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.
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.
