Do You Trust BP?

On the other hand, it's not as if Transocean or Halliburton are innocent victims being thrown overboard by BP. When Transocean went out of its way to accuse BP of "gross negligence," a skeptical investor might have thought to himself that the rig operator protested too much.

The war of words, documents detailing real-time tests of well integrity, and graphical appendixes portraying well casings and well annuluses, will go on well beyond the release of the BP report.

In Enemy of the People, Henrik Ibsen's famous play about the culpability of the masses in accepting a version of events provided by corrupt, powerful interests, a lone doctor stands against an entire town and its politicians in arguing that a water supply has been environmentally contaminated causing sickness.

Among the most famous quotes from the Ibsen play are, "the strongest man in the world is the man who stands most alone," and "A minority may be right; a majority is always wrong."

Forget Ibsen. Congressman Ed Markey (D. Mass.), had a nice quip about the BP report on Wednesday, noting that the report is not BP's mea culpa and that, "Of their own eight key findings, they only explicitly take responsibility for half of one. BP is happy to slice up blame, as long as they get the smallest piece," Markey said in a statement.

So at least one simple question can be asked, and answered, by investors today. Is BP a minority that can be at all trusted, or does the investor need to stand alone and outside any version of oil spill events offered by BP? Take our poll below, to see what TheStreet thinks.

Do you trust the oil spill story offered by the BP report?
	No -- I wouldn't trust a word from BP. Yes -- The BP report is on the level; Transocean and Halliburton deserve blame.

-- Written by Eric Rosenbaum from New York.

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