BP "reporters" on the job of "SEARCHING" for alleged [maybe] black stuff that *might* 'exist'

SHOOT: If you'd like a lesson in dissembling, in manipulative writing, read BP's very own reporters 'reports'. They use classic techniques to spin and soften the story. This story is a non story - it's about how they went in search of a rumor about something but didn't find anything and had a lovely day on a crowded happy sunny beach taking pictures.

And what does this mean: 'No matter - it's taken seriously.' These guys make the idea of tar balls sound like a highly endangered bird species - very unlikely to find. I guess if BP is paying you a salary to sing their praises, and praises involve finding a perfect ocean at your front door, then you'll be walking around with BP tinted lenses and a BP tainted poison pen, ne'er an oil slick in sight.

[Hint making up stories and dressing it up as reportage - that's *not* a good thing. Some would call it telling lies.]

clipped from www.bp.com BP reporters Tom Seslar and Paula Kolmar are on the ground in the Gulf, meeting the people most immediately affected by the oil spill. Read their regular updates. There was word of a 'sighting' of three tar balls on a beach in Pensacola, Florida which is about an hour's drive from Mobile, Alabama. If you've ever been to Pensacola you can understand why it would be worth a trip to check it out; the thought of tar balls on these beaches is heartbreaking. When my photographer and I arrived we were happy to see the beach crowded with people from every age group from young families to a couple in their 80s.