Irvine’s Hugh Hewitt has a national stage as a conservative voice on Liberal MSNBC and he also hosts a nationally syndicated talk show carried by conservative radio stations. The Irvine resident used the radio program to float the idea that a way to stop school shootings is to ban students from wearing trenchcoats.
Check out this link that takes you to an audio clip of Hewitt’s radio program.
Hewitt has applied to be an appointed replacement on the Irvine Unified School Board twice in the past 15 years, but he’s never run as a candidate. He was recently admonished by MSNBC for being way to chummy with EPA chief Scott Pruitt in violation of the network’s standards; Hewitt’s son works for Pruitt. And the reason has something to do with one of Hewitt’s clients in Orange County which Hewitt arranged a meeting with Pruitt on behalf of the client.
From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
MSNBC has issued a warning to Hugh Hewitt after it was revealed the host personally lobbied embattled Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt to cleanup up a toxic waste site near his home in Orange County, Calif.
Hewitt’s role in setting up a meeting between Pruitt and lawyers from Larson O’Brien was first reported by Politico as part of a cache of emails released after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from the Sierra Club. Hewitt works for the firm, which is representing a California Superfund site. Following the meeting, Pruitt moved the area onto a priority list of Superfund sights targeted for “immediate and intense” action.
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In a statement, an MSNBC spokesperson noted that Hewitt had disclosed his friendship with Pruitt several times on the network, and had disclosed that his son, James, works for the agency. As a result, Hewitt agreed to refrain from discussing EPA-related matters on the network.
“However, after the network learned Tuesday that Hewitt set up an EPA meeting in the fall, he was given a verbal warning as such activity is a violation of our standards,” the statement said.
After the Politico report was published, several reporters called out MSNBC over what appeared to be a clear conflict-of-interest.
“Um, it’s not okay for a cable news contributor to ask the EPA administrator for favors like this and still be on TV talking about him. At. All,” Michael Barbaro, the host of the popular New York Times podcast The Daily, wrote on Twitter. “How does MSNBC possibly justify keeping Hugh Hewitt on the payroll given this?” Vox’s Matthw Yglesias wrote.
As recently as April 2, Hewitt was defending Pruitt on MSNBC, claiming that criticism surrounding a condo the EPA leader leased at below-market rates was politically motivated.
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Since January 2017, Hewitt has written at least six columns either defending or outright praising Pruitt without disclosing his law firm’s work, describing him in one piece as one of “the domestic policy stars of the Trump administration.”