I honestly didn't even know that this was even possible, but apparently BP has purchased search terms on Google and Yahoo such as "oil spill" so that Internet users are immediately directed to BP's own propaganda sites instead of more objective sources of information.
UPDATE: Comments have correctly pointed out that the ABC News article might have somewhat overstated the case, and that BP has simply bought "sponsored links" that appear at the top of search results on these terms, but has not actually "bought the search terms".
In any event, here's the link from ABC News:
BP, the very company responsible for the oil spill that is already the worst in U.S. history, has purchased several phrases on search engines such as Google and Yahoo so that the first result that shows up directs information seekers to the company's official website.
A simple Google search of "oil spill" turns up several thousand news results, but the first link, highlighted at the very top of the page, is from BP. "Learn more about how BP is helping," the link's tagline reads.
A spokesman for the company confirmed to ABC News that it had, in fact, bought these search terms to make information on the spill more accessible to the public.
http://abcnews.go.com/...
Yeah, right, "to make information more accessible to the public". This from a company that has sought at every turn to obscure and deflect the dissemination of real information about this spill.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I think it's foolish to let BP maintain control of stopping, containing and cleaning up this spill. Yes, they have the expertise, but they aren't the only ones, and even if the federal government took control, the engineers at BP could still be hired to stay on and continue to work. It's not the BP engineers that I'm worried about; it's their executives, lawyers and PR hacks.
BP has basic conflicts of interest that prevent them from acting in the public interest. BP's legal responsibility first and foremost is to their shareholders, not to the public. Only the federal government can, in an unfettered way, act to protect the public interest.
The federal government does have this authority. After the Exxon Valdez spill, Congress enacted the Oil Pollution Act:
The OPA provided new requirements for contingency planning both by government and industry. The National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP) has been expanded in a three-tiered approach: the Federal government is required to direct all public and private response efforts for certain types of spill events; Area Committees -- composed of federal, state, and local government officials -- must develop detailed, location-specific Area Contingency Plans; and owners or operators of vessels and certain facilities that pose a serious threat to the environment must prepare their own Facility Response Plans.
Finally, the OPA increased penalties for regulatory noncompliance, broadened the response and enforcement authorities of the Federal government, and preserved State authority to establish law governing oil spill prevention and response.
http://www.epa.gov/...
The Federal government has the authority to take over this operation. BP has clearly demonstrated that they are not capable to acting in the public interest, so it's time for someone to step in who will.