Poisoning the well — BP buys the professors (and their research too)

Chris in Paris had a piece on this last week, with good coverage from CBS News:

BP has been trying to hire marine scientists from universities around the Gulf Coast in an apparent move to bolster the company's legal defense against anticipated lawsuits related to the Gulf oil spill, according to a report from The Press-Register in Mobile, Ala.

Scientists from Louisiana State University, Mississippi State University and Texas A&M have reportedly accepted BP's offer, according to the paper.

Now Lawrence O'Donnell, subbing for Keith Olbermann on Countdown, is on it. His interviewee is Dr. Russ Lee, Vice-President for Research at the University of South Alabama in Mobile.

A rather shocking segment — for two reasons, as I'll try to explain. First the interview:



That's the "poisoning the well" part of the story — BP buying academic experts and their courtroom silence. Rachel Maddow on Monday likened it to Tony Soprano's tactic of "contaminating" lawyers.

But what about that other part, the request for two contracts?

It was all in one contract, and it really should have been separated out.

The university was willing to allow BP to "buy" (rent?) the university — AND its grad students' free labor — to do research, so long as the academics could benefit too, by publishing. This is apparently what they do, the other business the university is in.

This may not be news, but I'll say it explicitly. Universities regularly sell (or rent) themselves — their profs, their students, and their facilities — to corporations to further the corporate interest. (In the same way, part of the "business" of a medical practice is to rent their patients to drug companies for research — again, for a fee. I've known nurses for whom selling these patients is full-time work.)

The "school" (at this point they're not purely schools, but some kind of hybrid) gets something — money for sure, and the bennies of doing research. The corp gets a labor force, much of it free, and technical facilities they don't have to build or completely fund. They probably split the proceeds — patent rights, etc. — according to some formula. Corporate "campus" indeed.

So — any doubt who gets the better end of the deal? With all of society starved for money, including universities — and corporations swimming in it — who's got the upper hand?

And for good measure, if it's a state university handing stuff over at a discount, where does part of what's given away come from? Your tax dollars at work.

When the whole town is thirsty, and one guy owns the water — imagine the possibilities, especially if that one guy is conscienceless, a money-driven monomaniac.

GP