MSNBC Prime Time Programs Still Haven't Reported Obama's Solyndra Scandal
As the scandal involving failed solar panel company Solyndra and President Obama grows, the prime time programs at the so-called "news network" known as MSNBC continue to ignore it.
Despite the announcement of the Solyndra bankruptcy on August 31, "Hardball," "PoliticsNation," "The Last Word," "The Rachel Maddow Show," and "The Ed Show" have not done one single report on the subject.
Not one.
This seems rather absurd given the President's push for so-called "green jobs" as well as a pending bill to revive the horrible economy.
Consider, too, that every day there are new revelations indicating this could be a huge political problem for the President's reelection.
As the Washington Post reported Thursday:
A White House official fretted privately that the Obama administration could suffer serious political damage if it gave additional taxpayer support to the beleaguered solar-panel company Solyndra, according to newly released e-mails.
The firm had burned through millions of dollars and in January still tottered near collapse. The official wanted the government’s top budget official to warn Obama’s energy secretary about the risk, according to the e-mails.
At the time, the Energy Department was trying to pump taxpayer money into the California company to save it from imminent failure. The firm had received a $535 million federal loan from the agency in 2009, but early this year confided to the Obama administration that without a rapid infusion of cash it was in danger of defaulting.
“The optics of a Solyndra default will be bad,” the Office of Management and Budget staff member wrote Jan. 31 in an e-mail to a co-worker. “If Solyndra defaults down the road, the optics will be arguably worse later than they would be today. . . . In addition, the timing will likely coincide with the 2012 campaign season heating up.”
Sounds pretty serious, but not to MSNBC's prime time anchors.
For them, attacks on Republican presidential candidates are far more important than reporting a serious scandal involving the current White House resident.
Chris Matthews actually began his "Hardball" program Thursday with a ten minute segment on alleged political corruption in Texas involving governor Rick Perry:
Texas home builder Bob Perry gave $2.5 million to Perry's gubernatorial campaigns. What did he get? The entire state agency was created down there, the Texas Residential Construction Commission, to restrict -- that's the purpose of this agency -- lawsuits against builders over defective homes, which happen to be Bob Perry's personal crusade. Hmm. You get what you pay for.
Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons gave Perry $1.1 million. What did he get? A license for a controversial nuclear waste dump in west Texas owned by Simmons's company. Texas accountant George "Brint" Ryan gave Perry over $972,000. What`d he get? Well, nearly $1 million in tax rebates for his company through an Economic Development Board grant.
Matthews actually asked his guests, "Why is it OK to bring a guy into the White House who makes a habit, has grown up in a political culture, where if you want to even meet the governor, you got to go to the fundraiser?...Why would the American voter, Republican or Democrat -- say yes, that's pretty cool? Why would they say OK to that?"
So Matthews frets about a possible "pay to play" scandal involving a presidential candidate, but couldn't care less about one involving the current White House resident. One of Obama's biggest contributors, George Kaiser, is also one of Solyndra's primary investors.
As NewsBusters reported September 2, "Campaign finance records show Kaiser and Solyndra executives and board members donated $87,050 total to Obama’s election campaign."
As such, this is a far more serious scandal than anything involving Perry, but neither Matthews nor any of the other MSNBC prime time anchors has said one single word about it.
To be fair, according to LexisNexis, the network has done at least one report on the subject. Andrea Mitchell touched on the issue Wednesday, which seems to suggest a conscious decision on the part of MSNBC to deliberately keep this growing scandal off its most-watched programs.
Not surprisingly, they'd rather stick to reporting controversies involving presidential candidates than the current one.
Adding insult to injury, even liberal comedian Jon Stewart has recognized the seriousness of this scandal as he opened his program Thursday with an eight minute segment about Solyndra and Obama.
It really says something when a so-called "news network" is getting scooped by a comedian.
Makes you wonder which channel is the bigger joke.
- Noel Sheppard's blog
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Comments
They're working on it
Submitted by Chris Norman on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 10:10am.
They're busy consulting with the White House on just how to respond to this unfair attack on their leader.
Isn't the MSNBC headquarters address 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.?
Ignore We Much.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 10:01am.
.
I laugh everytime I hear that Al Sharpton line.
Submitted by jawebster1 on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 2:43am.
Laura Ingraham has a sound bite which she uses of him saying "That's the question!" (in response to another soundbite from someone else asking a question.) You have to hear it first hand to appreciate it.
They're owned by GE which
Submitted by rbosque on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 10:01am.
They're owned by GE which also gets gov't kickbacks, they don't want to expose themselves either. All are crooks.
I think we're thinking along the same lines
Submitted by Galvanic on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 11:37am.
Though the NBC enterprise is now owned by Comcast, GE did own it at the beginning of the Obama Administration, and CEO Immelt is obviously close to Obama -- he's the jobs czar.
What makes the link important is how the Soldyna scandal has erupted in their faces. Here's how --
1. MSNBC has always endorsed and promoted WH green policy, a key component being the Federal 'investment' in green industry. GE was a major recipient of this largess, so MSNBC was providing propaganda for both the WH and its boss.
2. MSNBC has always discounted the conservative/libertarian claims that Big Government should never get involved in picking winners and losers because historically, it picks the losers. MSNBC painted the conflict as Green vs. Big Oil, and that Washington needed to back the mighty forces of Green to defeat the evil of Big Oil.
3. MSNBC has hammered corporate welfare (As do I), but selectively. Tax dollars to green industry and social justice organizations (like ACORN) is still justified on MSNBC. Again, the winners-losers paradigm, with Big Government picking the losers.
4. We all know of MSNBC's special relationship to the WH propaganda ministry since the exclusive meeting of Olbermann, Maddow, and a select few with the President. Maddow particularly is consistent about carrying water for Obama.
So, the Soldyna scandal erupts, and as evidence is revealed and even Leftist media like ABC and WaPo pick up on it, MSNBC is caught in the middle of the busy 'news intersection' when the light changed. They desperately need guidance from the WH, but they're apparently not getting it, so they clam up.
THE RISK: If this story continues to unfold and grow as I believe it can (with the potential impact of the Tea Pot Dome scandal), it will become THE headline and too big to ignore. MSNBC's small audience of true believers might even get smaller as they look for more info on the scandal.
And the WH--GE--MSNBC link could bring down all three. A good journalist merely builds a timeline of the communications and decisions of the three starting in 2009, to show the propagation of lies and myths to the public.
I have heard from multiple
Submitted by Beukeboom on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 1:18pm.
I have heard from multiple conservative sources that there are some other green business scandals about to come to the light of day which are far worse than the Soldyna scandal and may truly hurt Obama's campaign greatly.
Solyndra. The most valuable thing about Solyndra...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 2:37am.
or the only valuable thing about Solyndra is the name they came with for their company and the use of that name as a logo. Sol, of course, is latin for the Sun and they fashioned the "O" as the Sun, complete with Sun rays. Very clever and for that we, the taxpayers, were stuck for over a half billion dollars.
Stop Pretending MSNBC is Fair
Submitted by dan iroticiv on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 10:53am.
Fair minded people and newsbusters should stop pretending like MSNBC is going to fair and balanced. They are shills for Obama, they know it, and we know it. With that said, why don't republicans or conservatives who go on these shows ask their MSNBC host why they don't talk about Solyndra, hyjack the interviews with morning joe, andrea (woo i love michell's arms) Mitchell, or Chris Mathews, and don't answer their bias question, but rather bring up the subject of solyndra. For instance, Peggy Noonan was on Morning Joe this morning, allowed him to demagogue the tea party "let him die applause " and didn't say a word to defend the people who were actually just telling Wolf Blitzer to stick his leftie questions up his ass. Conservatives need to stop whining if they are not going to fight back.
Too busy
Submitted by rwnewsnut on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 10:55am.
Matthews is too busy dissecting the Bachmann HPV vaccine statement.
He doesn't have any time to cover a possible money-laundering scheme with Solyndra and the ATF Fast and Furious congressional investigations. He’ll have another chance to inform his viewers regarding the head of the Air Force Space Command Gen. William Shelton having been pressured to change prepared congressional testimony
If the MSM couldn't see a scandal with President Obama and a land deal with Tony Rezko, they can't see a scandal anywhere for Obama.
Don't count on him playing Hardball with the administration.
MSNBC can get away with this
Submitted by jessieH on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 11:23am.
MSNBC can get away with this sort of behavior, because they have no viewers.
Even if they reported it, 99% of the country doesn't watch...
Submitted by Red Jeep on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 11:47am.
...MSNBC
MSNBC = Obama Press Secretaries
Submitted by gmaniac1 on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 11:37am.
They are so shameless and could care less about the American public... how many zombies still watch that cable network? And they expect people to actually "pay" for their services? Just take it out of the DNC budget and all will be right as a rain.
In my experience with different pay TV companies that MSNBC and/or CNN is part of the low price package while FNC is always the mid tier to high level premium package... very telling indeed.
MSNBC is delivered to 78 million homes via cable...
Submitted by Red Jeep on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 11:53am.
...no one watches but you are right FOX is in the higher level package.
Same tier
Submitted by Model850 on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 4:47pm.
My cable provider (Cox Communications) includes FNC in the same service tier with CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC, so I guess I'm lucky there.
However, FBN is a higher service tier.
Don't hold your breath.
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 12:43pm.
Don't hold your breath.
MSNBC is a an extreme example
Submitted by deerjerkydave on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 1:12pm.
MSNBC is a an extreme example of liberal news and demonstrates quite well how the regular liberal news outlets work. Much of their bias comes in the form of omission.
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"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State Governments are numerous and indefinite. -James MadisonMSNBC warning sign?
Submitted by Beukeboom on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 1:17pm.
I have a sneaky suspicion that there is a large warning sign somewhere on the walls at MSNBC that reads, "Sagen Sie keine schlechten Sachen über unseren lieben Führer."
Noel
Submitted by ricklail on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 5:14pm.
I don't think they've talked about Fast and Furious either.
MSNBC = QVC Without Products
Submitted by Motormouth KOS on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 6:07pm.
Keith Olberdoodle.
Randy Madcow.
Sergeant Shultz.
Tingles Matthews.
Tawana Sharpdope.
What are the qualifications to get a show on MSLSD?
An IQ below plant life?
The brain power of a zygote?
We don't care. Our reward is the 4 viewers they have.
The Obamination... A crisis leading to a catastrophe..(please donate to MRC)
At least MSNBC is open and honest about their bias...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 2:12am.
even if they are not open and honest about their reporting. ABCCBSNBC try to pretend that that are objective...strike that, ABCCBS try to pretend that...strike that, ABC tries to pretend....strike that. MSNBC is just like all the others, except that they are more blatant about it.
The scandal here is, as you say
Submitted by Bill The Bold on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 5:51am.
mostly about politics and not gross mismanagement of fiances, quid pro quo of an egregious nature nor is it about a company using access to Obama as cover for stealing, embezzling and diverting funds for their personal benefit.
You make a very incoherent argument to support the premise that this isn't being covered bc of liberal favoritism which includes the notion that this is a big scandal, implying impropriety. To support the idea that this is not being covered by liberal media out of their support for Obama you use the examples of the way they are covering impropriety and scandalous actions by a repub candidate for president. I guess you mean to say that at least when a republican engages in obvious scandalous behavior of a quid pro guo payola with businessmen, at least he gets a lot more money for what he doles out as reward for the bribe. Perry got millions and only gave away an uncontested open ended government contract to manage toxic waste facilities. sucker. Obama only got $80 k and look at the size of the loan he approved. Would it be better if Obama got $100 million so at least he would be in relative balance with perry? Or could it be that ?Solyndra is a scandal created to be used as a tool to gain political advantage by wielding it with loads of innuendo, implications of possible bad things and a little socialism pepper in to make it sound real. Maybe the guys who invested $1 billion of their money will be indicted for some sort of effort to steal some the the loan money for god know what reason, but until then, the scandal is political propaganda.
a real scandal is exactly why the media is uncovering with Perry. He got personally very rich by taking big payoffs from rich Friends who then received non-competitive awards of very lucrative government contracts and government gifts. See, the difference here is that the government makes loans and grants to businesses all the time. 10s of billions of them every year. these loans are granted through a transparent, competitive process and are managed with credit standards only slightly looser than those of a bank. Many of those loans are repaid. Solyndra may repay most of this loan. The people who gave $8ok to the Obama campaign also invested money into Solydra. $1 billion of their money. why would they do that if it was some sort of scam? Would they put up $1 billion so that they could steal the $500 million? Would a Texas business man give a governor $1million so he could get a hole in the ground? No, he purchased with his payola, an uncontested, non-competitive contract with the Texas and us government to mange that waste. he will be sucking 100s of millions of dollar of tax payer money with having to answer to taxpayers just for giving perry a million. The news is coverings that bc that is a scandal and the very kind of crony capitalism that dominated the bush years and is still costing us billions.
Billy Bold---
Submitted by matthewdean on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 8:46pm.
"Solyndra may repay most of this loan."
Though your above post is a testament to the ability to sling liberal BS whether or not you actually compose it; committing the 'Solyndra' line to print, while pretty funny, is also evidence that you are a fool.
"The check MAY BE in the mail".
A laugh riot AND a meathead.
Billy Bold Stivic - Archie Bunker's son-in-law.
MD
MD, don't forget, "It's Bush's fault".
Submitted by UpNorth on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 10:10pm.
You know, when Malia Obama runs for the White House, I'll bet any problems will still be Bush's fault.
BtB claims to be an "independent" who's voted for candidates from both parties. Any bets that he's never, ever pulled anything but the Straight Democrat lever?
Billy, if Solyndra is bankrupt, how in the hell will they pay back the loan? They gonna borrow the money from the DNC? Or, from Obama's billion $ campaign chest?
That's a bit unfair, UpNorth...
Submitted by Jer on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 10:43pm.
I think Laura and the daughters should should shoulder at least part of the blame. Barney the dog was no help either.
Jer
So true, Jer, and they were all manipulated by the
Submitted by UpNorth on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 8:31pm.
puppetmaster, Rove. I've always wondered, if Rove was such a good puppetmaster, why didn't Bush just stay on, after all, the world's bestest puppetmaster should have been able to insure that Bush was President for Life, no?
I see that Billy the BS'r didn't last long. He's gone off to join the dishonor roll of trolls like Pervmo, ADK, Zippers, but I repeat myself.