MSNBC anchor Chuck Todd admitted Thursday there’s an “institutional bias” in the media against Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt.
Todd told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt “there is an institutional bias on environmental issues towards climate science and things like that” regarding Pruitt.
He agreed with Hewitt that the “bias” puts reporters on the attack against the EPA head.
“So that is perceived as an ideological bias,” Todd said on Thursday morning. “I think that there is an institutional bias when it comes to some of these [scientific] studies and things like that on the climate.
“I think it automatically puts him sort of on the defensive,” Todd told Hewitt, whose son works for Pruitt at EPA.
Pruitt is one of the more controversial Trump administration officials, sparking heavy resistance from Democrats and environmentalists since his nomination. Activists and politicians labeled him “Polluting Pruitt” and the attacks have not ceased since.
More recently, Pruitt’s travel and security spending have garnered criticism. A series of reports have criticized Pruitt’s use of first-class travel over security reasons and purchasing a $43,000 secure phone line to the White House.
Focus on Pruitt’s air travel became more intense in the wake of former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s frequent use of chartered flights for officials business.
EPA’s inspector general is investigating Pruitt’s air travel. Pruitt recently said he would fly coach.
However, Pruitt has been under more intense press scrutiny than his predecessors.
Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy also flew first-class on an international flight, but no one in the media seemed to care then.
Here’s the entire exchange between Todd and Hewitt regarding Pruitt [edited for clarity]:
HH: Now let’s talk for a second, the big rumor of the morning is Scott Pruitt to Justice. I always tell people he’s my friend. My son works at EPA. I want to get that out there. I kind of throw a flag on the media here. Ever since Joy Reid and I were doing the Washington University debate, and a nut menaced her, and I mean, I was going to be the last line of defense, which is no defense at all, because I’m old, slow, and not very good. But this nut just got in her face. And it was really scary. And so they fly [Pruitt] in first class. They put in the cybersecurity things they have to do, and the media goes all over him and they say he’s on thin ice. But in fact, the president’s talking to him about being the AG.
CT: Right.
HH: Do you think that the media has gone so anti-Trump that they’re amplifying things like Scott Pruitt’s travel?
CT: Hugh, here’s the thing. It depends on how you’re going to define media. I mean, I just get tired of having to answer…
HH: For everyone, yeah.
CT: …because, you know, exactly. I just sort of throw up my hands at it and I refuse to do it anymore. And I don’t think you can collectively say the media’s anything because you know, who’s the most influential media organ on television now? It’s Fox News, right? They have the most viewers in the country, so…
HH: Actually, it’s Rachel. I think Rachel’s winning, isn’t she? [Maddow rarely comes in #1 with Hannity (FNC) owning that time slot in cable news.]
CT: Well, Rachel’s, well, but my point is who’s got influence over the agenda?
HH: Yeah. Oh, that’s Fox, yeah.
CT: My point is that if you’re going to define the entire media by what happens in prime time, I think that’s a little disingenuous.
HH: I’m reacting to the Washington Post this morning.
CT: Again, look, let’s go back to Scott Pruitt. I think Scott Pruitt’s a lightning rod. I think on environmental issues, I think you’re right. I think that there is an institutional bias on environmental issues towards climate science and things like that, right? So that is perceived as an ideological bias. So I think that there is an institutional bias when it comes to some of these [scientific[ studies and things like that on the climate. So that…
HH: So that leads people to go after him.
CT: That, I concede. Okay, that’s right. That, I concede. So I think it automatically puts him sort of on the defensive.
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We conservatives already know that the liberal reptiles are bias toward conservatives look how they treated Reagan while the swooned over Clinton,Gore and Obama and A-Mess-NBC is only one
Scott Pruitt is with out a doubt one of the star appointments of President Trump . The swamp doesn’t want reduced government
they want more . The swamp wants to impose a globalist agenda
and that is the polar opposite view of the Trump agenda . Pruitt
embodies that agenda and is respected for it . Nothing like being on the receiving end of corrupt bureaucrat bullying to have an appreciation of what needs fixing . Scott Pruitt knows the EPA
has drifted into a lobbyist cess pool with excessive overreach .
Didn’t his mother once run it ?… Before it turned into Godzilla .
I can still remember how liberal idiots reacted when Reagan had James Watt as his Interior Secretary they did,nt say a thing with Clinton hired Bruce(Babbling)Babbit in the same post and he(Babbit)belonged to the liberal Leugue of Conservation Voters