Who Can You Trust? Oil-Spill Edition

“Who Can You Trust?” is an ongoing look at some of the main players in the gulf oil-spill disaster. We analyze the media appearances and public statements of those covering, controlling, and combating the spill to determine who’s spinning for personal advantage, who’s playing to the crowd, and who (or what) we can truly count on.

Ed Markey
Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming

The Massachusetts congressman has been relentless in his criticism of BP, but unlike a lot of pols who are relying on rhetoric, the congressman has turned to primary source documents. First he compared BP’s woefully inadequate emergency plans to those of other oil companies, most of which were also filled with outdated contact info and inadequate plans. Then, the released internal BP docs showed that the spill could, in a worst-case scenario, spew 100,000 gallons a day into the gulf: a higher rate than acknowledged in public. Markey is spinning, sure—he’s a pol with an anti-BP bias. But if he backs it up with evidence, he’s more reliable than most.

Pay attention: to at all those primary-source documents.

The Oil-Spill Live Stream
Hypnotic Video

Politico pointed out that the presence of a monitor showing the live feed of the spill that played during Tony Hayward’s congressional testimony was particularly damning, while NPR wonders if the video, which 88 percent of Americans have watched, will take Obama down too. That’s because there’s no way to spin the unending footage of oil spilling into the gulf, which serves as a constant reminder that both BP and the administration have yet to stop the spill. (Actually, BP is doing its best to add what spin it can: there’s a high-def version that would make it easier to calculate the flow rate; that’s still under wraps.)

Pay attention: as if you could pull yourself away.

Bob Dudley
BP Managing Director

Dudley is the new face of BP now that Tony Hayward is taking a less visible role. He has been on the scene since about Memorial Day—stepping in on the morning shows for BP COO Doug Suttles—and was today declared the managing director of BP's new Gulf Coast Restoration Organization. Raised in Mississippi, he’s a more sympathetic voice than the posh, clueless Hayward. But don’t be fooled. This local boy is a company man. He’s also a smooth operator. He tried to pass BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg’s “small people” slur as a commentary about small business; he’s also unwilling to admit that BP made any mistakes. He’s less of an obvious villain than Hayward, but still not telling the whole truth.

Pay attention: to the substance of his speech, not the crystal-clear delivery.

Martin Feldman
Federal Judge

The Louisiana-based judge that overturned the federal government’s deepwater drilling moratorium has numerous investments in oil-related funds. Think Progress reports that he has profited from in stocks including BlackRock, Transocean, and Halliburton.

Pay attention: to how the appeals court rules. Just because Feldman is making money from oil doesn’t necessarily mean that his ruling is without merit. Feldman claims that the government has insufficient legal authority to make such a blanket ban and failed to make a sufficient case for one.

Planet BP
Corporate Cheerleader

The in-house newsletter from BP will of course try to put a positive spin on things, and though the writers never quite lie, they are one-sidedly optimistic. The Wall Street Journal reports that the internal site casts the spill as a “stroke of luck” for local merchants. “Much of the region’s [nonfishing boat] businesses—particularly the hotels—have been prospering because so many people have come here from BP and other oil emergency response teams,” says one report.

Pay attention: never. This is in-house rah-rah stuff not meant for public consumption.