Headline Shocker: 'Solyndra Filing a Disaster for Obama'

August 31st, 2011 6:08 PM

As NewsBusters reported moments ago, a solar company the Obama administration loaned 535 million taxpayer dollars to as part of the 2009 stimulus plan filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday.

Although it's still too early to gauge how the rest of the president's fans in the media will cover this if at all, NBCBayArea.com reported the local event in a rather shocking fashion under the headline "Solyndra Filing a Disaster for Obama":

President Obama faces political catastrophe in the form of Solyndra -- a San Francisco Bay area solar company that he touted as a gleaming example of green technology. It has announced it will declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy. [...]

During a visit to the Fremont facility in spring of 2010, the President said the factory "is just a testament to American ingenuity and dynamism and the fact that we continue to have the best universities in the world, the best technology in the world, and most importantly the best workers in the world. "

Talk about instant karma getting you: included in this announcement was a layoff of more than 1,100 Solyndra workers.

But of potentially greater consequence to Obama was a loan his administration made to the now failing Solyndra:

The President was celebrating $535 million in federal promises from the Department of Energy to the solar startup. The administration didn't do its due diligence, says the Government Accountability Office. "There's a consequence if you don't follow a rigorous process that's transparent," Franklin Rusco of GAO told the website iWatch News.

A rigorous process that's transparent? Does the current White House resident have a clue what that is?

That aside, it's going to be fascinating to see how this matter gets covered in the coming days, especially with a jobs speech coming from the President next week.

Stay tuned.

For more on the lack of coverage given to disappointments over the creation of so-called "green jobs" please see Julia Seymour's "Networks Barely Criticize Obama's Disastrous 'Green Jobs' Policies."