“What This Company is Doing to This Country Right Now is Just Wrong”

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The news station WDSU in New Orleans on Friday ran the first part of an interview with Adam Dillon, a former BP contractor now going public with his dissatisfaction at the company’s handling of the Gulf disaster.

Dillon was caught in an earlier WDSU video chasing reporters off a beach and barring them from talking to cleanup workers. Now BP has fired Dillon, and he’s willing to talk. From Friday’s interview:

WDSU Reporter Scott Walker: Why did you want to talk to me tonight?

Dillon: Because of what I told you on Grand Isle that day. When you met me and you were straight with me and I saw the way that you were being treated, I told you I wish I could tell you more. And after the way BP treated me, I’m telling you now that you deserve and answer and that’s why you’re getting an answer.

Shortly after the first encounter with WDSU, Dillon was promoted to a position at the BP command center, but was soon “fired because he was seen as a threat to superiors,” he says. Dillon says he was fired after he took photos of “equations on dispersants.” “I saw something when I was out there. I took pictures of something,” said Dillon. “I brought it to the attention of the command center. Whatever I took pictures of, 12 hours later I was gone.” (We’re trying to get a hold of Dillon for more details, but haven’t had any luck. So Adam Dillon, if you’re out there, drop us a line!)

Dillon says his experience as a contractor has caused him to lose all faith in BP’s recovery efforts:

They’re not worried about cleaning up the spill as it is… I will never have loyalty to this company. I will always have loyalty to my country, and my country comes first. And what this company is doing tot his country right now is just wrong.

Here’s the video: 

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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