CBS’ Harry Smith About The Gulf: “There’s Reality On One Side And Then There’s BP’s Reality”

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by Steve Krakauer | 5:29 pm, June 9th, 2010

» 6 comments

CBS announced this week that every week, ‘for the duration of the crisis,’ Harry Smith and Katie Couric will anchor from the Gulf Coast.

We talked to Smith today about the decision by CBS News, BP’s lack of transparency, and Smith’s theory on government involvement in the clean-up.

You can hear the full BlogTalkRadio interview below, which took place this morning. It is part of our ongoing series, “Live From The Spill.”

Here are a couple key exchanges, with the full interview after:

(1:58) Mediaite: What do you think of BP? There has been criticism of the way they’ve dealt with the media, of not being completely transparent. How have they been in your dealings with them?

Smith: Well we talked to one of the guys this morning, and just asked a couple of pretty basic questions. You have scientific entity after scientific entity and all these research groups saying there’s this big plume of oil down underneath the surface. And they continue to deny that it exits. It’s some kind of Alice in Wonderland world we’re living in, where there’s reality on one side and then there’s BP’s reality.

(5:06) Mediaite: It sounds like CBS is really putting their resources into the story. You could be in for the long haul. What, in your mind, is behind the decision to do this?

Smith: I think a couple of things happened. I have a daily radio commentary that I do and almost from Day 1 that this happened I saw that this was going to be a real catastrophe. And I think its difficult for people to visually get their brains around it until they’ve seen the effects of the oil. Now we’re starting to see it, and the realization of how many millions and millions and millions of gallons have poured out of that hole…it may have taken awhile but I think people have finally gotten that this is a colossal mess.

(6:18) Mediaite: A lot of the criticism so far has been aimed at BP but also President Obama, talking about the style, the way , he’s dealt with this. As someone who has covered this from the beginning, have you seen an evolution in the way Pres. Obama has taken on this crisis?

Smith: I don’t want to get on my editorial side too much. The problem in these catastrophes, and what these folks down there understand is if you wait for some governmental entity to intervene and help you out, you’ll be overwhelmed by the problem by the time it gets around to happening. This is not unique…In some ways, yes there needs to be a greater government response, but the greater government response probably needs to be less government. If there’s a greater government response there’s just that much more red tape. Then these people are going to end up strangling you. So they’ll either drown from the oil or get strangled by the red tape. The smartest response needs to be how do we help these people best, not how do we throw more agencies on top of the freakin’ mess.

Check out the full interview here, including how long Smith thinks he’ll be returning to the Gulf Coast as part of CBS News’ plan (“for the rest of my life” is an option):

Listen to internet radio with Mediaite.com on Blog Talk Radio

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http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

Smith has a handle on the situation – and he certainly skewers that group who heretofore screamed for less government but now, as to the Gulf, have started screaming for more government and for Obama to set his pup tent up on the beaches of Grand Isle.
Liberty – Not Redistribution

The government that was involved gave them a pass, snorted coke with them, partied with the company reps and basically just wasted taxpayer dollars. What we need is more of that….for sure…that’s really worked out hasn’t it.
cindylei96

Who cares!!! My boyfriend thinks the same with me. He- is eight years older than me, lol. We met online at an age gap dating site[ S E E K C O U G A R *c-o-m_]—a nice and free place for Younger- Women and Older Men, or Older Women and Younger Men, to interact with each other. Maybe you wanna check out or- tell your friends
Burnnotice

ya that’s what I need is a Cougar., but that means She would l be about 90 years old…. I’ll pass
http://www.facebook.com/people/Harvey-Carroll/100000142059642 Harvey Carroll

The “Environmental Terrorism” was blamed on Saddam as he was the one that started the 1st Gulf War by invading Kuwait. Yet, it was I that helped organize and maintained the multi-national coalition in the 1st Gulf War. I did not wish to be involved; however, I was a bit of an expert and had the right contacts so I got involved.

In the process some of the strategy that brought about a quick end to the war, resulted in this theater of conflict and the oil spill…

Here are suggestions that I’ve been discussing about cleaning up America’s Oil Spill… Perhaps the Kuwait/Saudi Region can do the same. …

This guy at http://www.oilspillfix.com has a commonsense approach to fixing the oil spill… Here is a feature via AOL news

http://www.asylum.com/2010/06/04/texas-entrepreneur-i-can-fix-the-damn-oil-leak/?icid=main|main|dl4|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.asylum.com%2F2010%2F06%2F04%2Ftexas-entrepreneur-i-can-fix-the-damn-oil-leak%2F

FIRST:…

I agree with him and thing these guys are idiots… I also agree that his plan will work. I am not an expert; however, I presented a Commonsense way of stopping the oil leak via basis real estate plumbing…

Large concrete “Manhole” casings that are used for basic city Sewers/storm sewers could be lowered down and on top of the oil leak. Then simply pour concrete around the manhole creating an upside down funnel type situation.

Then simply add pipes that connect into the “Manhole”. Instead of running into manhole it would run in reverse out into ships for loading and/or into oil pipe lines running into the U.S…

I don’t see the big deal in being able to bring out a container ship loaded with Concrete Manhole Casings , then lower them over the side, guide them to the bottom with a crane wench and submarine…

NOTE: See photos at http://www.crd.bc.ca/wastewater/ii/images/Proper_Connections.gif

SECOND:
The “Oil Spill can be a God Send for America”…..

Click on Carroll International Associates Blog link and read the pdf, or click on the pdf link below… It is a must read. Reading it really will change the way you view the oil spill…

The pdf linked on the Blog Includes wonderful photos, and examples of how to use the spilt oil, and sand mixture for construction, and landscape materials to revitalize the beaches.

The pdf document also hints on ways to deal with fiscal responsibilities of dealing with the future bottleneck of retirement funds and entitlements owed by the Federal Government and how this oil spill can be viewed as a God send.

http://carrollinternationalassociates.wordpress.com/

http://carrollinternationalassociates.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/the-oil-spill-is-a-god-send1.pdf

NOTE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxsGpZeR6Dk&feature=related 1:47, and 2:30 (more detailed) seconds into this YouTube clip you will see how sand dredging techniques to collect the sand and then dump it at rally points (4:15 using GPD to boat) cleanup and use…

Thank you,
Harvey Carroll, Jr.

All rights reserved.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Harvey-Carroll/100000142059642 Harvey Carroll

The BP Oil spill has been mismanaged from the start from all sides… Just like Katrina the local official or in this case company president was saying we got it under control… So, President Obama has to accept that as did President Bush… President Obama gave too much credit to BP as being experts… They should have realized that you have a bunch of guys out there putting holes in the bottom of the ocean… Anything beyond hooking up another piece of pipe goes beyond their job discription…

During Katrina just like now, I see these guys for what they are and offered advice of evacuating people to other Stadium locations i.e. “Operation Supper Bowl” to be able to temporarily house and feed the masses affected by Hurricane Katrina…

Now I see the reality from experience of seeing what happened in the 1st Gulf War, and the vast amount of oil that was leaking into the Gulf of Mexico estimated at 1/2 million gallons a day… That will float onto some beach… Obviously as it continues more will hit the beaches…

So, I quickly analyzed the situation as I have many times with national and international policy and made suggestions as to what might work… There should have been more leadership to attract the best ideas and people to deal with it, supported by the Military flying materials to and from the spill site, equipment flown in to start dealing with the beach issues and so forth…

Now, I’m looking beyond and trying to focus them in on the obvious clean up situation and how we can revitalize those beaches and be proactive in using the oil/sand mix…

NOTE: I refer back to my original post for plans and ideas to focus in the future cleanup efforts and how to make it a positive situation…