Spike Lee Says US Government Is Lying About The Clean Up Of The Oil Spill

Filmmaker Spike Lee is calling a “lie” a U.S. government report that 75 percent of the spilled Gulf Coast oil is gone.

Speaking to a meeting of the Television Critics Association onSaturday, Lee said journalists should expose what he called the realstory. He argued that it’s unlikely that “abracadabra, presto chango”the vast majority of the oil has vanished from Gulf of Mexico watersand coastal wetlands.

Federal scientists said last week that nearly three-quarters of theoil has been removed by various artificial or natural means, but thatthe spill’s effect on wildlife will long continue.

Lee was promoting his new documentary about New Orleans afterHurricane Katrina. “If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise,” afollow-up to his 2006 film about the hurricane, debuts Aug. 23 and 24 on HBO.