Anderson 360 blog comment re Gulf oil spill coverage
June 04, 2010
I posted the following comment on his CNN blog today, after watching him try to cover the well capping process live, but with little info available to him on what was going on. Little info available from BP, from the Coast Guard, from the White House, even from his own studio.
Comment's waiting on moderation.
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I watched - frustrated - last night as Anderson and his guests, faced with very little information on the capping process, speculated on what they were seeing on the screen. Was the cap actually on the well? What was the ROV's "hand " grabbing? Was it the top of the riser that was sheared off or was that the cap? Why had everyone they called for info already left for the day?
Frustrated because I had been watching both the BP video feed and the CNN live feeds for an hour, and could have added details, as in - yes. the cap went on, there are vent pipes at the top that were open as it was placed on (you could see air and methanol venting through them before), the arm looked like it had tried to close a valve at the top of one of those pipes, and was now just clamped on the pipe, possibly just to anchor the ROV in place for now.
Frustrated because I'm sure someone in the studio had also been watching the feeds and could have given them more information. And could have put together some clips to show the process.
There's a video up on CNN now showing some of the sequence, but I'm not impressed, it's a mix of some informative shots, some seemingly random ones. And no audio, nobody willing to even speculate on what was on screen. Nothing is included of the earlier images showing the cap, near the well head, but with a rats-nest of cables and hoses draped around it like a snarled fishing reel. Footage showing the ROV's as they slowly and carefully tugged and pulled and re-positioned the clutter until all was clear. All this done remotely mind you, from 5,000 feet above it, via a fuzzy screen with no depth perception to it of course, and with random currents pushing the unit too and fro. And likely several top brass behind the operators, back seat driving. Amazing. Why not describe that more? Find an ROV driver and get her on for an interview!
Full points to an obviously frustrated Anderson for trying to fill in the gaps from BP and government agencies. No points to the CNN behind the scenes crew for not using the info they already had to fill in those gaps for him.
Mike - Canada
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