Letters to the President #501: "The birds"

Tom Foreman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

These images are so unsettling and unforgettable, for many Americans they will almost certainly become the symbol of this spill;

Reporter's Note: President Obama and BP have both offered a few photo ops on the Gulf, but Mother Nature delivered up one of her own, which may have a greater impact than anything the PR machines have ever imagined; the subject of my daily letter to the White House.

Dear Mr. President,

4:56 pm, on Thursday, June 3rd. Remember that time and date.

In years to come, when some biographer asks you at what point public outcry over the Gulf oil spill really took off, that may be part of your answer. Because that is when that picture of those oil covered sea gulls first appeared on CNN. And as much as any blown baseball call you’ve ever seen let me tell you, this kind of thing can be a game changer.

Up until the moment those pictures appeared, many people were angry in the abstract. They did not like how the spill came to be, they were not pleased with BP’s handling of it afterward, they were angry with what many perceived as a lackadaisical response by your White House. Still, they were largely willing to shrug, curse a little, and let events totter on. But I’m telling you, pictures like that… with those birds blinking through a chocolate brown sheet of oil, their necks furiously working in and out, gulping for air…have a way of making even the most hardened capitalists say, “Now hold on…this is serious.”

I am among the first to argue that pictures are not always the greatest measure of truth, especially without context. For example, these are pretty much the first images we’ve seen like this in weeks of coverage; so it is possible that they represent a relatively tiny slice of the overall damage, and too much focus on them could make the situation seem much worse than it is. Or maybe not. We just don’t know.

But these images are so unsettling and unforgettable, for many Americans they will almost certainly become the symbol of this spill; the symbol of corporate negligence, and the symbol of government impotence.

Sure, it’s just a few birds. But the plight of animals touches a chord in many American hearts and can spur outrage beyond anything you have seen so far in the Gulf. Maybe that’s not right; maybe it’s not fair, especially in a circumstance in which 11 people were killed. But it is reality. Those birds gave a blinking, horrible, dying face to the Gulf of Mexico, and that is almost without question going to turn the tide of public sentiment much more strongly against BP, your administration, and anyone perceived to be responsible for mishandling the situation. So print out a picture. Tape it onto your desk. And use it to remind yourself every hour or every day until it is resolved; the calamity down south continues.

Regards,
Tom

Follow Tom on Twitter @tomforemancnn.

Find more of the Foreman Letters here.