George Kaiser

On Solyndra and Obama's 2011 SOTU Avoidance, Politico's Samuelsohn Misses the Big Kahuna: By That Time, Everyone Knew
By Tom Blumer | March 18, 2012 | 4:45 PM EDT

On Friday, Darren Samuelsohn at the Politico (HT Hot Air), the place where it seems that inconvenient stories go so the Associated Press, the New York Times and the rest of the establishment press can claim they have an excuse not to cover them (respective proofs as of about 3:30 p.m. in the current instance are here and here), covering -- or I should say attempting to cover -- the latest of the White House's ritual Friday document dumps, reported that a White House communications official rejected an apparent proposal to seat Solyndra executives at the President's January 2011 State of the Union address, and that others within the White House already knew that Solyndra was in deep trouble before then.

And he almost got to the real meat of the story, but not quite. In this instance, not quite isn't anywhere near good enough (bolds are mine throughout this post), nor is the "nothing new here, you really don't need to read this" headline:

Solyndra CEO Resigns, Major Backer Evasive on Taxes; Will Media Report?
By Ken Shepherd | October 13, 2011 | 5:02 PM EDT

Two more shoes dropped in the Solyndra scandal today, but it remains to be seen their sound will stir the sleepy liberal lapdog media.

Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison resigned last Friday, the Associated Press reported early this afternoon.

Oh, and while the media of late have cheerleading the Democratic push for a new surtax on millionaires, don't expect the news media, particularly MSNBC, to note how a key Obama donor who pushed for the Solyndra loan has been delinquent on his evaded federal taxes for years. As Washington Examiner's Mark Tapscott noted this morning:

Reality Check: ABC, CBS and NBC Bury News of Taxpayer Money Squandered on Obama-Linked Solar Energy Company
By Rich Noyes | October 11, 2011 | 10:50 AM EDT
 

A study by the Media Research Center finds that the three broadcast networks are providing virtually no coverage of the Solyndra scandal, a solar energy firm that went bankrupt after getting more than $500 million in taxpayer money from the Obama administration. 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 cranked out 198 stories on the Enron debacle, compared to just eight so far on Solyndra, a 24-to-1 disparity. Details after the jump.

Deceptive NY Times Headline: 'U.S.' Missed Warning Signs On Solyndra
By Mark Finkelstein | September 23, 2011 | 7:34 AM EDT

Sometimes, media bias is all about the headline . . . The New York Times has a decent piece this morning detailing the background that led to the approval by the Obama admin of more than a half-billion in loan guarantees to the soon-to-go-kaput Solyndra solar firm.   The article paints a picture of an Obama admin that was eager to get the money out the door and was heavily lobbied by Solyndra and its major player who was a big Obama fund-raiser.

But check out the headline: "In Rush to Assist Solyndra, U.S. Missed Warning Signs."  What do you mean, "U.S.", Gray Lady?  That "U.S" suggests that perhaps the previous Bush admin also let itself get bamboozled by Solyndra.  Except that the truth is just the opposite,  as these paras from the article demonstrate [emphasis added]:

Solyndra Not the Only Company to Benefit from Democratic Ties
By Rusty Weiss | September 4, 2011 | 12:58 AM EDT

The California solar company, Solyndra, heralded by the Obama administration as a prime example of how the Recovery Act created new jobs while promoting his vision of renewable energy, is closing their doors.  Just over a year ago, Obama himself spoke at the facility, praising it as “a testament to American ingenuity and dynamism.”  Once a beacon of solar light in the progressive green jobs agenda, Solyndra had received a $535 million federal loan with the help of newly minted energy secretary, Steven Chu, only to find themselves staring down bankruptcy and the release of more than 1,100 workers. 

Lying within that massive federal loan was a number of sub-awards to other vendors, 40 payments of which were greater than $25,000 each.  The largest sub-award went to another administration favorite, CH2M Hill, to the tune of $9.6 million for their construction engineering services.  The company is a $6.3 billion consulting, engineering, and construction firm, and shares some similarities to the failed Solyndra.  In fact, CH2M used the nearly $10 million sub-award to design Solyndra’s solar manufacturing plant in Fremont, California.  Besides that amount, CH2M is also a major beneficiary of the stimulus, having been awarded four of the top ten contracts from stimulus funding last summer - to the tune of $1.2 billion.  As of this April, the company boasts of $1.6 billion in contracts from the Recovery Act.