Rachel Maddow Gives Dramatic Reading Of BP “Journalist”‘s Assessment Of Cleanup

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by Frances Martel | 11:54 am, June 18th, 2010

» 11 comments

This week, Rachel Maddow got so fed up with the way the people in charge of handling the oil disaster in the Gulf are handling it that, one by one, she seems to be taking over and doing their jobs herself. First, of course, was her not-too-shabby fake Oval Office address set to undo the damage she thought President Obama had done with his. Last night, she helped out the BP PR team with a dramatic reading of their latest press release.

The press release interpreted on her program comes from BP.com, where, under the subheading “Reports from the Gulf,” BP has been using its own media to try and get what Maddow sees as overly favorable reports on what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico and BP’s response. One in particular, “Ballet at Sea,” seemed particularly egregious (and, no, “Ballet at Sea” isn’t a parody– here it is on BP.com), so Maddow set it to the dulcet tones of the “Blue Danube” and compiled some images of the wonderful work BP journalist Paula Kolmar found the company doing on the shores of Alabama. Video below:

alabama, BP, Cambpell Brown, Gulf oil disaster, msnbc, Oil Leak, Rachel Maddow

smack

Smug Maddow should stop checking out the bp media, maybe start watching some Anderson Cooper. Better yet take her own a$$ down to the gulf and do some journalism stuff.
notsofast

Yawn!
roxsteady

Fact o phobia? The BP Propaganda lives on. What’s really scary is that all of the other oil company executives have the same plans for mediation as BP does.
notsofast

And BHO and his administration believed every word of it.
Whit99

Thanks for posting. Maddow has really been firing on all cylinders in her coverage of the oil spill.

BTW, the music in the clip is not the Blue Danube. It’s “Waltz of the Flowers” from the The Nutcracker.
notsofast

BTW, the music in the clip is not the Blue Danube. It’s “Waltz of the Flowers” from the The Nutcracker.”

Tchaikovsky wrote the ballet but did not name it until after he was asked if it was difficult to write. To which he said, “Yes, I was a real nutcracker.”

The rest is history.
Dandee

Is Maddow trying, very hard, to be a journalist or a JOKESTER? Seems to me she will fail in both. She always has something, she thinks, to laugh about in her words, but she really is not either. Talk about being far left, she can outdo that by many, many miles. She can’t even go straight!!!
http://none pyrope

I am not certain that Ms. Madcow has ever even met a real journalist.
jrcmi

Dandeeruff: “She can’t even go straight!!!”

You’re a bigot – and a creep.

Pyrat: “I am not certain that Ms. Madcow has ever even met a real journalist.”

In that case, neither has BP.

You obviously failed to READ the story before shooting your yap off, Mr. Jeeneeyiss. Maddow reproduced the ACTUAL BP PRESS RELEASE, titled “Ballet at Sea.” She quite properly mocked the unctuous tone of BP’s ludicrous, misleading missive – journalists DO that, sometimes.

The link itself is instructive. ( http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=9033611&contentId=7062628 ) BP has a ready supply of “generic articles” for PR emergencies. Too bad they didn’t bother to equip themselves for REAL emergencies.

Maddow doesn’t refer to herself as a journalist, though she brings more truths to light – sometimes through humor – than many who CALL themselves journalists.

You claim to be so bright. I don’t see anything shining.
comgeek26

@jrcmi
Danderuff and pyrat probably don’t really care. They probably never even bothered to read the article before the video. They just saw something about Rachel Maddow and thought, “Well, whatever she’s talking about, she must not be making sense.” as Glenn Beck trained them to do.
As for the video, has it really come to this? BP is so worried about losing face after this debacle that they have gone to these lengths?? Responsibility must not even be in their vocabulary anymore.
jrcmi

cg: There is an anti-intellectual streak running through the right. Smart people tend to think for themselves, which impairs the neocon’s goal of keeping them ignorant and pliable.

The video was inserted by Maddow to highlight the wording of BP’s maundering press release, which was read verbatim with musical accompaniment.

It was a subtle, devastating piece of satire.