Vocal Journalists in a Sea of Oil…

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter writes about journalists challenging BP the Obama administration over the Gulf disaster. The main focus of Stelter’s article is Anderson Cooper whom Stelter draws parallels between his Gulf coverage and his Katrina coverage…with just a hint of an allusion to that event which basically put him front and center as the face of CNN…

Mr. Cooper has spent more time in Louisiana — about 20 days — than any other national television anchor since the leak began. Evincing his frustration and his perseverance, he keeps a daily on-air tally of the number of days BP has ignored his interview requests. “I think there’s a basic lack of transparency in their dealings,” he of BP, in an interview.

Mr. Cooper’s 10 p.m. program, “AC360,” and others like it have gained notice for trying to hold BP and the government accountable for the oil leak and the cleanup effort. As the crisis nears the two-month mark, there are signs that the news media are taking on a more adversarial role, just as they did after Hurricane Katrina and the widespread flooding of New Orleans.

But Stelter expands his coverage to include others…

Other journalists share Mr. Cooper’s adversarial style. Moments after President Obama’s Oval Office address on Tuesday night, a Bloomberg Television reporter in Louisiana, Lizzie O’Leary, challenged the president’s claim that the federal government has been in charge of the cleanup. In her four weeks on the ground, “that’s just not what I’ve seen,” Ms. O’Leary said on Bloomberg, asserting instead that BP was taking the lead in some areas and that there was confusion over who is in charge. “The facts contradict the president,” she said.

The next morning, an NBC reporter, Tom Costello, concluded on MSNBC that “both the government and BP have a huge credibility problem here.”