Would these intrepid reporters be able to get this close under new government regulations?

Many pundits have finally picked up on what many of us have known since at least May.  Of course, to be fair, it was only BP themselves doing it then, which I guess is different.  Well, except for the fact that the rule was apparently being enforced by the Coast Guard which, if I recall, takes it orders from the President.  So it is possible that the government was involved in this crackdown for a lot longer, but now they’re just being public about it.

Even after everybody involved said it was a-ok for reporters to go in and do their jobs, some still found themselves blocked.  More than a month before CNN’s Anderson Cooper reported on a new law that would block reporters from going closer than 65 feet from a clean-up site, and fine them if they do, he filed a lengthy report about the efforts BP was taking to keep reporters from talking to clean-up crews.  There is also this report from New Orleans station WDSU, essentially giving the same story as Cooper’s report.  That crew even had to get the local sheriff involved.

In the cases involving BP-hired security guards, I can’t blame them.  They’re only doing what they’re paid to do.  But I would hope that BP is unhappy whenever this topic comes up, because it makes them look like they’re trying to hide the truth.

This is also true of government-imposed restrictions.  It doesn’t scream “transparency,” but in fact it bellows the opposite.  Now, I know that there are theories out there that the government is hoping to use this disaster to pass radical legislation banning oil drilling and imposing “green” initiatives.  However, if this is the case, surely a constant barrage of photo and video of oil-ridden beaches and animals would help to sway the emotions of the American public?  If this is the plan, the Obama administration ought to be cheerleading media access to the beaches, not restricting it.  Instead, they seem committed to secrecy.

Of course, any time the government is trying to restrict legitimate exercise of the free speech, it ought to be cause for alarm.  However, there is at least some circumstantial evidence (via Coast Guard involvement) that this has been going on for almost two months, either in parallel to or in collusion with BP.  This is nothing new, folks, so let’s not pretend it is.

P.S. It has not escaped my noticed that most of these incidents involving blocked media access, and reports about the actual conditions of the beaches, are coming out of Grand Isle, LA.  If you take a look at a map, Grand Isle is pretty much the first significantly habitable area where any oil would hit, though communities like Venice are actually closer to the spill’s source.