How much should BP fork over, and to who

$0 and to no one.

 

One hundred billion dollars and to me.

 

We were at St. George Island (east of Panama City) two weeks ago and had a great time. Seemed as if the restaurants were busy. We rented a condo, so not sure how the hotels and golf resorts were doing. Oysters were scarce but a local said most of the oystermen had already gotten some money from BP and decided to take the summer off, despite the fact that the oysters were safe.

 

The damage estimates from Katrina were $125 billion. Now way does this oil spill come in at anywhere near a sixth of that. Yes, some industries were harmed and even ruined. But do you people have any concept on how much $20 billion really is?

Since a lot of beaches never did see the damage that was expected, I'd submit that the media were actually more responsible for some of the damage to tourism than BP was.

And just as an afterthought, BP should send about $1 million of that $20 billion to me for pointing out that a lot of the damage was caused by the media.

 

Ah, yes.

Blame the media to protect the multibillion-dollar oil company.

It's all part of the plan.

 

The media is a multi-billion dollar industry too.

He's absolutely right. The media that everyone pays attention to, the TV news, were breathlessly reporting worst-case scenarios and people were lapping it up.

 

Of course. One network in particular exists for the sole purpose of hysterical panic-mongering. (Which is also part of the plan.)

But the news networks weren't the ones whose fuckups dumped millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf.

 

And the media was so busy reporting MILLIONS OF GALLONS OF OIL! that they forgot to mention that millions of gallons is a drop in a swimming pool in a body of water the size of the Gulf.

 

I have a business call with someone from Ohio. It goes something like this. For those that don't know, I live north of Houston:

Ohio: So, has the beach tourism down there been hurt by the oil spill?

Me: Well, I don't know about the out-of-staters but everyone I know with plans to go to Galveston and the coast kept the plans. I hear all the hotels are fairly full.

Ohio: Oh. Well, my family had plans to go to the beaches in North Carolina. We cancelled them and lost all our money and chose instead to go to (some other state in the Midwest) because of the oil spill.

Me: (Complete silence for a few minutes. Then I realize the guy is serious. All I can utter is "Wow.")

Now, yes, this guy and his family need a small lesson in Untied Sates geography. But the point is made that the media has scared the crap out of people unnecessarily.

 

Way over-reported. Clearly nothing happened.

 

Not sure if I missed the blue font there. I didn't say nothing happened. Things happened. But I do believe the media created a scare in people that was unnecessary.

 

Or... he's not unnecessarily scared or needs a geography lesson, he's from Ohio. [/goblue]