Ooops!

Did he really say that?
by Charlie Leck

President Obama’s statement about the new, safe technology in oil drilling, about which I blogged yesterday, was followed up in rapid-fire fashion by the great minds within America’s news media. I document some of them here for you. If you sense (or smell) a bit of big oil company publicity management in all of this, I think you’re on to something. If you don’t, I think you’re on something!

Steven Hayward put it best
“To fear oil spills from offshore rigs today is analogous to fearing air travel now because of prop plane crashes.” Weekly Standard, 26 April 2010

Here’s David Gergen
“You know, there are a lot of serious people looking at, "Are there ways that we can do drilling and we can do nuclear that are--that are nowhere near as risky as what they were 10 or 15 or 20 years ago?" Offshore drilling today is a lot more safer [sic], in many ways, environmentally, today than it was 20 years ago.” CNN's Situation Room, 31 March 2010

And, for your reading pleasure, here’s Monica Crowley
“Since the big spill off the coast of California about three decades ago, the big oil companies have really put a lot of time, money and resources into making sure that their drilling is a lot more safe and environmentally sound.” Fox Business Happy Hour, 31 March 2010

Even Sean Hannity said it
“Drilling could be conducted in an environmentally sensitive manner. We already drill in an environmentally sensitive manner.” Fox News, 1 April 2010

And Dick Morris said it on the O’Reilly Factor
“We had a hurricane on the Gulf Coast and there was no oil spill. If Katrina didn't cause an oil spill with all those oil wells in the Gulf....” Fox News' O'Reilly Factor, 31 March 2010

Charlie Krauthammer said it, too
“And even in terms of the environment, we're going to consume oil one way or the other. It's safer for the planet if it's done under our strict controls and high technology in America as opposed to Nigeria.... We've got a ton of drilling happening every day today in the Gulf of Mexico in a hurricane area and it's successful.”
--Charles Krauthammer, WJLA's Inside Washington, 4 April 2010

And so did Brian Williams
“Some Americans have an opinion of offshore drilling that was first formed decades ago with those pictures of oil on the beaches in Santa Barbara, California. Others see it differently. They say time and technology have changed things. They say in order to lessen our dependence on foreign oil and keep gas prices low, we've got to bring more of it out of the ground and from under the sea.” NBC Nightly News, 31 March 2010

Eric Smith wrote it in the Washington Post
“The technology of oil drilling has made huge advances.... The time has come for my fellow environmentalists to reassess their stand on offshore oil. It is not clear that the risks of offshore oil drilling still outweigh the benefits. The risk of oil spills in the United States is quite low.” Washington Post, 2 April 2010

And even the sage, old USA Today nailed it for us
“Some of the most ironic objections come from those who say offshore exploration will destroy beaches and coastlines, citing the devastating 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska as an example. The last serious spill from a drilling accident in U.S. waters was in 1969, off Santa Barbara, California.” USA Today editorial on 2 April 2010 [read it for yourself]

Last night I sat watching the news and looking at the damage done to poor Louisiana and I wanted to scream: “Enough already! Give the state a break!” What devastation to such an important ecological area in North America. The damage to human lives, wild lives and dear old Mother Earth is too much.

Many thanks to Andy Driscoll and the Driscroll Group, the source of this blog!