On July 1, the Coast Guard enacted rules limiting the movement of the media in the Gulf of Mexico.

“The Coast Guard today announced new rules keeping photographers and reporters and anyone else from coming within 65 feet of any response vessel or booms out on the water or on beaches — 65 feet,” reported Anderson Cooper of CNN.

Cooper said that this means that a photographer cannot get close enough to take a picture of an oil-soaked bird by a boom.

There is a good side to this. The Coast Guard originally wanted a 300 foot barrier.

Cooper noted that this is in direct contradiction to what Admiral Thad Allen, the National Incident Commander, stated just a month ago.

“I have put out a written directive — and I can provide it for the record — that says the media will have uninhibited access anywhere we’re doing operations, except for two things, if it’s a security or a safety problem. That is my policy,” said Allen.

So much for transparency.

The argument from the government is that people who get too close are a security or safety problem. It was not a security or safety problem in the previous two-and-a-half months of the cleanup operation.

On the other side is that troublesome document called the Constitution, namely the First Amendment.

This is a national disaster, but get to close to an oil-soaked bird near a boom and the federal government will come down with a $40,000 fine and potential felony charges.

Anderson reported a couple of local officials complained about the media getting too close to the operations. Of course, the officials are nameless. Inconveniently, there has also not been a documented incident of a member of the media disrupting the cleanup operations.

Allen did say that the Coast Guard often establishes these perimeters. However, Allen also used the example of marine events like firework demonstrations or cruise ships going in and out of port.

These are short term restrictions, and they are not newsworthy national disasters. In normal situations, no one needs to butt up against a cruise ship. Getting close enough to report the damage that one hundred and forty million barrels of oil has done is a completely different matter.

Barack Obama promised transparency, but on this campaign promise he is beginning to look a lot more like George Bush.

The Bush administration tried to interfere with journalists who reported on people who died in their homes during Katrina.

No matter how things appear to have changed, sometimes they remain the same.