IdiotPOTUS.... =.=
They are not hiding anything.
Nope.
Keep those narcissists out of the way. Safety is an issue. BP doesn't want to be sued by journalists or have them sucking money out of the $20 billion trust fund just because they are stupid enough to get too close.
I guess telephoto lenses are too expensive for the staff of major networks.
There have been a plethora of pictures of dead birds on the beaches already. Can't these 'news' agencies just use 'stock photos' like they have been doing for years and years? Like they did for the 'tea-party protests'? Like they do for politicians? A little photoshopping here, a little there, no one will notice the difference.
If they insist on actual photos of dead birds and oil on the beaches from THIS SPILL, I could provide them with links on the internet where there are tons of pictures that already have been taken. All they have to do is put them on 'the air'. I guess it's easier to blame BP and the CG for why you haven't put any pictures on your programs.
Security is an issue, because we don't need a bunch of un-marked, unidentified boats getting too close to the ships that are participating in the cleanup/containment efforts. That is how people end up getting hurt or killed.
Besides, the only time we would get any 'truth' from Anderson Cooper and the MSM is if they benefit in some way from revealing it.
Nice of Cooper and the MSM to try and 'get on board' with what the rest of the nation keeps seeing on the internet.
People, this is non-issue. 65 feet! That is approximately the distance from the street curb to the back of your house. Can't see? Get glasses.
I am an old guy. Obama needs to be impeached, tried for treason and sent to Gitmo to rot with his goat-humping muslim buddies. He’ll fit right in.
They can look all they want.
Anderson Cooper is just mad because he can't get an 'exclusive' on the islands.
BP had the same measures in place, now the CG is just supporting them with legal procedures.
Cooper admitted that they 'could' get closer to the islands if they got 'permission'. Apparently, he wants to whine because he doesn't think he should have to follow the same rules as everyone else.
He has the option of telephoto lenses or getting permission, and he refuses to do either.
What a whiny little metrosexual he is.
I know NFL PLACEKICKERS who would love to be within 65 feet of the goal. (that’s just a tad over 20 yards).
One can only conclude this government is totalitarian.
I agree that this should be a non-issue. 65 feet is close enough to take the pictures you need. Any closer you’d be interfering. Who do you think you are, Greenpeace?
Does anyone else ever remember a media blackout about anything except perhaps ongoing war battles? This is unAmerican and a violation of freedom of the press.
This has nothing to do with 'rights' of the Free Press. They are free to report whatever they want.
They are not allowed to get within 65 feet of booms or ships due to safety and security issues, unless they GET PERMISSION.
When there is a bomb in a building, the PRESS is not FREE to just walk in because they want a photo of the bomb.
AGAIN, NOTE that Cooper just doesn't think he should have to 'get permission'.
Should we allow reporters from an IRANIAN NEWSPAPER to just pull up to any of the ships around the well? Or ones working containment?
They are part of the FREE PRESS. Our government has already tried to make clear that PRESS all over the world have all the same rights.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: But we begin, as we do every night, “Keeping Them Honest”.
CUE AUDIENCE LAUGHTER.
Incoming rant:
Our own personal Achmed:
Don’t you get it DUffPo? The words, the speeches aren’t directed at you. The gladhanding is. The handshakes, the payoffs for your support, your votes and silence are. But the words and message aren’t for you.
Don’t you get it DUffPo? The astronomical spending, the ruinous regulations, Executive Order after Executive Order, the legislation passed in the middle of the night, the appointments of fellow travelers that appear to support the wholesale destruction of American in plain view: these efforts only provide the dark mirror you see reflecting your own hearts. But the goal’s not yours.
Don’t you get it DUffPo? The unemployment, welfare, SSI and other, short-term jobs just buy your silence, and keep you feed just long enough to smother you with illegal aliens. What was it that I heard from someone not three months ago? “We take your money. We take your women. We will take your land.”
Don’t you get it DUffPo? The failure of action that now leads to oil encroaching on America’s shores contrast sharply with the vast energy technologies and businesses pulling away.
Don’t you get it DUffPo? Health ‘care’ won’t have death panels: The disabled, derelict, diseased, discarded, dissenting. elderly, will simply not be covered up front, so they’ll not be in any group covered. Of course, the union members will be ‘exempt’ – for now, but they’ll be competing with those who are the actual targets of this ‘administration.’
Don’t you get it DUffPo? Your terminal adolescent opposition to authority merely sets the scene to play out your antagonism against your historical antithesis of conservatives. The players goad you on while they continue to push ahead with all things non-American. Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs—and research and technologies and weaponry and nuclear/oil/gas exploration are for people overseas. Anywhere else but here. And no one said they were.
Don’t you get it DUffPo? It’s not just America that’s supposed to die. It’s that Americans are. Your grandparents, your folks, your aunts and uncles. And, finally. You. Your rights, your freedoms, your liberties to post articles and methodically scream over opposition on cue simply take your energy while you perform the swan song in the death match.
America is the country so rich in natural resources and physical capacity that we can be completely self-reliant. All we need is dirt-cheap, uninformed, quiet, domesticated labor. Uninformed, technologically skilled in only a narrow pursuit, the ‘worker’ may not question and will obey, or, he will starve, freeze and thirst to death—by his own hand. No, DUffPo, you don’t want to confront your own demons, your relativistic worldview that praises saving and gaining the world, even though it not only costs you your souls, but also, your lives.
See Law of Eminent Domain.
See Parks in Arizona that have been CLOSED by the government due to infiltration by Mexican Ganglords.
Why do you think you have to pay TAX on your land?
I’d be happy to see Cooper and many other MSM puffpieces be allowed to monitor the work on the BOP from 65 feet, or less.
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