Here's the news wire's Sunday headline [emphasis added]:

Obama heads to Gulf; govt defends spill operation

Here's what's missing from the article: Somebody criticizing the government's spill operation.

I'm not kidding.

Here's the lede [emphasis added]:

President Barack Obama awaited a firsthand update on the Gulf Coast oil spill as two members of his Cabinet on Sunday outlined the “very grave” environmental impact and sought to counter criticism the government had reacted slowly.

I'll repeat myself: There is no mention in the AP article of anybody criticizing the government's response to the oil spill.

Nonetheless, the Beltway press has latched onto this notion that there's controversy swirling around the Obama administration and the oil spill. (It's just like Katrina!) Yet if you actually read these types of news accounts carefully, you'll find that reporters can't really find serious, independent people who have leveled sustained criticism of the government's response to the oil disaster. (i.e. Limbaugh and his Obama Derangement brigade don't count.) You can't even find Republicans making that charge against the administration, as Politico recently noted.

Sure, you can find lots of example of serious, independent people criticizing oil giant BP for not doing a better job to try to contain its spill. But “criticism the government had reacted slowly,” as the AP claims? Not so much.

Truth is, it's mostly journalists who are fanning the flames of this fire.