News -> INDReporter FRI, JUL 16 11:35AM by Mary Tutwiler

BP buying scientists' silence

Just when you begin to let yourself believe that BP is doing something right, finally getting the blown out well capped after 85 days of spewing oil into the gulf, you read a story like this. And your blood boils like it's lit by a gas flare all over again.

The latest revelation, thanks to some good investigative journalism on the part of the Mobile Press-Register, is that BP has been buying the silence of Gulf of Mexico research scientists. For the last month, BP has been offering marine scientists at universities all along the gulf coast lucrative contracts in exchange for proprietary use of research that has been ongoing since the outset of the spill. Numbers like $250 an hour have surfaced.

Equally odious is the complicity of the research community who have taken the bait, drawing down a cloak of inky oily darkness over what is actually happening to marine life in the gulf, when what everyone from local fisherfolk to U.S. Justice Department lawyers need is clear information.

Scientists from Louisiana State University, Mississippi State University and Texas A&M University have already accepted offers, according to the article.


Comments (10)add
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written by The Original Northsidian , July 16, 2010 - 05:23 pm
Would you really expect anything different? Cash is always King in the land of the free & the home of the brave!!
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written by angie , July 16, 2010 - 05:28 pm
Jeeze Loueeze. I'm not sure why researchers with ethics would take this type of "support."
kinda scary!!
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written by Bubba Boudreaux , July 16, 2010 - 05:47 pm
Does anyone really believe that they can purchase everyones silence or favorable reports from all? I don't believe so. Universities will take the cash as will various professors across the country but that doesn't mean they will all put their professional careers up for sale.
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written by babyboomer , July 16, 2010 - 06:39 pm
It's not just the oil that smells.
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written by Par for the Course , July 16, 2010 - 07:16 pm
Q: "What's your opinion"
A: "It depends on who's paying me"

Unfortunately, this SOP in our society. Just look at "Expert Testimony" in trials...

Kudos to the Professionals in the referenced article for not succumbing to the almighty dollar.
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written by NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN , July 16, 2010 - 07:55 pm
Oh Bubba B, Its like this, the scientist involved in the graft, now with their hand out like louisiana's politician, excuse me, but this is a very common occurence in Louisiana, if they had any druthers they'd get their butts kicked out by the powers that be !
BUBBA, why would these con artists worry over losing their tenure and being put to the curb, when "" THEY ARE JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS !
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written by Unempirical Observer , July 16, 2010 - 08:49 pm
LSU would probably accept an exclusive contract on all oil-financed research and reporting if they could. This would fancy that a prohibition on all other researchers and commentators be considered, and would be backed by federal authority.

Looks no different than what happened in 1989.
We'll never be made whole, and they'll never pay for the ecosystem loss.
Hell, we're still trying to get repaid for induced damages from 80 years of canals and pipelines.

We vote for change, and get more of the same, then cynically rally around the most short sighted issue possible while the rest of the country and the world asks, when are they going to enter the 21st century?
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written by HARD HAT , July 17, 2010 - 02:04 am
YA'LL HIDE, Here comes BP with the KY !
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written by scottman , July 17, 2010 - 02:25 am
All the more reason for the moratorium until we get some kind of control over these criminals.
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written by NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN , July 18, 2010 - 02:09 am
SCOTTMAN,wants a moratorium and i just want my job back so i can keep my kids in college so they won't become a dumb couillion SCOTTMAN !
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