BP & government authorities collude to suppress reality of oil spill

[Karmadillo]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/cens-j11.shtml

BP and government authorities collude to suppress reality of oil spill
By David Walsh
11 June 2010

Numerous media accounts confirm that oil giant BP, in collusion with the Obama administration and various federal agencies, is attempting to block information about the extent of the damage wreaked on the Gulf Coast and other areas.

The New York Times reported Wednesday (“Efforts to Limit the Flow of Spill News”) that “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.”

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Essentially, BP and the authorities are trying to suppress information about the oil spill just as the US military, with the complicity of the American media, has done in Iraq and Afghanistan. From Vietnam came images of wounded and dying soldiers, which had a significant impact on public opinion; from the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, notes Newsweek magazine, “pictures of dead otters, fish, and birds, as well as oil-covered shorelines, ignited nationwide outrage and led to a backlash against Exxon.” The Pentagon and the corporate elite have learned a simple lesson: by whatever means necessary, prevent the population from learning the truth.

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The stories go on and on, underscoring, on the one hand, the determination of BP to conceal the catastrophe by suppressing images of the spill on land and sea. Financial questions are at the heart of this. The extent of the devastation has a bearing on the immediate fate of BP’s share price, as well as the amount of the damages eventually levied against the oil giant.

On the other hand, the collusion of the Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Aviation Administration and other institutions with the censorship efforts of a private corporation reveals something about the character of the Obama administration and all levels of the government in the US: they are entirely subservient to the interests of big business and equally hostile to the interests of the American population.

[boston bean]

1. before you get attacked for using wsws here is the NYT article that lays it out there

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/us/10access.html?hp

[Karmadillo]

2. Thanks for the addtional link.

nt

[blindpig]

3. k&r

Government is the crowd control subsidiary of Capital.

[ellenfl]

4. i am going to continue to believe that our gummint is

trying to keep bp from declaring bankruptcy and screwing us all.

ellen fl