jumpingfish

CBS tried to get a look at oil coming ashore in Louisiana a couple days ago. They have video of a boatload of BP contractors turning them back.  The boat evidently included a couple Coast Guard officers.  It was “BP rules” the Coast Guard officers said, as they told the journalists to turn back under threat of arrest.

BP rules.  Coast Guard officers. Threat of arrest.

After reporting from the scene, Kelly Cobiella turned it back over to anchor, Katie Couric.  Katie’s cutting-edge follow-up journalism?  To ask, with empathic concern in her eyes, And Kelly, what is the impact on wildlife so far?

As if to say, Well that’s interesting.  Now let’s talk about something else.

No need to dig into the collusion of government officials with BP to prevent the media from seeing firsthand the results of the oil spewing up from the bottom of the Gulf.  No need to draw attention to that.  No.  What we need to talk about now is the wildlife. Something to pull the heart strings and distract our audience from this colossal disaster.

During the Cold War, we in the West were taught that the Great Satan was an all-powerful government — down that path lay tyranny.  Those in the Eastern Bloc were taught that the Great Satan was an all-powerful capitalist oligarchy — the dreaded bourgeoisie. These were our closely guarded mythologies.

But there is a different way to look at things. A way to see beyond the myths. A way to perceive something that threatens to engulf us as the 21st century dawns and doesn’t fall into those convenient late 20th century templates.  A centaur, a minotaur, a harpy, a hybrid of the tyrannical government and the exploitive capitalism drawn from darkest night thoughts of the West and East: government and capitalism working hand-in-hand not for the betterment of the people, but to keep them from knowing, to keep them blissful in their ignorance, to protect the flow of profits, to maintain control. (Britt/Pattern #9, Mills/Corporate State)

There’s no call to show the public those videos of the oil spewing forth.  And for that matter, there’s no call to let uppity scientists with federal research grants talk about their own estimates of how much oil is gushing out of BP’s black hole. (Notice how they’ve clammed up since they first contradicted the gospel of BP?)

No.  No need to dig any deeper, Katie. Best to move on. Because, you know, we need to talk about turtles.  Because in the long run, it’s turtles all the way down.