"BP Agrees to 20 Billion Dollar Oil Leak Relief Fund" The Headline Read - Reality Check Needed

By Lance Winslow

We know that British Petroleum agreed to a $20 Billion Dollar relief fund for the economic victims and cleanup of their oil leak from the Deep Sea Drilling Rig; Horizon. Many folks attributed this as a victory from President Obama due to his speech from the Oval Office. In reality everyone close to the story knows that BP agreed to this in negotiation with the Obama Administration prior to that speech, as a way to stave off at least some of the negative publicity involved.

Not more than a day after announcing this incredible relief fund, the largest in history, the US Congress read Tony Hayward the riot act. What we seem to have is far too much political posturing in Washington DC, and too much media grandstanding, something that we don't really have time for because the 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season has already started and there are tropical storms ready to roar into the Gulf of Mexico and across the straits between the Florida Keys and Cuba.

Even though the media is treating Obama's Oval Office Speech as the reason for BP's agreement to set up the $20 Billion relief fund, it is more than likely that BP's agreement to set up the fund was the reason for the speech. President Obama's opportunity to talk tough, speak to the American People, and look good, and indeed, that is how history should remember it, even if the media leads us to believe otherwise.

Now then, we ought to talk about why BP unilaterally agreed to such a fund, was it because President Obama turned up the heat, and the media (TV, Radio, Internet media, Cable Networks, and News Papers) had wall-to-wall coverage day after day on this oil leak. In fact, a lot of the actual economic fall-out for let's say tourism is coming from the mass media, not the actual oil leak, for instance Tampa Area has yet to be hit with oil on the beach, but it suffers nevertheless from a lack of tourism, along with other beaches on the west coast of FL.

Perhaps, we need to look beyond the political posturing and media, that's my main message here today.

Ref.

1. Wall Street Journal; "BP Agrees to $20 Billion Fund," by Jonathan Weisman and Guy Chazan on day after President Obama's speech.
2. Editorial by Richard Epstein; "BP Doesn't Deserve a Liability Cap"
3. Wall Street Journal; "News Improves, Think of Selling BP Shares," by James B. Stuart, June 16, 2010.
4. The Property Report Section of the WSJ; "Since Spill, St. Joe's Gulf Presence Not a Plus," June 16, 2010.
5. Blog Article; "Obama vs. BP (and You)," on June 17, 2010.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes it's hard to write 20,000 articles; http://www.bloggingcontent.net. Note: All of Lance Winslow's articles are written by him, not by Automated Software, any Computer Program, or Artificially Intelligent Software. None of his articles are outsourced, PLR Content or written by ghost writers.

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