Media limited to two 15-min. trips per day to Fourchon Beach, under supervision

[highplainsdem]

From this blog on the Boston Globe's website

http://boston.com/community/blogs/gatekeeper/2010/05/confusion_secrecy_and_lies_bli.html

all of which is worth reading, though much of it refers to stories already mentioned here in other topics.

The info from the reporter at The Daily Comet hasn't been, AFAIK.

And there were reliable reports that BP and local law enforcement officials were blocking photographers and reporters from documenting the effects of the oil spill. Mac McClelland of Mother Jones wrote a grimly amusing first-person account of being turned away from Louisiana’s Elmer’s Island. Newsweek reported “news photographers are complaining that their efforts to document the slow-motion disaster in the Gulf of Mexico are being thwarted by local and federal officials — working with BP — who are blocking access to the sites where the effects of the spill are most visible.”

I got an e-mail from Lloyd Nelson, a reporter who works for the The Daily Comet in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, a few minutes ago.

I’ve been on Fourchon Beach and Grand Ise Beach to see the brown oil wash upon the shore. It looks like a very thick brownie mix.

The trips to the beach have been heavily monitored by the parish government, supposedly at the request of BP. I’ve tried to verify that with BP, but their unified command center is only unified in avoiding answering any question a reporter might have. It’s frustrating.

Media has been regulated to two trips per day to Fourchon Beach. The trips, 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., last approximately 15 minutes and are always under the supervision of a sheriff’s deputy and a parish official.

And trying to get the cleanup crews, the guys raking oily sand into clumps and throwing it into a clear plastic bag, to talk is futile. BP apparently said that’s a no go. Those guys won’t even admit that they’re raking oily sand, let alone give a name for a photo cutline.

[PM Martin]

1. And yet another example of

law 'enforcement' taking the side of corporations.
As I once said, I respect freedom too much to have ever gone into law enforcement.

[AlinPA]

2. I wouldn't care if the assholes from Fox, CNN and MSNBC had trouble getting there. nt

[CanonRay]

3. Why would anyone in law enforcement assist BP

in this? This is their home, too. If I were a county sheriff, I'd tell BP to go to hell. Also, why don't the reporters charter a boat, there's a thousand of them just sitting in the dock.

[Festivito]

7. And, why isn't such law enforcement becoming itself the news?

That sheriff needs to be on record and then in court.

[blindpig]

8. BP has written a lot of checks down there for quite a while.

They own whatever they feel necessary. Local governments are likely dependent upon them.

This is what capitalism does, use it's money power to insure that the income flow is not disrupted, at whatever cost to anyone except the stockholders.

[nashville_brook]

4. amazing that there's DUers advocating this. outrageous.

[awoke_in_2003]

5. some Freedom of the Press...

the Constitution is SOOO 18th century :sarcasm:

[GeorgeGist]

6. Assuming these reports are true ...

the cover up can't possibly succeed.