BP: Beyond Pollution, Part 3--Spinning The Spill

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While what remains of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig owned by BP is still spewing out tons and tons of the black stuff into the Gulf of Mexico, more toxic sludge of the verbal kind is being created in Washington and on your video screen.

At congressional hearings last week, leaders of the major oil companies who are not BP were trotted out like the leaders of tobacco companies and Wall Street financial firms before them.  And they all said that, had the spill happened on their watch, they would have handled the cleanup better than BP has so far.

Next came BP's CEO Tony Hayward, who cemented his reputation as a man who still has no idea what hit him by giving bland answers to the committee's questions.  Then Hayward spent the weekend sailing.

Let's pause here to remind one and all that televised congressional hearings are pretty much a dog-and-pony show for your entertainment.  The really interesting stuff takes place either behind closed doors or in a court of law, where the media is usually not allowed.

Having said that, something truly amazing came from the mouth of Republican congressman Joe Barton of Texas.  He apologized to BP by characterizing their agreement with the White House to set aside $20 billion for a cleanup fund  as a "shakedown", as if President Barack Obama were a loan shark and his staff were a bunch of Chicago gangsters.  Horrified GOP leaders forced Barton to apologize for the apology.

But Barton's sentiments are shared by a number of prominent conservatives, including radio commentator Rush Limbaugh and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.  And then there's Minnesota's own Michele Bachmann, the quote machine that just won't stop even when she should.  The Republican congresswoman has called the cleanup fund "extortion", and has been quoted in the Washington Post as saying that, had she been running BP, "(w)e're not going to be chumps, and we're not going to be fleeced".

Democrat Tarryl Clark, who's running against Bachmann in the Sixth District, didn't miss the opportunity to use the incumbent's defense of BP in a TV ad currently airing on Twin Cities stations.

BP is running its own charm offensive with ads featuring Hayward telling us how sorry he is about the spill, and pledges to "make it right" for the wildlife and Gulf residents affected.  However, they're not helping their already damaged reputation by (a) restricting media access to the spill site, and (b) purchasing space on search engines such as Google so that all queries about the oil leak lead to BP's website.  It's as if the company is trying to own the story.

Try spinning this:  Eleven dead in the Deepwater Horizon blast.  Oil washing ashore from Louisiana to Florida (and possibly beyond).  Wildlife doused in toxic muck.  People who work in seafood and tourism can't make a living.  We can't break our addiction to oil.  Government can only do so much.  And BP and other oil companies will be rolling in the dough no matter what happens.