Oil company, law enforcement block media access to public sites hit by Michigan oil spill.

[cal04]

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/08/02/michigan-spill-media/

Since Enbridge Inc.’s disastrous pipeline leak gushed 1 million gallons of oil into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River last week, reports suggest that Enbridge officials and law enforcement are blocking the media from public spill sites. The Michigan Messenger reports that yesterday evening, its journalists were denied access — again — “to a key oil spill site after attempting to record video of the Kalamazoo River.” A wildlife group is also reporting similar findings from its volunteers. The Michigan Messenger’s Todd Heywood elaborates:

However, when Messenger arrived at the site a security officer working for Enbridge approached and said no media was allowed. Messenger requested to speak to the Calhoun County Deputy Sheriff who was at the site. That deputy cleared Messenger’s request with an official from Enbridge, but they would only allow the filming of 30 seconds of video. During the time Messenger was waiting to speak to the deputy, a citizen video crew approached, and was turned back by the security officer.

These reports mirror similar problems involving BP’s oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Although BP COO Doug Suttles called such reports “untrue,” numerous media reports documented BP’s efforts to block journalists from covering the oil spill and speaking with clean-up workers.

[truebrit71]

1. WTF is going on here? Think the M$M will cover this?

Or should I just go fuck myself whilst I wait..:eyes:

We are soooooooooooooo fucked...

[flyarm]

2. welcome to our world on the Gulf!! who owns our country? yeah we know! eom

[blindpig]

3. It is all of a piece

The Gulf, fracking, the Michigan spill, the wretched health care bill, the phony financial reform bill, wars that never end and more in the wings, the bank bail out while workers go begging......

Kill Capitalism

[localroger]

4. The cure for this: even cheaper and more ubiquitous UAV's

When the video crew can park a few miles up the road and send a two foot wide aircraft in to do their filming these authoritarian fucks will have a major uphill battle on their hands. The systems exist but are still rare, expensive, and risky to use. But the trend is that within a few years anybody who can operate a joystick will be able to get remote video with a good chance of recovering the aircraft too, and the aircraft won't be all that expensive. In fact the trend is that eventually the aircraft will be so small that they will be quite hard to notice, which could be a bad thing in other ways. But this whole "keeping the journalists off the beach" thing isn't going to work for much longer.

[femrap]

5. Just another example

of our Corporate Fascist Police State.

[AlabamaLibrul]

6. I thought this was a "mistake" just weeks ago here on the Gulf? (eom)

[wuvuj]

7. You have a country with at least 2 wars going on...

...now the "war mentality" comes home? Homeland Security is an occupation force? We have been invaded by the top 400 families.

But don't speak up too loudly...they have your GPS coordinates and can send a UAV to blow you up. Or do a sneak and peek. Engage a stalker group to harass you? Maybe you get blacklisted...graylisted? Kicked out of the meritocracy? You end up living under bridges....sneaking through alleys. You have been banished.