"Disaster in the Gulf": Philippe Cousteau "Disappointed" in Media Coverage of Oil Spill

Philippe Cousteau, grandson of oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, is spearheading the cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. He sat down with CBS News' Kaylee Hartung on Wednesday's Washington Unplugged as part of the weeklong series "Disaster in the Gulf."

Cousteau said he was "disappointed" in media's initial coverage of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and has worked hard to show people just how grave of a disaster the spill is. "The whole idea was to try and help people understand, and I was disappointed in the media at the time," he said. "I didn't feel like they were really covering the spill enough."

Cousteau added, "I wanted to open people's eyes to the magnitude of this disaster. What I had recognized is that no one had ever really been diving in an oil spill before and filmed it."

Cousteau was the first person to ever dive into water affected by an oil spill and film it, and did so in an effort to further publicize the damage done in the Gulf.

But Cousteau's disappointment in the media coverage of the spill paled in comparison to his anger at how unprepared the country and oil companies were to deal with a spill of this magnitude. Cousteau told Hartung, "We need to put a moratorium on all drilling, first and foremost. If Congress is not willing to do that, then at the very least we should conduct no more drilling until this type of disaster cannot happen and we're prepared with the technology and the ability to prevent or clean-up a spill immediately."

To Cousteau, this kind of disaster is "absolutely unacceptable" in 2010.

Watch Wednesday's Washington Unplugged above, also featuring CBS News Political Consultant John Dickerson with a wrap-up of Tuesday's primaries.

"Washington Unplugged," CBSNews.com's exclusive daily politics Webshow, appears live on CBSNews.com each weekday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Click here to check out previous episodes.