Throwing the Gulf States under the Bus

The main thing that I like about columnist Paul Mulshine is not only that he writes exactly what he thinks, but that he thinks before he writes. His research is not too shabby either. That makes his columns very interesting, even if I don’t always agree with his views.

Today, he wrote about a subject dear to my heart: The media and White House abandonment (read: Barack Obama) of the states along the Gulf of Mexico, as soon as a temporary fix was found to plug the out-of-control underwater oil spill.

We all know that BP took short cuts that it should never have taken, and that the spill was most likely a direct result of BP’s failure to employ conservative drilling techniques.

But we also know that day-in and day-out, no one could turn on a TV news station without seeing those infernal underwater cameras showing oil gushing out into the Gulf, as hundreds of people who were given little credit worked 24/7 to fix the problem.

When the well was eventually capped, albeit temporarily, news crews were called off assignment, and coverage came to a near dead halt. Staff from fickle media outlets quickly packed their bags and shifted their attention to other matters. Should it be any wonder then, that Americans don’t trust many of the media outlets to report accurately and consistently any longer?

Today, the swimming beaches are largely clean, and nature is doing its job in restoring Gulf waters to their pre-spill condition. BP is still sending out planes over the Gulf in search of large oil formations which it can no longer find: Media outlets are not reporting on that. Yet shrimp boats have returned to the waters and fisheries are being restored.

Nevertheless, scores of large and small businesses along the Gulf States are still bearing the economic brunt of previous negative media reporting that permeated the air waves and of the quick exodus of journalists from the scene once the well was capped.

Meanwhile, there are few reports of the current situation from the media or the White House, just a weekend visit from the president where, according to Mulshine, “instead of visiting the beaches,” Obama “posed for a picture in a cove in a back bay behind a luxury Marriott hotel.”