Pursuing, Pursuing, Pursuing

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Cooper Still Pursuing BP Guests

By Alex Weprin on Jun 16, 2010 -- 11:33 AM

As TVNewser noted before, CNN's Anderson Cooper has been trying to book someone from BP on his nightly program since oil first started leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, as the AP's David Bauder notes, Cooper has taken the unusual step of criticizing BP publicly for not appearing on his show. Cooper also played a clip last night from 14 segments of "AC360" when BP did not respond to interview requests, or declined to be interviewed.

"It's easy for me to kind of smile about this and almost kind of make a joke about it," Cooper said on the air. "But it's not a joking matter."

"I'm not trying to embarrass anybody. I think they just need to be held accountable for the public statements. I think they'll get a lot tougher questions Thursday on Capitol Hill than they would on my program, but it's their right to pick and choose."

Video of last night's "AC360" segment is after the jump.