Spiking Solyndra: Big Three Networks Barely Mention Burgeoning Scandal
Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s admission, on Thursday , that he approved more taxpayer money to the financially strapped solar panel company Solyndra, after it defaulted on a $535 million loan from that agency. Big Three network coverage? Zero. This is just a continuing pattern of ABC, CBS and NBC barely touching the bourgeoning scandal for the Obama administration. What initially began as an embarrassing collapse of one of the green companies touted by the Obama has turned into a story of coverup of still more stimulus money being wasted on the left’s pet cause of climate change. Yet, as a search of Nexis shows, the networks have glanced over the Solyndra story with the Big Three networks running a total of just 8 total full stories, two anchor briefs and a couple of mentions on their evening and morning news shows, since the company declared bankruptcy in August. When the CEO and CFO of Solyndra, on September 23, invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, the networks mostly skipped over the news. As the MRC’s Brent Baker reported , “neither ABC nor NBC mentioned the development Friday night and CBS allocated a mere 25 seconds.” NBC’s Lisa Myers did note on the September 24 Today show: “Images of its executives taking the Fifth today are not the optics the White House had hoped for,” but neither ABC nor CBS advanced that angle on the story on their morning shows. Myers, to her credit, explained the severity of the story as seen in the following excerpt: MATT LAUER: Top executives from a now bankrupt solar energy company who were given half a billion in taxpayer loans by the Obama administration are appearing at a congressional hearing this morning but they are pleading the Fifth. NBC's senior investigative correspondent Lisa Myers is in San Antonio with the latest on this. Hi, Lisa. Good morning. LISA MYERS: Good morning to you, Matt. This company was the poster child for the President's green jobs initiative. So, images of its executives taking the Fifth today are not the optics the White House had hoped for. Taxpayers now stand to lose as much as a half billion dollars. Solyndra executives personally showed the President around their operation last year. Top executives promised to testify today, under oath,
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on October 3, 2011. Filed under