08-07-2010, 05:35 AM
Just in case you thought the Government worked for the People and not the Corporations....let me set you 'straight'.....
AMY GOODMAN: As we continue on the BP issue, covering BP’s massive oil spill disaster has been a challenge for journalists given the numerous restrictions placed by BP and in many cases, local law enforcement and federal officials. But reporting on the spill and the clean-up efforts just got even harder.
Last week the Coast Guard put new restrictions in place across the Gulf Coast that prevent the public–including photographers and reporters covering the BP oil spill–from coming within 65 feet of any response vessels or booms on the water or on beaches. According to a news release from the Unified Command, violation of the "safety zone" rules can result in a civil penalty of up to $40,000, and could be classified as a Class D felony, which carries one to five years in prison.
Appearing at a White House press briefing last week, Admiral Thad Allen defended the new rule.
ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN: It is not unusual at all for the Coast Guard to establish or safety zones around any number of facilities or activities for public safety and the safety of the equipment itself. We would do this for marine events, fireworks demonstrations, cruise ships going in and out of port.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Right, but we are so far into this disaster why do it now?
ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN: I have actually had some personal complaints from some County Commissioners in Florida and some other local mayors that thought there is a chance someone would get hurt or have a problem with the boom itself-–had not presented itself before but when presented with it, it was the logical thing to do.
AMY GOODMAN: The new restriction has incensed journalists trying report from the Gulf who would now need special permission to get within 65 feet of the beaches or the booms. This is CNN’s Anderson Cooper reacting to the latest barrier imposed on the media.
ANDERSON COOPER: Keeping prying eyes out of marshes, away from booms, off the beaches is now government policy. When asked why now after all this time, that Allen said he had gotten some complaints from local officials worried people might get hurt. We do not know who these officials are, we’d like to. Transparency is apparently not a high priority with Thad Allen 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 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 to their communities. We’re not the enemy here. Those of us down here trying to accurately show what is happening, we are not the enemy. I have not heard of any journalist who has disrupted relief efforts. No journalist wants to be seen slowed down the cleanup effort or made things worse. If a Coast Guard official asked me to move, I’d move. But to create a blanket rule that everybody has to stay 65 feet away from boom or boats, that does not sound like transparency. Frankly, is a lot like in Katrina when they tried to make it impossible to see recovery efforts to people who died in their homes. If we can’t show what is happening warts and all, no one will see whats happening. 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’re not the enemy here.
AMY GOODMAN: CNN’s Anderson Cooper on the new rule preventing journalists getting close to the oil covered beaches. Well last night, Anjali Kamat reached another journalist who has been reporting from the gulf for the past week, Mac McClelland of Mother Jones Magazine. This was her response to the new rule.
MAC McCLELLAND: Well its obviously a complete reversal from everything the Coast Guard has been telling us so far, right, that its total transparency, media can go wherever they want. That is already not true obviously, as everyone who is on the ground has been experiencing, but it is also strange that they’re saying that the reason they had to implement this rule is because local authorities are saying that they wanted it. And local authorities down here are denying that wildly. They’re saying they didn’t have anything to do with it, they didn’t know who said, it has nothing to do with them. It is hard see any reason for that happening other then trying to keep media access away, which is what they say they haven’t been trying to do this whole time.
ANJALI KAMAT: Mac, you were one of the first reporters to sound the alarm about the restrictions on the press, trying to report on the oil spill disaster. Describe some of the incidents and the level of cooperation between BP and local and federal law enforcement officials, even before this new ruling by the Coast Guard.
MAC McCLELLAND: My problems with access go back more than a month now. So there are roadblocks that are manned by sheriff’s deputies in any place that could be blocked off by a road. And places that you can’t block road access, where there are just open beaches, there are private security contractors telling people they have to leave. There are cleanup workers who are telling people they can’t go through. I have been kicked off several public beaches and wildlife preserves. I have been told by plenty of sheriff’s deputies they’re just doing their job, and that they don’t have any control over it because BP is mandating that they are supposed to keep people away. So there is no lack of instances—even on video, there was a local reporter went down here who went to Grand Isle and there were private security contractors telling him he wasn’t allowed on this beach and he wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone on this beach, which of course the ACLU and plenty of other people have pointed out is a violation of First Amendment rights. But no amount of lip service that the Obama Administration or the Coast Guard was paying to this issue of access is making any difference and now that they have actually banned it, I cannot imagine how much harder it is going to get.
ANJALI KAMAT: Mac, is this ban going to stop you from going near the cleanup sites, doing your job as a reporter?
MAC McCLELLAND: I am hoping that if I get arrested, which I really hope won’t happen, somebody will bail me out with that $40,000 fine. Yeah, that’s what I’m here to do, that’s what everybody who is down here is here to do. We can’t just stop working because the Coast Guard has said that we need to stay away from these various sites. And at this point there seems to be so little oversight of not just the spill itself, but of the cleanup operations, that the press is one of the only things that we have keeping an eye on this at this point.
AMY GOODMAN: Mother Jones reporter Mac McClelland via Democracy Now! video stream from New Orleans. Well for more on this story, I’m joined for just a minute now from northern Minnesota by independent journalist Georgianne Nienaber who has also been reporting from the Gulf Coast for the past several weeks. Her reports and photographs are available on Huffington Post. One of her latest posts is called "Facing the Future as a Media Felon on the Gulf Coast." Georgianne, we welcome you to "DEMOCRACY NOW!" Talk about your experience being stalked by private security company.
GEORGIANNE NIENABER: Well, the most egregious I think was when I was on Grand Bayou with Rosina Philippe, I think you interviewed her too before. And we were simply taking a tour of Grand Bayou when Louisiana wildlife officials stopped our vessel—and insisted that we wear life vests, which are required if you are in less than a 16 foot boat. And when the official saw my camera, he said put it away, no pictures. It clearly felt more than their concern for our safety, it was a message that we’re not to be taking pictures down there.
AMY GOODMAN: You have said these restrictions remind you of working in The Congo.
GEORGIANNE NIENABER: Absolutely. I find myself before I plan to go back down to the Delta thinking how am I going to get access to places? How am I going to to hide my camera, how am I going to hide my film? What will I do if somebody demands I open my camera? And I never working in this country have had that feeling, and its really terrible feeling I’ll tell you that.
AMY GOODMAN:Georgianne Nienaber, thank you for joining us. We will continue to pursue this line in the next few days, looking at the crackdown on journalists in The Gulf. Thank you for joining us.
AMY GOODMAN: As we continue on the BP issue, covering BP’s massive oil spill disaster has been a challenge for journalists given the numerous restrictions placed by BP and in many cases, local law enforcement and federal officials. But reporting on the spill and the clean-up efforts just got even harder.
Last week the Coast Guard put new restrictions in place across the Gulf Coast that prevent the public–including photographers and reporters covering the BP oil spill–from coming within 65 feet of any response vessels or booms on the water or on beaches. According to a news release from the Unified Command, violation of the "safety zone" rules can result in a civil penalty of up to $40,000, and could be classified as a Class D felony, which carries one to five years in prison.
Appearing at a White House press briefing last week, Admiral Thad Allen defended the new rule.
ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN: It is not unusual at all for the Coast Guard to establish or safety zones around any number of facilities or activities for public safety and the safety of the equipment itself. We would do this for marine events, fireworks demonstrations, cruise ships going in and out of port.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Right, but we are so far into this disaster why do it now?
ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN: I have actually had some personal complaints from some County Commissioners in Florida and some other local mayors that thought there is a chance someone would get hurt or have a problem with the boom itself-–had not presented itself before but when presented with it, it was the logical thing to do.
AMY GOODMAN: The new restriction has incensed journalists trying report from the Gulf who would now need special permission to get within 65 feet of the beaches or the booms. This is CNN’s Anderson Cooper reacting to the latest barrier imposed on the media.
ANDERSON COOPER: Keeping prying eyes out of marshes, away from booms, off the beaches is now government policy. When asked why now after all this time, that Allen said he had gotten some complaints from local officials worried people might get hurt. We do not know who these officials are, we’d like to. Transparency is apparently not a high priority with Thad Allen 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 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 to their communities. We’re not the enemy here. Those of us down here trying to accurately show what is happening, we are not the enemy. I have not heard of any journalist who has disrupted relief efforts. No journalist wants to be seen slowed down the cleanup effort or made things worse. If a Coast Guard official asked me to move, I’d move. But to create a blanket rule that everybody has to stay 65 feet away from boom or boats, that does not sound like transparency. Frankly, is a lot like in Katrina when they tried to make it impossible to see recovery efforts to people who died in their homes. If we can’t show what is happening warts and all, no one will see whats happening. 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’re not the enemy here.
AMY GOODMAN: CNN’s Anderson Cooper on the new rule preventing journalists getting close to the oil covered beaches. Well last night, Anjali Kamat reached another journalist who has been reporting from the gulf for the past week, Mac McClelland of Mother Jones Magazine. This was her response to the new rule.
MAC McCLELLAND: Well its obviously a complete reversal from everything the Coast Guard has been telling us so far, right, that its total transparency, media can go wherever they want. That is already not true obviously, as everyone who is on the ground has been experiencing, but it is also strange that they’re saying that the reason they had to implement this rule is because local authorities are saying that they wanted it. And local authorities down here are denying that wildly. They’re saying they didn’t have anything to do with it, they didn’t know who said, it has nothing to do with them. It is hard see any reason for that happening other then trying to keep media access away, which is what they say they haven’t been trying to do this whole time.
ANJALI KAMAT: Mac, you were one of the first reporters to sound the alarm about the restrictions on the press, trying to report on the oil spill disaster. Describe some of the incidents and the level of cooperation between BP and local and federal law enforcement officials, even before this new ruling by the Coast Guard.
MAC McCLELLAND: My problems with access go back more than a month now. So there are roadblocks that are manned by sheriff’s deputies in any place that could be blocked off by a road. And places that you can’t block road access, where there are just open beaches, there are private security contractors telling people they have to leave. There are cleanup workers who are telling people they can’t go through. I have been kicked off several public beaches and wildlife preserves. I have been told by plenty of sheriff’s deputies they’re just doing their job, and that they don’t have any control over it because BP is mandating that they are supposed to keep people away. So there is no lack of instances—even on video, there was a local reporter went down here who went to Grand Isle and there were private security contractors telling him he wasn’t allowed on this beach and he wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone on this beach, which of course the ACLU and plenty of other people have pointed out is a violation of First Amendment rights. But no amount of lip service that the Obama Administration or the Coast Guard was paying to this issue of access is making any difference and now that they have actually banned it, I cannot imagine how much harder it is going to get.
ANJALI KAMAT: Mac, is this ban going to stop you from going near the cleanup sites, doing your job as a reporter?
MAC McCLELLAND: I am hoping that if I get arrested, which I really hope won’t happen, somebody will bail me out with that $40,000 fine. Yeah, that’s what I’m here to do, that’s what everybody who is down here is here to do. We can’t just stop working because the Coast Guard has said that we need to stay away from these various sites. And at this point there seems to be so little oversight of not just the spill itself, but of the cleanup operations, that the press is one of the only things that we have keeping an eye on this at this point.
AMY GOODMAN: Mother Jones reporter Mac McClelland via Democracy Now! video stream from New Orleans. Well for more on this story, I’m joined for just a minute now from northern Minnesota by independent journalist Georgianne Nienaber who has also been reporting from the Gulf Coast for the past several weeks. Her reports and photographs are available on Huffington Post. One of her latest posts is called "Facing the Future as a Media Felon on the Gulf Coast." Georgianne, we welcome you to "DEMOCRACY NOW!" Talk about your experience being stalked by private security company.
GEORGIANNE NIENABER: Well, the most egregious I think was when I was on Grand Bayou with Rosina Philippe, I think you interviewed her too before. And we were simply taking a tour of Grand Bayou when Louisiana wildlife officials stopped our vessel—and insisted that we wear life vests, which are required if you are in less than a 16 foot boat. And when the official saw my camera, he said put it away, no pictures. It clearly felt more than their concern for our safety, it was a message that we’re not to be taking pictures down there.
AMY GOODMAN: You have said these restrictions remind you of working in The Congo.
GEORGIANNE NIENABER: Absolutely. I find myself before I plan to go back down to the Delta thinking how am I going to get access to places? How am I going to to hide my camera, how am I going to hide my film? What will I do if somebody demands I open my camera? And I never working in this country have had that feeling, and its really terrible feeling I’ll tell you that.
AMY GOODMAN:Georgianne Nienaber, thank you for joining us. We will continue to pursue this line in the next few days, looking at the crackdown on journalists in The Gulf. Thank you for joining us.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass