The plot thickens on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. After oil washed up and contaminated shores, a cleanup operation was prompted by BP.

Who could have foreseen that the same giant corporation that just caused one of the greatest disasters since Katrina would look out for its best interests during said cleanup?

BP’s reaction to the press is thrashing the freedom of the press as much as the oil washing in from the ocean is thrashing the shores. It would seem in an effort to save face, BP is cracking down on media presence using not only private security companies but the National Guard as well.

One of the security companies, hired by BP, is protecting the cleanup workers on the shores from the media. In a video posted on youtube.com by ThinkProgress, BP’s security is shown trying to bully a local news crew in New Orleans. The news crew from WDSU is told that they could not interview any workers. The most glaring part of the exchange was that of the security personnel telling media they could not be on the public beach around the workers.

“Every single security guard here has given the instructions to every single news crew that you can be outside of 100 yards of the workers or along the boom,” security said to local WDSU news crew.

The news team challenged the ability of BP’s security to tell people what to do since they had no actual legal authority. BP’s security retorted with, “I can tell you where to go because I’m employed to keep this beach safe. And right now, those are my instructions. I’d like to keep the workers safe as well.”

Evidently, BP hired security personnel to keep their cleanup crews safe from the insidious media presence that would surely swarm and coerce them to say all kinds of unflattering things about BP and how the cleanup effort is going.

BP not wanting press to talk to the workers makes me wonder what kind of conditions the workers are living in. It also makes me wonder if the cleanup efforts on the shores is nothing more than a token gesture by BP in an effort to boost its badly damaged public image.

What makes the whole situation more like a bad “Twilight Zone” episode is that the National Guard is denying media the ability to take pictures of rescued wildlife. In a video uploaded to youtube.com by CNN, a sergeant in the National Guard aggressively tells the CNN camera woman that she is going to have turn her camera off.

The animals the media is trying to photograph are in bad shape, covered in oil and make for some pretty impressive photographs. They really drive home what’s happening in the Gulf, and drive a feeling to the pit of your stomach that BP isn’t likely ready to have run with its brand name.

This reminds me so much of when the Bush administration wouldn’t allow photos of soldiers’ caskets to be photographed. It was as if Bush thought that if the American public didn’t have the hard reality of what the cost of war was – cargo holds stuffed with young Americans in boxes – then the cost would never become apparent.

I think it’s time to take a hard look at where we stand as a nation in times of crisis. Will we let our civil rights fall by the way side, or will we be better than that? I think we are better than that. Drop BP a line and let them know what you think about their handling of the colossal mess the made. The phone number for their cleanup office is 1-985-902-5231.