Have you Googled "oil spill" lately? Well if you have you may have discovered this amazing fact:
BP, the very company responsible for the oil spill that is already the worst in U.S. history, has purchased several phrases on search engines such as Google and Yahoo so that the first result that shows up directs information seekers to the company's official website.
A simple Google search of "oil spill" turns up several thousand news results, but the first link, highlighted at the very top of the page, is from BP. "Learn more about how BP is helping," the link's tagline reads.
A spokesman for the company confirmed to ABC News that it had, in fact, bought these search terms to make information on the spill more accessible to the public.
"We have bought search terms on search engines like Google to make it easier for people to find out more about our efforts in the Gulf and make it easier for people to find key links to information on filing claims, reporting oil on the beach and signing up to volunteer," BP spokesman Toby Odone told ABC News.
How many of you really believe that BP did this to "make it easier for people to find key links to information on filing claims"? Not very damn likely.
From the first moment that the oil started gushing into the Gulf, BP has done everything it could to keep the oil from reaching the surface and to hide just how much was flowing out of the broken pipe from being seen by the public.
It appears that rather than treat this as the disaster that is obviously is, BP has treated it as a public relations problem and have worked diligently to control the message. And this has included keeping reporters away from the beaches so that we the public cannot see just how much oil has washed up on them.
Well on that last point, just this weekend on the news program "This Week", Admiral Thad Allen, the former Coast Guard head who has been appointed the "incident commander" for the oil spil, promised that things would change:
At this point I have little confidence that BP will release their iron grip that controls the message willingly, so if Admiral Allen is serious about getting the reporters access he may have to knock some heads together over at BP, and I for one would willingly come up with the Pay-Per-View price to see that happen!
What's not to understand. The U.S. gov is a wholly owned subsidiary of big oil. Just like trusting Israel to give you the info on the flotilla murders.
ReplyDeleteThis seems like some sort of perversion of freedom of speech. It is the same kind of thing in principle that a totalitarian government would do - without paying, of course - to control its message.
ReplyDeleteWe'd better wake up. Corporations are almost in total control if money controls what we hear, when we hear it, and how the message is shaped.
What will prevent corporations from buying the votes in Congress to control all aspects of the internet? They could eventually censor information and the exchange of ideas on blogs.
ReplyDeleteThat's why we have to ensure the net stays as free of government and corporation control as possible. There are bills now that could work against the public interest and some that could protect it. Check it out.
I simply want to know how a 'foreign' corporation gained enough 'control of our country' to tell U.S. reporters and U.S. citizens they CANNOT have access to their own country [beaches or anywhere else they wish to go by boat or by walking]??? How has this happened? What authority do they possess and who gave it to them that they can tell U.S. citizens what t0 do and what no o0dooince when can a foreign company dictate what Americans can or cannot go?
ReplyDeleteWe, all American citizens have the right to travel throughout our country and no 'foreigners' have the right to tell us when, where or why we can go wherever we chose. That would not be American. They are trying to restrict us because they don't want us to honestly tell others just how bad the oil leak is and how it is affecting our oceans and lands. Since they refuse to be transparent with any information, it is left up to us to be transparent for them. In order to hold BP accountable, we must go where we can to see for ourselves and report to others what we hav seen.