Crying Over Spilled Oil

Joe Hazelwood: Adrift in the Media’s Slick Coverage.

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Aerial Shot 

Four minutes after midnight on March 24, 1989, Captain Joe Hazelwood was awakened by his crewmates. The oil tanker he was piloting, Exxon Valdez, ran aground onto Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound of Alaska. The ship contained over 53 million gallons of crude oil en route to California. Roughly 11 million gallons of oil were spilled, eventually blanketing over 1,100 miles of shoreline and about 460 miles of wildlife habitat in a matter of days. It was both ecological and an economical nightmare for the locals and Exxon Mobil corporation. The Exxon Valdez crisis is a prime example of how public opinion is often determined by how and what the local media covers. It was easy to place the blame on a seemingly drunk captain because someone had to take the fall.  

Background:

Captain Joseph Hazelwood

March 23, 1989 - 9:12 pm
The 986-foot tanker departed from the port of Valdez piloted by William Murphy with the captain of the ship by his side. Captain Joe Hazelwood took over after passing through the Valdez Narrows. The captain then passed off the wheelhouse to Helmsman Harry Claar after encountering icebergs in the shipping lanes. Hazelwood then ordered Claar to maneuver the ship out of the shipping lanes to escape the perils. After instructing Third Mate Gregory Cousins to return into the shipping lanes when the tanker is in the clear, Hazelwood headed to his quarters to rest. At that time, Claar was relieved by Helmsman Robert Kagan. Due to fatigue, misunderstanding and multiple hand offs, Kagan and Cousins failed to return the ship back into the shipping lanes and eventually running the ship aground on the reef. 


Captain Hazelwood contacted the port of Valdez in Alaska via radio transmission. This recording was the first documentation that the event happened and was recorded by the Vessel Traffic Center.

• Hazelwood: “Yeah, Valdez Traffic. Exxon Valdez. Over.

• Vessel Traffic Center in Alaska: “Exxon Valdez. Valdez Traffic.”

• Hazelwood: “Yeah. Uh, it’s Valdez back. Ah, we’ve… should be on your radar there. We’ve fetched up, ah, hard aground north of, uh, Good Island off Bligh Reef. And, uhm, leaking some oil, and ah, we’re gonna be here for a while. if you want, uhm, so you’re notified. Over.”

From this recording, Hazelwood’s stuttering may have been indicative of being intoxicated but it would not be until Coast Guard Mark Delozier, member of the first group to reach the scene, smelled a strong odor of alcohol on Hazelwood’s breath. This prompted the Coast Guard to seek blood and urine test on Hazelwood and the crew members. Hazelwood tested above the allowable BAC even though the tests were taken about 10 hours after the captain reported the accident. Exxon dismissed Hazelwood and the State of Alaska began the trial.

Hazelwood Trial

The Trial:
The Hazelwood trial started on January 29th of 1990. The captain was charged with three misdemeanors and three felonies. He was tried at Anchorage instead of Valdez because the local people had so much hate for him that his defense attorneys had to request that the jury members were not at all affected by the oil spill financially or emotionally. Alaskan state persecutors failed to persuade the jury that the captain was guilty of the felony charges. Hazelwood walks away with a misdemeanor charge and a $50,000 fine.

Local Media Coverage Bias
Throughout the years, local newspaper Anchorage Daily News published seemingly biased pieces from some emotional reporters.

A piece written by the editor of Anchorage Daily News Howard Weaver - "Responsiblity Demands Accountability" openly blames the U.S Coast Guard by blaming them for mishandling the collection and testing of blood of Hazelwood. An emotional tone is definitely present and even reminding the public what had happen and what may happen if any of the local ships hire Hazelwood.

• "So Joe Hazelwood is going to lose his mariner's license.

• For the next nine months.

• After that, the tippling skipper who killed 100,000 seabirds and stained more than 1,000 miles of coast will be free to return to the sea again. Anybody willing to do it will be allowed to entrust another ship  to the guy and send him out in command again.

• For some of this we can thank the U.S. Coast Guard, which seems to have screwed up the evidence so badly..."

 Hundreds of thousands of people read the piece titled, "Hazelwood reported his spill; maybe he deserves a medal" by Mike Doogan of Anchorage Daily News. It was on the second page of the newspaper in July 12, 1992. These are the first few sentences of Doogan's article. 

• "What next? Joe Hazelwood gets a medal for the Exxon Valdez oil spill? that seems to be the way things are headed. Friday, an appeals court threw out Hazelwood's only conviction for the spill. Joe doesnt have to eat a negligent discharge-of-oil rap, the court said, because he reported the spill. Hazelwood, for those of you who were out buying popcorn at the time, was captain of the Exxon Valdez when, in March of 1989, it smacked into Bligh Reef and spilled almost 11 million gallons of oil..."

Twenty years later, people still remember. Wesley Voy wrote in the front page of Anchorage Daily news on March 5, 2009... Note how the reported put quotation marks around Hazelwood's apology - he was mocking

• "Joe Hazelwood, captain of the doomed oil tanker Exxon Valdez, is offering "a very heartfelt apology" to Alaskans for the disastrous 1989 oil spill in Prince William Sound."

These articles are few of many articles available for reading in the Anchorage Daily News archives. They can be found here. Most of the articles I analyzed had a tinge of sarcasm, with a unifying theme of "remember the time when Hazelwood screwed up" tone of reporting. These articles must have shaped the public's opinion of Hazelwood, even when his name was cleared.