Coast Guard paid New Orleans man $18,000 to monitor media coverage of BP oil spill

[mike r]

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas/ap-enterprise-a-look-at-who-got-govt-912270.html

A look at who got gov't Gulf work
By SHARON THEIMER

...The administration has released details of about $134 million in contracts, a fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars it has spent so far. BP has reimbursed the U.S. $390 million, company spokesman Tom Mueller said. The government sent BP a new invoice for $128.5 million last week...

Among all the contracts, perhaps none is more striking than the Coast Guard's decision to pay $9,000 per month for two months to John Brooks Rice of New Orleans, an on-call worker for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, under a no-bid contract to monitor media coverage from late May through July.

Rice told the AP that he compiled print and video news stories and offered his subjective appraisal of the tone of the coverage. "From reading and watching the media I would create reports," he said. "I reported either positive coverage, negative coverage, misinformation coverage."

The Coast Guard provided the AP with a copy of two of Rice's printouts of news stories but didn't respond to a request for copies of his reports rating the tone of news stories. Rice said he had already deleted them. The AP requested copies of all Rice's reports under the Freedom of Information Act but hasn't received them. The Coast Guard expects BP to reimburse the $18,000, Coast Guard spokesman Capt. Ron LaBrec said...

[ensho]

1. Coast Guard money is our money

since when is it the Coast Guard's job to moniter the press?

[Dappleganger]

2. Since BP started laying claim to public property and services as its own.

Did you get that memo??

:sarcasm:

[revolution breeze]

3. People will not believe

How closely reporting was being monitored about this crisis.

[Recursion]

8. Since when has the military *not* monitored the press?

Public Affairs has been part of the military at least since world war one.

[msanthrope]

17. Next you're going to tell me they employ spokespeople.

Seriously.

I bet most DU'ers would fall the frack over if they realized that there were Congressional aides paid money to scour and catalogue local press and media for their congresscritters.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[msanthrope]

5. "This is why people crash planes into government buildings."

Really?

If you are writing sentences like that, perhaps you ought to reconsider your career choice.

I think those 75 hormonal teenagers are poorly served.

[AlecBGreen]

6. think again

You misunderstand me. I work very hard and am paid (compared to this man) very little. He does a few hours light work per day and earns triple my pay via a no-bid contract, doing a service that sounds not-very-necessary. This is frustrating to say the least. Its not hard to see how some people can be driven over the edge by wasteful government spending like this, especially the working poor who are already on the margins of society.

Dont presume to know anything about me, my students or my job performance based on one post made to an online discussion forum.

[BeFree]

11. On your side Alec

This story is bad PR for the government. The only thing worse is that its true.

[msanthrope]

13. I quoted your words...and yeah, I'd walk that back, too.

I know plenty of people busting their ass, and making a third of what you do.

Not a single one of them contemplates murdering innocents because you make triple what they do, for arguably less work.

As for a "few hours light work" per day, I merely note the date and time of your posting--when I was a teacher, I certainly never had time to post online to a message board during the work day.

[Hannah Bell]

7. I think you've never failed to respond to posts by teachers without denigrating them.

[whistler162]

9. Perhaps you should ask why a teacher posted something that

denigrated themselves so much!

[Hannah Bell]

10. nothing in the post you refer to denigrated teachers or reflected badly on them except in the eyes

of those ever-ready to turn anything to a teacher-bashing moment.

[msanthrope]

14. Yes, it's funny how direct quotes of a poster "denigrate" them. n/t

[Hannah Bell]

18. not the quote i object to, but your SPIN on what the quote means.

you could give lessons to rove.

[msanthrope]

22. I didn't characterize the quote at all, Hannah. I let it speak for itself.

Sometimes, that's all that necessary.

[Hannah Bell]

27. oh baloney.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9124826&mesg_id=9125529

[flyarm]

44. that is a habit around these parts anymore..its twist and hit and run!

[msanthrope]

15. I can see how directly quoting this poster would be denigrating to them. n/t

[Hannah Bell]

19. your SPIN on what the quote "means" is the objectionable point.

[msanthrope]

25. I didn't say what the quote means. I let it speak for itself. n/t

[Hannah Bell]

26. lol. you said anyone who said it shouldn't be working with kids. no, no spin there.

[LanternWaste]

12. I would imagine that more often than not

I would imagine that more often than not, one may easily infer a difference between the visceral and reactive statement if contrasted against current and/or prior statements illustrating a well-thought out and academically sound position.

I believe both types of statement fill a need in our desire to express ourselves more fully, allowing both the formal and the informal statement to play with each other in our drive to communicate.



Although I do realize that we have many standards we apply to other people while falling dramatically short of them ourselves.

[msanthrope]

16. I take your points.

But I think you take too lightly the effect of the 'visceral' on the supposedly 'sound.'

[lame54]

20. at least somebody in New Orleans got paid by BP

[Bragi]

21. May I defend the indefensible?

Okay, at least let me try:

I am not unfamiliar with what is involved in doing media monitoring and analysis of a mega media event, which the Gulf blowout certainly was.

Bottom line: $9K a month is not at all out of line if the job was to track, monitor and assess thousands of news items each day.

Just sayin'...

[msanthrope]

23. It's not indefensible...

It's not surprising to me, at all, that the Coast Guard paid someone to keep a record of the spill, and to write reports.

Some would argue that record-keeping is a good thing.

[Hannah Bell]

28. some would argue that most of that $9000/mo could have been better spent on the bp's

victims.

[Swamp Rat]

30. Like me

[Bragi]

32. I appreciate the sentiment, but...

If you are a decision-maker in a crisis situation, you can't sit for hours in front of TVs and on web sites, but you still need to know what is being reported so you can understand concerns, issues, information needs, etc. Your spokespeople need this too. This is why you have to have media monitoring and analysis.

(Note: I am NOT defending BP or its crisis management in any way. I'm just telling you why media monitoring and analysis is always needed in a crisis.)

[msanthrope]

24. Not indefensible

It's not surprising to me, at all, that the Coast Guard paid someone to keep a record of the spill, and to write reports.

Some would argue that record-keeping is a good thing.

[Hannah Bell]

29. that's $108k/yr. plenty of people handle the equivalent amount of data for much less.

[Swamp Rat]

31. Like me

I would not have helped USACE waste our taxpayer dollars.

However, speaking hypothetically, I would have charged from $3-6,000.00 (depending on the depth of analysis required), and unless he has two Ph.Ds specializing in both qualitative and quantitative analysis, I am a LOT more qualified than John Brooks.

[Hannah Bell]

33. i doubt there's much in-depth data analysis required; more like sorting into two piles:

pro-bp, anti-bp.

an undergraduate could do it.

[Bragi]

35. That would be crappy and not very useful media analysis

What you need to know is what issues are rising, what are falling, are there things lurking you should be reacting to or acting on, are there new players in the news, that sort of thing.

Thumbs up and thumbs down is probably the least important bit of data.

[Hannah Bell]

38. oooh, hard stuff like that. my, my.

[Swamp Rat]

36. Yep, an undergraduate could do it very easily.

This would be a good assignment for a undergraduate sociology/anthropology class, or even a freshman communications class.

The USACE has a very long reputation for fucking over my hometown (NOLA). For example, though they have received millions of dollars, they have not even designed our water pumps since Katrina... not even designed. :grr:

[Bragi]

34. Not really, no

I think $9 K a month is well within reason. It probably wasn't $9K for one person. You need a team to do media monitoring and analysis in a large scale crisis.

[Swamp Rat]

37. No it isn't

I'm a professional researcher.

[Bragi]

39. Perhaps you should check out market rates /nt

[Hannah Bell]

40. BP pays well because it costs a lot to overcome people's scruples about

promoting death.

[Bragi]

42. BP wasn't the client, it was the coast guard

Hate to rain on your parade, but my understanding from the posted article is that this work was done for the Coast Guard (probably for that Thad guy who was in charge) and paid for by them. They are now seeking reimbursement from BP.

If so, what's your problem? You think Thad should have just done his daily newser blind and winged it in terms of knowing what was actually being reported in the media? Do you think BP should refuse to pay for this work? Huh?

[msanthrope]

41. You really shouldn't confuse anti-Obama threads with facts....

These threads are about how the corporatist Obama failed to nationalize BP when he had the chance...and all the other evils visited on the world by the US government under Obama.

Which is why the posters here are focusing on the 18k paid to a media watcher, but ignoring the 200k plus paid to Defenders of Wildlife...it doesn't fit in the meme.

[Lorien]

43. No surprise here. The government was clearly more concerned about BPs image

and profits than it was in protecting Gulf wildlife and residents.