If it washes up on a beach and no one's there to see it...

Newsweek reports on complaints from news photographers that British Petroleum, with the aid of local and federal officials, is blocking access to areas hardest hit by the Gulf oil spill.

From the story:

Last week, a CBS TV crew was threatened with arrest when attempting to film an oil-covered beach. On Monday, Mother Jones published this firsthand account of one reporter’s repeated attempts to gain access to clean-up operations on oil-soaked beaches, and the telling response of local law enforcement. The latest instance of denied press access comes from Belle Chasse, La.-based Southern Seaplane Inc., which was scheduled to take a New Orleans Times-Picayune photographer for a flyover on Tuesday afternoon, and says it was denied permission once BP officials learned that a member of the press would be on board.

This morning, scientists said the Deepwater Horizon leak had probably surpassed the Exxon Valdez as the worst oil spill in U.S. history.