How much should BP fork over, and to who

What about it? It's there, but it is kind of irrelevant to the discussion we were having about fear, tourism, and the media's role in one harming the other.

 

yup, like clockwork. "What about it?"

 

It's called moving the goalposts, Starman. *With regards to the conversation we are having*, I'm not sure how the danger to wildlife is relevant.

 

Actually the thread's about how much BP should pay in damages and to whom. Is tourism the only business on the Gulf?

 

Fair enough.

The impact on wildlife is yet to be determined, but it looks much more severe than the impact on humans, and BP should be made to pay whatever it takes to try to rectify it.

 

Fair enough.

Thanks.

 

Yeah, the stories about the oil "potentially" getting into the gulf current, whipping around Florida and up the east coast weren't sensationalism at all.

 

Those are the two questions Ken Feinberg will be answering for the next 5-10 years.

 

Still too early to tell on that.

 

Stain,

I also don't think you're using "prove a negative" correctly.

 

I'm cheating a little. The assertion was "Prove it or shut up," which I am taking as "Prove it or it is false."

 

This is the answer.

Too much of the coverage wasn't based on facts, it was based on conjecture. They focused on the worst case scenario and the put people on the air would were willing to speculate about what could go wrong. And the more willing you were to predict something dire, the more likely you were to get on the air.

If you followed cable TV coverage, not only would you have cancelled your Florida panhandle vacation, you would have canceled your vacation to the Central Florida Gulf Coast, to the Florida Keys, or if you were in the U.K., you might have cancelled you weekend plans in Cornwall.

Remember how excited the media was when a tar ball turned up in the Keys? They were just thrilled. Until it turned out no to be from the oil spill.