BP’s In-House Magazine: Oil Spill Has a Silver Lining!

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Jeff Haller/Keyhole Photo/Corbis

Add it to the ever-lengthening list of BP PR gaffes.

The Wall Street Journal nabbed a copy of BP’s in-house magazine, Planet BP. Yes, the company is doing its own reporting on the oil spill, and — shock of shocks! — it doesn’t exactly line up with what the rest of the media is putting out. There’s nary an oil-doused pelican to be found, and there are rosy quotes like this:

“Much of the region’s [nonfishing boat] businesses — particularly the hotels — have been prospering because so many people have come here from BP and other oil emergency response teams,” says a woman in one BP article cited by the WSJ. “BP has always been a very great partner of ours here…We have always valued the business that BP sent us.”

Why didn’t we think to spill oil before? Thanks, BP!

The company’s PR department declined to comment on the articles to the WSJ, but it’s only fair to point out that in other articles the Journal cites, Planet BP does acknowledge things like consumers being “afraid all seafood might be contaminated.” Crack reporting, indeed. (via the Wall Street Journal)