That is a fun word to say. While downloading some Three Dog Night from Itunes (Shaddup!), the erstwhile voice of BP CEO Tony Hayward nasaled its way from my television set.
Either he is an evil genius or the dumbest man alive. In either case, his p.r. and marketing staff must be drinking enough pepto bismol to coat the gulf pink. Mighty Matt Lauer played a collection of his latest malaprops, makes you think of Yoga Berra with a british accent.
I’m sort of involved in the message to the public with my employer and those of us who deal with the public always collect and pool information to make sure it is right to make sure nobody is lamenting about “wanting my life back” when 11 oil rig workers and thousands of gulf residents have a more justifiable claim to that particular complaint.
Only thing more galling than his callous disregard for the people and environment of the region was the contempt for anybody watching. BP has an astronomical ad campaign rolling out how they are going to make things right. Based on video taken by Rachel Maddow’s show last week, they can start anytime.
It is enough to distract you from the idiots who were shouting “Drill Baby Drill” not too long ego, who are now back peddling from that while reversing their opinion to how government should leave business alone except in times like this. It’s a nice byproduct of the news cycle never ending. Have something stupid to say, chances are somebody will give you a microphone.
The other side of this coin is that BP has behaved like reckless criminals and deserves all the fines, bills, insults, etc that are headed their way, but to pretend that Mobil, Sunoco, Gulf, et.al. would be any better at it might be foolish.
You hope they are using this time to prep non-toxic dispersants, develop undersea leak repair strategies, and at the very least, make sure the CEOs don’t make idiots of themselves on network tv.
You know you’ve done something when you’ve made the Haliburton guys seem like a desirable alternative.
Mike's Pub 