Alas, that seems not to include anyone from British Petroleum, Transoean or even the Obama Administration.

There are myriad questions to ask about who was and is to blame for the explosion that killed eleven and injured 17 and the subsequent oil spill that has sent nearly 100 million gallons of oil into the beautiful Gulf and is destroying everything in its murky path.

I’ve been seriously angered by the media coverage–or lack of same–of the Gulf oil spill which, on May 21, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar called the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.
TV is how the majority of Americans get their news. Plus, a video really is worth a thousand words. Would we have ever even known about Darfur, for example, without those TV images? 
 

So why has it taken 36 days for the TV coverage of this disaster to extend beyond  flyovers showing the breadth of the oil spill or close-ups of the oil invading the wetlands?

Start at the beginning.

 When the West Virginia mining disaster that killed 29 people happened in early April, every national news anchor was at the scene within 24 hours and stayed for days. Interviews were done with miners, families of miners and mining company executives. Viewers got to know how mining towns work, how miners and their families live, what drives communities based on the coal industry.

 The Obama Administration seemed to take its cue from the extended media coverage. President Obama even attended the memorial service held for the dead miners.

 Eleven people were killed in the Gulf oil rig explosion on April 20 and 17 others were seriously injured. In the first days after the explosion, there were searches for the missing and presumed dead riggers. That garnered some news attention, but not the media blitz of the mining disaster. There was no memorial service attended by the President. When that service was held May 24, neither the President nor Vice President were in attendance.  We only learned the names of the victims, their ages, and anything about their lives and their families on the day of the memorial.

Where was the media? We know as little now as we did on April 20 about what it is to be an oil rigger–widely considered to be one of the most dangerous jobs in the nation.
 

I remember quite distinctly ABC news anchor Diane Sawyer grilling mining execs about the WV tragedy. Where was the comparable reportage on the BP and Transocean execs responsible for the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history? Why the difference in coverage? She didn’t hit the Gulf until May 24–and then, only for a day.
 We’re not targeting Sawyer–other news anchors are equally to blame (Katie Couric went to the Gulf the same day Sawyer did, but stayed for two days)–but Sawyer does have the top newscast in the nation. She personally interviewed the families of so many miners. Why did it take her more than a month to speak to a single grieving family member of an oil rigger? The teams covering the Gulf disaster have mostly been third and fourth echelon reporters. Why?
 There are no ready answers, but news you’re not seeing is sometimes tantamount to a news coverup.

Yes, the Gulf oil spill is still a lead story on all national TV news outlets. But it’s the quality of that reporting that is in question. When oil washed up on a place where we used to spend Thanksgivings when we lived in the Gulf–Grande Isle–we thought our heart might just break.  And seeing the oil-coated pelicans and turtles. Ghastly.

What has been most horrifying, however, is seeing Pierre Cousteau, son of the noted Jacques Cousteau, diving in haz-mat gear and giving a play-by-play about what is happening beneath the surface of the water. If we think that this isn’t going to impact the nation and beyond for years to come, think again. When Louisiana’s Tea Party Gov. Bobby Jindal looks like an environmentalist compared with the Obama White House, something is amiss. 

 The cost to the nation from this oil spill is so extreme, it’s truly incalculable. Begin with the actual loss of life then move directly to the loss of ecosystems, the loss of fisheries, the loss of wetlands, the loss of an economy based on those things and you have not just an ecological disaster but a social, cultural and economic one as well. Whole communities along the Gulf rely on fishing, shrimping, trawling for oysters and crabs. It’s not just a way of life, it’s a matter of economic survival. And then there are the beach economies all along the Gulf where the oil slick and tar globs threaten to destroy yet another aspect of both the environment and the economy.
 

In the coming weeks the hurricanes and tropical storms will begin–hurricane season starts June 1–and when that happens, the oil will be tossed far and wide. There will be no containment–just a compounded disaster.

 The lies that have been told to America by BP, Transocean and our own government about what happened April 20 and what has happened since are so egregious, it’s breath-taking.

 So where is the investigative arm of the meida  in this disaster? 
 Their job is to bring us the story with immediacy and to investigate when and where it’s needed. No TV news outlet has done the job with the Gulf spill that it did with the mining disaster.

And if you think it only impacts those living in the Gulf, think again. When the seafood sources dry up, the entire national economy suffers. And that is only one small part of the story. If I can see it so clearly, Iwonder why the news anchors being paid millions can’t and why the President, who ran on his environmental credentials hasn’t been able to do more than just wag his finger sternly.

Today BP tries yet another attempt at capping the spill. We can all only pray that it works. But even if it does, the damage done thus far is simply beyond description. And one has to wonder at an Administration and a Congress so deaf to the concerns of those of us who love and value the Gulf.—VAB