MSNBC has admonished weekend host Hugh Hewitt for lobbying EPA head Scott Pruitt to clean up a polluted site near Hewitt's home in California.
In a statement released Wednesday, a spokesperson for MSNBC said that Hewitt "was given a verbal warning as such activity is a violation of our standards."
The revelation of a request for a meeting between Pruitt and Hewitt's law firm came earlier this week after a cache of internal emails was released as a result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the environmental group The Sierra Club.
In one of the correspondences from September, first reported by Politico, the MSNBC host asked Pruitt for a meeting with lawyers from Hewitt's firm who represent a water district that sought federal help to clean up a toxic waste site in Orange County, California, where Hewitt lives.
Weeks later, the site was placed on Pruitt's list of areas designated for "immediate and intense" action.
Hewitt did not respond to a request for comment.
Following Politico's report on Tuesday, many journalists called out both MSNBC and Hewitt for what they contended was a glaring conflict of interest.
Fredd Hiatt, the editor of the Washington Post editorial page, where Hewitt has a column, told the liberal watchdog Media Matters that he was "disturbed to learn" of Hewitt's role in brokering the meeting.
