I find it very strange from a news judgment perspective that the USA Today (my former employer) home front is leading with the gays in the military story tonight while virtually every other major news web site and television broadcast is all over the oil spill events of the day. PBS, for instance, spent half of its newscast on the spill. Furthermore, as I drilled down into the USA Today site, I noticed the coverage hasn't been nearly as comprehensive as other major media sites have been in the last few weeks. Being that stories like this spill were what that national newspaper lived for in the past, I am baffled by USA Today's lack of coverage.
Here are a few observations about this ongoing story:
- CNN called out President Obama and BP for an entire hour on Anderson Cooper 360 tonight. It was startling to see what many right-wingers consider a liberal news organization catching Obama in several "gotcha" moments, as if Obama's middle initial was W. Cooper asked good questions and raised many excellent points about Obama and BP's failings in the last few weeks.
- Obama's press conference on Thursday was a bad performance. He didn't seem to have a firm grasp on the details like he usually does. He often contradicted himself. And the story about his daughter asking him about the oil leak while he was shaving was simply cheap and sappy. It was like he was groping for something to deflect the heat. I was disappointed in Obama's sense of command and I began to wonder for the first time whether Obama might be better at long-range, big-picture thinking, but not so good at dealing with a serious and immediate crisis. The lack of urgency he showed about addressing unemployment in his first year in office was inexcusable, but in that case he might have thought he had time to work on it. There was and continues to be no time to be wasted in this current environmental disaster. Not a single minute. Of course, some of the criticism Obama is taking is nothing more than political payback for the heat President Bush took for the feds' slow response to Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. So it's important to consider the source of the attacks on the current president.
- Is this oil spill going to ruin the Obama presidency? Everyone thought the health-care battle would jeopardize Obama's remaining years in the White House. The ongoing economic woes are certainly a major threat. But the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has the potential to turn even the most liberal people against Obama. It's beginning to look like a botched operation, and that's not sitting well with environmental groups like the Sierra Club. With Obama taking full responsibility for the operation to stop the leak, I am not so sure how forgiving people are going to be.
This situation is bound to get worse. We don't even know a fraction of the damage that has been done yet. This could linger well into the remaining years of Obama's first and maybe last term. His enemies are salivating over a chance to pin real blame on him for showing a lack of leadership. Of course, Republicans aren't exactly champions of environmental causes, so it's kind of ridiculous to hear conservatives all of a sudden worried about the deaths of brown pelicans and sea turtles. It is important to remember that these are the "drill baby drill" people.
It's also important for the media to do its job and stay on this story in the most objective and thorough way it can.
Even though I lived in South Louisiana for 15 years and I know the area that's being impacted by the spill well, I'm not joining the outraged chorus.
ReplyDeleteSure, I'm furious with BP and with the administration's amateurish response, but I take comfort in knowing they will both pay a price for their ineptitude in due time. BP will pay a financial price, while the administration will pay a political one.
The problem with a giant corporation like BP paying the bill is I know that bill will be eventually be sent to me in the form of higher prices for their goods.
Time will tell if BP has ruined the seafood industry of South Louisiana for years to come, but the economy down there is way more dependant on those offshore oil rigs than it is on shrimp and oysters.
If we go all reactionary by restricting future oil production in the Gulf, the economy of the Gulf states will suffer tremendously and, again, we'll all be forced to pay higher gas prices.
Nobody is going to win from this, no matter what the outcome. We all lose.
Personally, I'm outraged. I think everyone should be outraged. BP knew it had a problem before the explosion but chose to ignore it. And why is it that these oil companies can claim to have all the latest technological advances when it comes to drilling and yet can't prevent a disaster, especially of this magnitude? They absolutely are to blame, along with Halliburton and anyone else involved in the design, maintenance, and overall failure of this mess.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be great, as naive and idealistic as it is, if the government would make BP (and all involved companies) responsible for this disaster and be forbidden from passing on the costs to consumers, tax paying citizens, etc. They screwed up. They should be wholely accountable.
But of course, that won't happen. Our government is to beholden to corporations. It's not the govt. that's operating in our best interests.
I do agree we are all going to lose. Too many people, especially those in positions of money and power, take our Earth for granted. Yes, I'm a treehugger and proud of it. Without our oceans being clean and taken care, we would die. The oceans give us life as we know it. I think that should be reason enough for everyone to take better care of it and to be accountable for their abuses.