Oil Spill Pictures, the Coast Guard, and the First Amendment. A New Excuse for the 65-foot “Safety Zone.”
The government has changed its excuse for the 65-foot “safety zone” announced by the Coast Guard this week. The new excuse? Vandalism. Yes, you read it correctly. Vandalism. It seems strange that Admiral Thad Allen didn’t mention vandalism when he announced the “safety zone.” But the Coast Guard changed its story after an outcry from the media and the public accusing the Coast Guard of trying to prevent oil spill pictures and accurate reporting on the oil spill clean up. People who venture inside the “safety zone” are subject to a $40,000 fine and a Class D felony conviction.
Oil spill pictures suggest a cover-up on Grande Isle – sand being used to cover up the oil.
Grande Isle, Louisiana – July 2, 2010 – Karen Dalton Beninato, writing at NewOrleans.com, asks the question, “Are Grand Isle’s oiled beaches being covered up with sand?” An oil spill picture she took Monday appears to show a dump truck dumping sand on the beach at Grande Isle. She wasn’t actually allowed to go onto the beach: access to the beach depended upon being taken there by an escort, and the escort happened to be “too busy.” That’s a shame, because Monday was the last day for civilians to walk the beach for a while without fear of being arrested, charged with a felony, and fined $40,000.
Oil spill pictures taken within 65 feet of animals, workers and equipment may be history.
U.S. Coast Guard announces ban on civilians near oil spill. Would someone please tell me when the First Amendment was repealed?
U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen yesterday announced a ban on members of the public, including members of the media, coming within 65 feet of boats and oil boom. The ban was allegedly put in place at the behest of local governmental officials. Allen said the ban was necessary for security and safety reasons–that officials were afraid someone would get hurt. It seems more likely that Allen and his “partner” BP were worried about someone getting criticized because of heart-wrenching oil spill pictures than they are that someone will get hurt. So far, the only injuries that I can recall hearing about on the Gulf Coast are injuries to workers breathing BP’s toxic oil and dispersant fumes without respirators (which are banned by BP). [click to continue…]
Something is seriously wrong in our country. British Petroleum has thrown a media blackout over the Gulf Coast, with the apparent complicity of some in our federal and local governments. We are now 51 days into the oil spill disaster, and BP still has such a stranglehold on access to the Gulf that only a few pictures have trickled out of the area. We’ve posted a few pictures of animals in the oil spill, but there haven’t been many of those pictures available for people to see. And the lack of photographs is the direct result of BP’s shutdown of the media. [click to continue…]
You probably don’t want to watch these oil spill pictures with your children. This video contains very graphic oil spill images showing the effects of the Gulf oil spill on wildlife of the area. Associated Press photographers have combined their oil spill images into this video that shows exactly what is happening to the birds of the Gulf. Here’s the oil spill video:
We have the oil spill videos BP doesn’t want you to see – Images of animals coated with oil from the BP oil leak are beginning to appear, and they show the heartbreaking consequences of BP’s gushing leak in the Gulf. These pictures are coming out in spite of a concerted effort by British Petroleum to prevent such images from reaching the American public. You might call these the “forbidden oil spill videos.” Anderson Cooper released the following video of birds soaked in oil:
The Associated Press released another video of Gulf Coast birds soaked in oil, and it shows what words cannot convey. Watching it makes it clear why British Petroleum was doing everything in its power to keep the media away from the shoreline and the site of the oil spill. A videographer who works for BPOilNews.com was prevented from filming weeks ago by BP security personnel in Venice, Louisiana. Mother Jones has reported that it was barred from taking photographs of dead animals. But slowly, images of oil-soaked birds and dead animals are beginning to leak through the BP wall, and they show Americans what British Petroleum so badly doesn’t want us to see. The statistics on dead animals is already alarming: 444 dead birds, 222 dead sea turtles, and 24 mammals (including dolphins).
Here’s an Associated Press oil spill video of Gulf Coast birds soaked in oil.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9-k9UhAjgY
If you have pictures or video of the oil spill and/or animals affected by the oil, please share them with our readers at the BPOilNews Facebook page. For frequent updates of Gulf oil spill news, follow us on Twitter @BPOilNews. [click to continue…]
