"BP thinks it's their ocean"

Just following up on something I wrote at the end of an earlier post. I mentioned that I heard WWL reporters talking about Coast Guard officials witholding video of the oil leak apparently at BP's request. Here's the CBS report that verifies that statement.

Earlier Wednesday, (Congressman Ed)Markey demanded the broadcast so independent scientists could more accurately calculate the flow rate. He questioned why such data wasn't readily being made public.

"BP thinks it's their ocean," Markey said while chairing a House Energy and Environment Subcommittee hearing Wednesday.

Markey didn't stop with BP, reports CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. He blasted the Coast Guard for what he described as letting BP call the shots.

Coast Guard officials were on a boat with BP contractors who stopped CBS News cameras from viewing an oily beach, and the Coast Guard - which is in charge of the investigation - admits it's had access to live video since Day One but wouldn't let Congress or the public see it, Attkisson reports.

This I wanted to pair with another story I shared in the same post about Coast Guard officers threatening to arrest reporters, again apparently on BP's orders, for attempting to film oil coming ashore in South Pass. I thought those two stories were jaw-dropping examples of the kind of power we've allowed corporate giants like BP to wield in our current climate of laissez-faire lawlessness.

But somehow I managed to obscure that point by shoving it in at the bottom of a messy post with a picture of a funny cake at the top.

Update: Just to demonstrate that I'm not the only genius around, C&L pairs the exact same stories in a similar post but writes more effectively about it.

Hold the phone...BP is making the rules???? Kind of hard to argue that we aren't a full-blown corporatocracy, when BP--that's British Petroleum--is leading the United States Coast Guard on this--and this is okay with a branch of our armed forces.

The British Petroleum are coming. We tried to send down General Jackson to stop them but he was already on their payroll.