I thought the coverage was very fair to the BP. Part of the reason though was because those 2 guys were such characters that they provided the entertainment factor for the story. If the person that found it was terrified and hated snakes, then the coverage may have turned into a "killer monster snake" story.

Much respect to the guy that grabbed the snake. It took a lot of guts to do that assuming that he didn't have any prior experience with snakes.