News & Supplemental  

Trouble on Oiled Waters, Pt. 2

Com­ment: BP has bought the Google and Yahoo search words rel­e­vant to research­ing the oil spill in the Gulf of Mex­ico, with the intent of redi­rect­ing searches for the pur­poses of dam­age control.

“BP buys Google, Yahoo Search Words to Keep Peo­ple away from Real News on Gulf Oil Spill Disaster“by Maryann Tobin; examiner.com;  6/6/2010.

Excerpt: In their most tena­cious effort to con­trol the ‘spin’ on the worst oil spill dis­as­ter in the his­tory, BP has pur­chased top inter­net search engine words so they can re-direct peo­ple away from real news on the Deep­wa­ter Hori­zon catastrophe.

BP spokesman Toby Odone con­firmed to ABC News that the oil giant had in fact bought inter­net search terms. So now when some­one searches the words ‘oil spill’,  on the inter­net, the top link will re-direct  them to BP’s offi­cial com­pany website. . . .

Per­haps they are look­ing to avoid cov­er­age indi­cat­ing that the dis­as­ter was due to inex­cus­able cor­po­rate error, as appears to be the case.

“Rig Sur­vivors: BP Ordered Short­cut on Day of Blast” By Scott Bron­stein and Wayne Drash; CNN; 6/8/2010.

Excerpt: The morn­ing the Deep­wa­ter Hori­zon oil rig exploded, a BP exec­u­tive and a Transocean offi­cial argued over how to pro­ceed with the drilling, rig sur­vivors told CNN’s Ander­son Cooper in an exclu­sive interview.

The sur­vivors’ account paints per­haps the most detailed pic­ture yet of what hap­pened on the deep­wa­ter rig — and the pos­si­ble causes of the April 20 explosion.

The BP offi­cial wanted work­ers to replace heavy mud, used to keep the well’s pres­sure down, with lighter sea­wa­ter to help speed a process that was cost­ing an esti­mated $750,000 a day and was already run­ning five weeks late, rig sur­vivors told CNN.

BP won the argu­ment, said Doug Brown, the rig’s chief mechanic. “He basi­cally said, ‘Well, this is how it’s gonna be.’ ”

“That’s what the big argu­ment was about,” added Daniel Bar­ron III.

Shortly after the exchange, chief driller Dewey Revette expressed con­cern and oppo­si­tion too, the work­ers said, and on the drilling floor, they chat­ted among themselves.

“I don’t ever remem­ber doing this,” they said, accord­ing to Barron.

“I think that’s why Dewey was so reluc­tant to try to do it,” Bar­ron said, “because he didn’t feel it was the right way to have things done.” . . .

Discussion

No comments for “Trouble on Oiled Waters, Pt. 2”

Post a comment