Hugh Hewitt

Radio's Hugh Hewitt Schools MSNBC's Karen Finney on History, Communism; Liberal Host Hangs Up
By Scott Whitlock | August 27, 2013 | 3:11 PM EDT

Appearing on Hugh Hewitt's radio show, Monday, liberal MSNBC panelist Karen Finney angrily hung up on the host after he dismantled her claim that conservatives are modern day McCarthyites for opposing health care. Hewitt stopped Finney and demanded she explain her historical analogy.

As described by Politico, Hewitt pressed, "Did any communists infiltrate the United States government?" Finney squirmed, "I think if we go back to the McCarthy hearings, it’s pretty clear that he created a culture of paranoia and fear that people later recognized, they sort of bought into it and then recognized that it was absolutely misplaced." The former head of the Democratic National Committee even declined to answer this basic question: "Was Alger Hiss a communist?"

NYT Reporter Bored by Question of Obama's 9/11 Chatter and Whereabouts During Benghazi Attack
By Tim Graham | May 27, 2013 | 12:09 PM EDT

Radio host Hugh Hewitt's interviews with reporters can be fascinating. On Tuesday, he pressed New York Times reporter Michael Shear about the question of what President Obama was doing on the night of September 11, 2012 as the Benghazi consulate came under a vicious terrorist attack. Shear showed an obvious distaste for digging into this, saying "relevance is in the eye of the beholder" and "I'm not personally trying to get to the bottom of that."

Speaking of digging into irrelevant issues,  when Shear was at The Washington Post, he spent months in 2006 trying to dig a political ditch for Sen. George Allen for insulting a Democratic opposition researcher as "Macaca." So political bias might be a better guess as to his interests:

Liberal Journalists Alter, Shear Rip White House Over AP Scandal
By Andrew Lautz | May 22, 2013 | 5:18 PM EDT

Conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt featured two liberal journalists on his nightly program this week, and both joined the chorus of media outrage at the Obama administration over the Justice Department’s recent AP probe. Bloomberg View’s Jonathan Alter called Eric Holder’s explanation of the probe “pathetic” and suggested that President Obama should “apologize to journalists” over the scandal, while Michael Shear of the New York Times was frosted by the “absolutely chilling” way that the Obama/Holder DOJ has treated journalists like criminals.

Just last week, Alter fretted over the administration’s scandals with Chris Matthews on Hardball, claiming that White House staffers had “an unhealthy love” for Obama. On Wednesday, Alter blasted the administration for their “especially aggressive” attitude towards reporters, calling the Justice Department’s recent actions “disturbing."

Hugh Hewitt Finds MSNBC's Joy-Ann Reid Doesn't Really Care About Deficits
By Tim Graham | November 29, 2012 | 12:35 PM EST

Hugh Hewitt felt educated by a recent interview with current MSNBC omnipresence Joy-Ann Reid, the managing editor of the NBC-owned website TheGrio.com. He told his fans Reid was "very candid about what she wants from the lame duck Congress and from the president going forward.  Sometimes the best thing a conservative can do is to let a lefty just state their objectives and their beliefs. Joy did that admirably well, and the reaction among many callers and emailers was disbelief."

Reid's policy agenda was clear. Eliminate all Bush tax cuts, "infuse more demand" with more "stimulus" spending, legalize marijuana, and implement Obamacare:

Quinnipiac Pollster Admits: ‘Probably Unlikely’ That Electorate Will Feature Massive Dem Skew
By Matthew Sheffield | September 26, 2012 | 2:27 PM EDT

With no manufactured outrage to hammer Mitt Romney at the moment, liberal journalists are now eagerly touting a series of polls which appear to show President Obama pulling away from the GOP nominee in several key states.

Unfortunately, these polls are relying on sample sizes which are skewed tremendously leftward with far more Democrats than Republicans and as such, they are unlikely to be good predictors of actual Election Day turnout. Do the pollsters themselves actually believe in their own sample sizes though? At least one appears not to.

Santorum Rips Keller's Claim 'He's Creeping Up On Christian Version Of Sharia Law'
By Noel Sheppard | February 29, 2012 | 12:20 PM EST

As NewsBusters reported Tuesday, former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller said on MSNBC's Morning Joe, "Sometimes [Rick] Santorum sounds like he's creeping up on a Christian version of Sharia law."

In response to this nonsense, the Republican presidential candidate told conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt later that day, "This is the intolerance of the Left. If you have religious beliefs that they don’t believe in, then they marginalize you" (video follows with partial transcript):

Open Thread: Hugh Hewitt Takes on Politico Editor Over Liberal Bias
By NB Staff | January 18, 2011 | 9:06 AM EST

On Monday, conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt hosted Politico.com editor John Harris to discuss Politico's coverage of the aftermath of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting. Hewitt charged that Politico's reporting - both on the Tucson massacre and in general - has been driven hard to the left in recent years. Here's full audio of the exchange, via Breitbart.tv:

Wildest Larry O'Donnell Tirades: Romney's Religion Is Demented! So Is Criticizing Islam
By Geoffrey Dickens | September 25, 2010 | 4:25 PM EDT

Monday night marks the debut of Lawrence O'Donnell's very own show, called The Last Word, on MSNBC and if his guest spots on various programs on that network and the syndicated McLaughlin Group over the last few years are any indication, he's bound to give Keith Olbermann a run for his money for over-the-top loony tirades.

O'Donnell reared his bigoted side on the December 8, 2007 edition of the McLaughlin Group. He not only went after former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, but also his faith, seen in the following rants he made after the former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate delivered a speech defending his "demented, Scientology-like" Mormon faith:

MSNBC's David Shuster Rips Sarah Palin for 'Dem Hit List,' Brings on Liberal Radio Hater to Trash Governor
By Scott Whitlock | March 29, 2010 | 12:34 PM EDT

MSNBC's David Shuster on Monday continued to hit Sarah Palin for supposedly inciting hate against liberals and Democrats on her Facebook page. The cable channel's graphic hyperbolically complained, "Sarah Palin's Dem Hit-list." With no sense of irony, Shuster then brought on the vitriolic Mike Malloy to trash Palin.

Malloy is the liberal radio host who said in 2009 that Dick Cheney has "been eating the blood of a Jewish or a Muslim baby," to cite but one example. And yet the MSNBC anchor queried this purveyor of hate speech about whether Sarah Palin is bad for the Republican Party.

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt also appeared and clearly annoyed Shuster by touting Palin's intelligence and by deriding MSNBC. At one point, the incredulous Shuster focused on a comment Hewitt made about Democrat Senator Barabara Boxer. He wondered, "Hugh, did you just say [Palin will] make the contrast in terms of intelligence with Barbara Boxer?" [Audio available here.]

Hewitt and Huffington Fight About Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin
By Noel Sheppard | February 7, 2010 | 3:26 PM EST

Conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt and liberal publisher Arianna Huffington squared off on Sunday in an epic ideological battle about Fox News's Glenn Beck and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

With Howard Kurtz moderating on CNN's "Reliable Sources," the outspoken pair found very little to agree about.

Unfortunately, Kurtz was by no means an impartial host oftentimes letting Huffington off the hook while pressing his conservative guest more strongly on points he didn't agree with (video embedded below the fold with transcript and commentary):

'This Is The First Step Toward Single-Payer: I Admit That'
By Mark Finkelstein | October 21, 2009 | 8:15 PM EDT

Barack Obama likes to claim he believes in the free market, even as he lards his administration with what Hugh Hewitt has delightfully dubbed "Mickey Maoists" like Anita Dunn and Ron Bloom.

But Ed Schultz has given away the game.  On his MSNBC show this evening, Schultz said of ObamaCare: "this is the first step toward single-payer. I admit that."

Here's Schultz's full statement . . .

Sacramento Paper Gets Meg Whitman's Voting Record Wrong
By Noel Sheppard | October 8, 2009 | 2:50 PM EDT

The Sacramento Bee has drawn some heat for a September 24 article about California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's previous voting record.

In the piece, author Andrew McIntosh alleged that "Whitman regularly skipped elections in California and several other states where she lived and worked."

On Monday, conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt took McIntosh to task: