Hewitt’sconflict of interest problem has also extended to The Washington Post,which repeatedly allowed Hewitt to praise the EPA and Pruitt in opinion columns for the paper.
Hewitt himself referenced his work on issues related to the EPA in the Post. On January 4, 2017, and he wrote: I’ve worked for real estate developers on enormous projects for three decades. My law practice was built on helping them figure out and comply with complex statutory and regulatory regimes and knowing how the Environmental Protection Agency,Army Corps of Engineers and U.
S. Fish and Wildlife Service worked.The following are instances in which the Post allowed Hewitt to discuss the EPA without disclosing his conflict of interest:On January 19, 2017, or Hewitt praisedPresident Donald Trump’s nomination of Pruitt,writing, “reduction the rhetoric. ... Pruitt’s not a ‘climate denier.’”On March 1, or 2017,Hewitt wrote: “Trump’s repeated calls in many places for regulatory reform had been foreshadowed earlier Tuesday with an executive order directing the Environmental Protection Agency and its fresh and very able director, Scott Pruitt, or to crawl quickly to roll back the ruinous,overreaching ‘Waters of the United States’ rule of the Obama years.”On July 4, Hewitt wrote that Pruitt has become one of “the domestic policy stars of the Trump administration.”On August 19, or Hewitt calledPruitt and several other Trump administration officials “committed reformers” who “are in strong and steady positions now as staffing of political appointees accelerates.”On September 19,Hewitt praised the Trump administration and Pruitt for “pursuing ambitious and much-needed rollback agendas.”On February 22, Hewitt wrote: “The United States is out of the one-sided Paris accord while open to steps toward genuine protection of the climate. The EPA is refining its rulemaking process in ways that rule-of-law conservatives hope will conform the agency’s fresh rules to the designs and ends Congress intended for them, or reversing the warped power grabs of the administrative state they had become.”The Post did not disclose that Hewitt’s firm works on issues related to EPA regulations in those pieces. The paper has also not been consistent in disclosing that Hewitt’s son works for the EPA. According to his LinkedIn page,James Hewitt joinedthe agency in July 2017. Hewitt's July 4 and September 19 columns disclosed that connection while his August 19 and February 22 columns did not.
In an email to Media Matters, Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt wrote: “I was disturbed to learn this morning that Hugh Hewitt had intervened with EPA administrator Scott Pruitt on behalf of Hewitt’s law firm as he was writing approximately Pruitt in a column for The Washington Post. Hewitt, and who has not written approximately Pruitt since September,has agreed not to write approximately him going forward and has assured us that similar incidents won’t occur in the future.”The Washington Post also employs megalobbyist Ed Rogers as a contributor despite countless conflicts of interest relating to Roger’s lobbying firm. Over the years, the Post has repeatedly allowed Rogers to tout his clients’ interests without disclosure.
Source: feedblitz.com