The Tight T-shirt Is News Too

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Top Facing South stories of 2010: Part 1

Submitted by southernstudies on Mon, 12/27/2010 - 10:55am BP Gulf Oil



Spill Institute for Southern Studies mainstream media
Cross-posted from a Facing South article by Chris Kromm.



Thank you, dear readers, for another great year at Facing South! Due to your loyal readership and support (there's still time to chip in for our holiday fundraiser!), 2010 was a big success here at your favorite experiment in Southern-fried, non-profit, independent journalism. Here's what I'm most proud of: With only a fraction of the resources that bigger and flashier media outlets enjoy, we were again able to break big stories and deliver in-depth investigations that made a real impact on the national debate.

What kind of stories, you ask? Here is our annual look at some of the major issues where Facing South broke ground and helped keep you informed in 2010:

1) BP still = Big Problem
Five years after Katrina, 2010 brought another disaster in the Gulf -- and another excuse for Anderson Cooper to strut his buff t-shirted physique in New Orleans (yes, I'm jealous).

CNN and other media were on the scene, but Facing South brought you fresh angles and insights into BP's disaster after their Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and unleashing over 200 million gallons of crude into the ocean.

The disaster was hardly a surprise: As we reported, experts had been warning of the dangers of expanded offshore drilling, made worse by the absurdly low penalties for spills.

After disaster struck, Facing South stayed on the story -- including a reader-sponsored fact-finding trip to the Gulf in June -- uncovering stories and issues others were missing: how the spill was exacerbating the already-growing Gulf "Dead Zone;" how BP's pollution was threatening not just water but also coastal air quality; BP's attempt to buy up Gulf scientists and stifle media coverage; and how waste from the spill was being dumped in low-income communities of color.

We also gave a voice to people on the ground: hard-scrabble fishermen denied the chance to find work in the disaster's aftermath; the unsafe conditions facing cleanup workers; and grassroots leaders offering a roadmap for recovery.

We also kept an eye on the politics of the response, like how oil companies and Louisiana politicians exaggerated the number of people put out of work by Obama's offshore drilling moratorium to score political points.

And we're not done: We're still tracking the ongoing impact and political lessons of the disaster, and will keep covering it as the long-term consequences continue to unfold.

See you in Louisiana, Anderson.

Want to help Facing South keep breaking the big stories? Make a special, year-end tax-deductible gift to the Institute Investigative Fund. We've already raised over $29,000 towards our $35,000 holiday campaign goal. Support honest journalism and a voice for a better South -- go pitch in now!

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Ah! The now famously sexy T-shirt. Thank God he seems to have many of them,
or a very good laundry service, to wear them at every opportunity he has.
And the trend is contagious, just look at Sanjay Gupta!