Fox News Hides Oil Industry Ties Of Guest Who Downplayed BP Spill

Fox News' Neil Cavuto hosted Quenton Dokken, identified as a “Marine Biologist and President of the Gulf of Mexico Foundation” to downplay the impact of the BP oil spill. Cavuto did not disclose that the Gulf of Mexico Foundation has direct ties to the offshore drilling industry, including Transocean, a company at the center of last year's Gulf spill.

From a May 4, 2010 post at The ProPublica Blog:

At least half of the 19 members of the group's board of directors have direct ties to the offshore drilling industry. One of them is currently an executive at Transocean, the company that owns the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded last month, causing millions of gallons of oil to spill into the Gulf of Mexico.

Seven other board members are currently employed at oil companies, or at companies that provide products and services “primarily” to the offshore oil and gas industry. Those companies include Shell, Conoco Phillips, LLOG Exploration Company, Devon Energy, Anadarko Petroleum Company and Oceaneering International.

The Gulf of Mexico Foundation's president is a retired senior vice president of Rowan Companies Inc., an offshore drilling contractor.

Meanwhile, Transocean hosted the group's winter board meeting in January and sponsored a dinner for the board of directors. Past board meetings have been hosted in full or in part by Anadarko Petroleum Company, Shell Exploration and Production, Valero Refinery and Marathon Oil Corporation.

During the interview, Dokken said that “everything is looking pretty good” in the Gulf and that “nature has simply taken care of” the spill.

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