Haley Barbour: Don’t Believe The Media! “The Coast Is Clear, Come On Down”

Politicians from the Gulf States find themselves in one of two positions these days when it comes to the media: either they are calling for more help to deal with the oil crisis, or they are desperately attempting to convince the public their state is still safe for tourists.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is currently in the latter camp and he appeared on Fox News Sunday today to tell Chris Wallace that the “coast is clear.” Also, it’s the media’s fault for encouraging people to conclude otherwise.

The truth is Chris, that we’ve had virtually no oil….the biggest negative impact for us has been the news coverage. There’s been no distinction between Grand Isle and Venice and places in Louisiana that we feel so terrible for, that have had oil washing up on them. The average viewer thinks that the whole coast from Florida to Texas is ankle-deep in oil. And of course it’s very bad for our tourist season. That’s the real economic damage.

Point taken: don’t cancel your Mississippi vacation! Later in the show Barbour also asserted that he thinks we should keep drilling:

“They’re going to be drilling oil wells elsewhere in the world, and the loss in production that we’re going to suffer will make us even more dependent on the Middle East, on Venezuela and on our friends.”

At least he didn’t say ‘drill, baby, drill.’ Watch below.

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