Author’s note: I recently spoke with a friend who used to work with the New York Times and I was told, “don’t go there and get the hell out of FL…ASAP.” Not sure what she meant by that…
Excerpt:
Reporters and photographers are reporting numerous incidents where they have been prohibited from approaching areas where oil has fouled Gulf beaches and have been prevented from taking photos or gathering enough information to publish reports.
BP clean up workers have been forbidden from talking to the press. The incidents of BP officials and the U.S. Coast Guard barring reporters from recording the effects of the disaster have been recorded in mainstream media, and date as far back as the third week of May.
Who owns the Gulf coast, the American people or BP? One may be tempted to answer that the federal government owns it. Keep in mind, however, that all federal officials – elected, appointed or hired – supposedly work for the taxpayers that pay their salaries.
Apparently that is no longer the case in the corporatocracy known as the United States of America, because federal officials, police agencies and the U.S. Coast Guard seem to have pledged their allegiance to BP rather than the U.S. constitution and the American people.
At least the Obama administration has managed to plug one thing: the flow of information related to the oil disaster from the beaches of Gulf states. The ability to document a disaster, particularly through images, is key to focusing the nation’s attention on it, and the resulting clean-up efforts. Yet Americans are being denied this information.
Take, for example, this recent report that has been all-but buried in the sand: (get the links here).
While that may have been a long account of a relatively short-lived incident, it is indicative of the intimidation that journalists, especially free-lancers that are not part of the corporate media establishment, have been subjected to in the Gulf states since the BP oil disaster. I recently spoke with a friend who writes for a major publication and was told, “don’t even go there.” So,instead, I’ll just post a link to the top 20 photos that BP and the federal government do not want you to see here.
Normally, with a story like this, I would be lamenting the lack of corporate media coverage, but many mainstream news sources have reported that journalists and photographers are being denied access to the Gulf coast by BP, local law enforcement and federal officials.
Obviously, the U.S. Government and BP share the same interest – preventing the public from knowing the magnitude of the spill and the inadequacy of the clean-up efforts. What could possibly be happening in the Gulf of Mexico right now that is so drastic that BP and the federal government is willing to destroy our rights in order to protect their secrets?
The police state behavior of this, however, may be even more significant. In effect, BP, a British corporation, is now controlling American law enforcement officials and a branch of the U.S. military. It is impossible to know where government actions end and corporate actions begin because the line between them no longer exists.
Your rights as a free citizen have been obliterated in the past 10 years, and what is happening in the Gulf is a good example of that. America is on the verge of becoming a fascist corporatocracy that answers to the financial interests of huge corporations – at the expense of the freedoms and tax dollars of the people.
Read more, get links and video here: Madison Independent Examiner – BP turning Gulf Coast into corporate police states