Hugh Hewitt Storms Off Talk Show, Nobody Notices

I was a little surprised this morning to discover there had been some sort of non-event Friday where Hugh Hewitt, a talk show B-lister stormed off a Washington Post show,

“First Look,” the Post’s live show hosted by Jonathan Capehart, alongside Ruth Marcus, an associate editor and columnist at the Post, during a discussion over former President Donald Trump [sic] legal efforts in battleground states.

This happened Friday, but it didn't reach YouTube or the aggregators until this morning. It seems to me that this says something about Rush Limbaugh and the huge gap his departure has left in public discourse. Nobody has been able to replace him, least of all Hugh Hewitt, for all Hewitt seems to be trying. The whole episode has the air of something Hewitt cooked up to promote himself in the wake of Jeff Bezos's intervention at the Post:

“We are news people, even though we have opinions, and we have to report the whole story if we bring up part of the story,” Hewitt added. “So yes, he’s upset about Bucks County, but he was right, and he won in court. That’s the story.”

Capehart replied: “I don’t appreciate being lectured about reporting when, Hugh, many times you come here saying lots of things that aren’t based in fact.”

“I will not come back, Jonathan, how’s that? I’m done,” Hewitt fired back as he stood up from his chair and removed his earpiece. “This is the most unfair election ad I have ever been a part of.”

“You guys are working, that’s fine, I’m done,” Hewitt said before walking off screen.

Boy, he quit his job over principle! What a sacrifice! Except,

After storming off the show, Hewitt confirmed to Fox News that he had parted ways with The Post.

“I have in fact quit the Post but I was only writing a column for them every six weeks or so,” Hewitt told Fox.

So this was a gig that paid him a few hundred bucks, if that, every six weeks or so. He could afford to lose it if he could get publicity for coming out on Jeff Bezos's side, or something like that, except it looks like nobody actually noticed. He made a statement about it on YouTube this morning:

At 6:07, he says,

On Friday I quit the Washington Post, and some of you will know that. But I want to make sure you understand -- thank you to all of you who've texted me and posted me and sent me your kudos, thank you Elon Musk, thank you President Trump, everybodyh who's said something or anything else -- I just want you to know. Ruth Marcus has nothing to do with this. Ruth Marcus is my friend, Ruth Marcus is a fabulous jo0urnalist, she has got legal chops the equal of anyone in the business. Ruth and I are the same age. . .

He then goes on and on about how wonderful Ruth Marcus is, and then he expands into all the wonderful editors he's had at the Post: "You can be wrong, but not rotten." He lists all the wonderful editors by name,

Michael Duffy, Michael Larrabee, David Von Drehle, Mark Laswell, many others, the New Boston editorial page, David Shipley is a wonderfully nice man. Ruth is the equal of any edifor I've had over alol these years. . . . I quit the Post for reasons unrelated to any of that. . .

So, after all this kissy-kissy, he never quite gets to why, precisely, he quit the Post. I think this is because the only reason he did it was to call attention to himself. Rush Limbaugh has been off the scene for nearly four years, and nobody has risen to anything like the status he had before his death, least of all Hugh Hewitt.

Hewitt in fact had been almost completely unknown before he was made a moderator for the February 25, 2016 Republican primary debate, where he pestered Trump with gotcha questions, only to have Trump reply,

First of all, very few people listen to your radio show, that’s the good news, which happens to be true – check out the ratings.

Commentators then noted that it was in fact a real challenge to find Hewitt's show on the air. I suspect that Hewitt's aim at the time was to do what Megyn Kelly had been unable to do in August 2015, end Trump's candidacy by taking him down with le mot juste. Nobody should try this, Trump will win it every time. Hewitt's main gig has always been a syndicated show with Salem Media, a Never Trump outlet. He couldn't manage for Salem Media the task Megyn Kelly had been assigned by Fox, but at least he kept his job.

But none of his self-promotion has managed to make him anything more than a B-lister.