WatchDog TipSheet

The new rules allow news media to enter the 65-foot exclusion zone if they have a Coast Guard credential, except in cases where safety and security prevent it.

Mother Jones' Mac McClelland reports that some of those guys wearing uniforms and harassing journalists are actually off-duty local law enforcement officers being paid for their time by BP.

SEJ's comments included suggesting the NRC lose the "minders" that babysit agency people while they talk to reporters and asking that the NRC press operation do its job of keeping reporters and the public apprised of real news.

A big fraction of the leaks and spills involved not merely oil, but produced water containing hydraulic fracturing fluid. You'll find lots of useful data on the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission website.

Investigative Reporters and Editors brings news of a special Gulf Oil Spill Report put out by the Federal Procurement Data System which lists all federal contracts that the General Services Administration (GSA) knows about.

Every spill report coming in to the NRC goes into a database which is, for the most part, publicly accessible. You can query the database online, or download it for use in your own computer-assisted reporting project.

WDSU, the NBC affiliate in New Orleans (Channel 6), found that BP's highly publicized statement that it is not barring news media from witnessing the cleanup, or its failure, is in fact not true. See video of this and other examples, and get contact info for the Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center if you've been denied access.

Deepwater Horizon explosion survivors were detained at sea for 36 to 40 hours and prevented from talking to families or going home until they signed two statements, one that they'd not been injured and the other that they'd not witnessed the explosion.

Workers in the "Vessels of Opportunity" Gulf spill cleanup program had to sign a contract prohibiting them from talking to the news media or disclosing "proprietary and confidential" information.

Anne Womack Kolton, who as former VP Dick Cheney's press aide defended the secrecy of his energy task force, has been brought in to fix BP's PR problems in the Gulf oil spill.