MSNBC, MSM Ignoring Solyndra Scandal

Not that I ever personally watch MSNBC, but that network has totally ignored for the past six weeks the filing for bankruptcy of Solyndra and the ensuing scandal. As of October 14, 2011, Chris Matthews, Lawrence O’Donnell, Ed Schultz, and Al Sharpton have said absolutely nothing about the Solyndra scandal on their prime time “news” shows. Only Rachel Maddow mentioned the scandal, filing just one report.

MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan decries “crony capitalism,” but not in the case of Solyndra. Ratigan has been very silent on the Solyndra congressional investigation.

Speaking of crony capitalism, the MSM couldn’t get enough of any scandals within Halliburton and always made sure to connect them to Dick Cheney. Yet they don’t seem to care much about the Solyndra scandal. Halliburton was and Solyndra is a case of crony capitalism. I wish I understood why the MSM thinks they should only report on GOP crony capitalism and not equally on Democrat crony capitalism. The MSM loves to remind people of Dick Cheney’s connections to Halliburton, yet refuse to mention President Obama’s political connections to Solyndra.

The MSM is not much better. A review of the ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news shows by the Media Research Center found just fifteen stories mentioning the Solyndra scandall since its August 31, 2011, bankruptcy filing. Total network coverage over nearly six weeks: just 25 minutes, 30 seconds, less than 0.2% of the available news airtime. A study by the Media Research Center finds that the three broadcast networks are providing virtually no coverage of the Solyndra scandal. This is not the approach the networks took after the collapse of Enron, an energy company with Republican ties. In just the first two months of 2002, the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts broadcast 198 stories about Enron, compared to just eight so far on Solyndra, a 24-to-1 disparity. When two Solyndra executives took the Fifth Amendment before a congressional committee in late September, ABC and NBC spiked that news, while CBS offered 25 seconds of coverage.

As an aside, Republicans have pointed to one e-mail from Mary Miller, an assistant Treasury secretary, who wrote in an August 17, 2011, e-mail that Treasury’s “legal counsel believes that the statute and the DoE regulations both require that the guaranteed loan should not be subordinate to any loan or other debt obligation.”   [emphasis mine]  That is exactly what happened with the Solyndra loan.

BTW, on a personal note, the only television I watch is NASCAR racing, and I pull for Tony Stewart (14), Kurt Busch (22), Kevin Harvick (29), and Carl Edwards (99) to win “the chase.” Why, you ask? Well, back in August, 2011, they chose to boycott a meeting with Barack Obama. So I am a conservative NASCAR fan. Does that make me a redneck?

But that’s just my opinion.