BP Hires Former Dick Cheney Press Secretary

Former press secretary to Dick Cheney Anne Womack-Kolton has been hired away from agency APCO Worlwide to join BP and lead the troubled company’s U.S. media efforts around the deadly oil-spill that continues to wreak havoc on the Gulf Coast.

Womack-Kolton was previously a director at Brunswick Group, who is currently working with BP as the company’s U.S. PR agency of record.

Reuters reports what the new job will be like:

[BP] has flown in staff from London to help deal with media requests, but has also been forced to put its media hotline on voicemail to process the many calls — some abusive — that come in.

Womack-Kolton previously held positions including director of public affairs at U.S. Department of Energy, assistant press secretary at the White House and press secretary to the vice president at Bush Cheney ’04.

In addition to the massive continuing communications efforts by BP, the company now also faces a criminal and civil investigation, announced today by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

RELATED: Gulf Coast Spill: Top Government Official To Begin Daily Media Briefings Today

[Image: A BP sign in New York. Via Twitpic.]

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