James Hirsen Exposes Hollywood Hypocrisy on the Environment

As fellow news analyst Geoffrey Dickens blogged, Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio bonded with Matt Lauer on his global warming hype movie, Eleventh Hour. But before DiCaprio demands a host of new government regulations to clean up the environment, he should look at his own Hollywood pals. On Wednesday’s Fox and Friends First, hosts Steve Doocy, Gretchen Carlson, and Judge Andrew Napolitano hosted author and columnist James Hirsen to expose the hypocrisy of the Hollywood elite. Despite their constant preaching about the environment, they are in fact one of the largest polluters in metropolitan Los Angeles.

Gretchen Carlson asked the question, "why don’t we hear about this?" Good question. The entire transcript is below.

Judge Andrew Napolitano: "Is Hollywood a major contributor to air pollution? Our next guest says the film and TV industries on the west coast are a huge factor. Columnist James Hirsen joins us now from Santa Ana, California. He's also the author of Hollywood Nation. Good morning James and welcome here."

James Hirsen: "Hey, good morning, your honor."

Napolitano: "So, what does Hollywood do? All those liberals in Hollywood that are complaining of pollution and harming the environment, what do they do to add to the pollution?"

Hirsen: "Yeah, it's amazing this is a pet cause out here in Tinseltown and one that they self-congratulate over it. Matter of fact, Variety just issued this green honor roll of people who are environmental activists. But it turns out a study from UCLA said that, that the entertainment business is the second biggest polluter in the five county area that constitutes the Los Angeles metropolitan area and they're just behind the petroleum industry but they're ahead of aerospace..."

Napolitano: "Wow."

Hirsen: "...they're ahead of semiconductor manufacturing and hotels. So, they produce something like 140,000-tons of pollutants a year and they gave them a 'C' on the report card and said it's not a high priority for the entertainment industry. So the industry, their rhetoric doesn't match their actions."

Gretchen Carlson: "Because they have so much power on the sets the energy for the studio office buildings, the private flights to movie locations, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Why don't we hear about this?"

Hirsen: "Well, interestingly enough, it's this hierarchy of status. The stars put in their contracts, 'I want a bigger trailer than the co-star. And I want satellite dishes and plasma screens.' So the generators on the sets get bigger and bigger, and of course, they have special effects and chase scenes and everything else. And what the Hollywood community has done is engage in this situation where they write a check to an organization that essentially absolves them for their environmental sins and says that they're carbon neutral. It's a way so that they can feel good about polluting. It's, it's, it's a very strange thing that Hollywood has totally embraced."

Steve Doocy: "Well, it's just nuts, James, because how many Hollywood stars have we seen driving around their preuses wearing they're hemp clothes talking about zero carbons? And yet, behind the scenes they're writing checks to organizations just so they can get off their hit list."

Hirsen: "Yeah, it's kind of a way, it's an indulgence to buy your way out of the environmental wrongdoing and the important thing in Hollywood, it's a place of facade and feelings. And so, as long as you feel good about something, then it's OK to keep polluting. I mean that's the strange think. And we know that many of the stars like Barbra Streisand has a $22,000 a year sprinkler bill and she's a very big environmental activist. And, we also know that Norman Leier, who sponsored those ads that wanted to make people in Middle America feel guilty about driving SUV's has a car, a garage that holds 21 cars."

Napolitano: "Oh my."

Hirsen: "So the, you know, so the opulence and the waste, but there are some people like Ed Begley Jr. who really walk the walk and really conserves."

Doocy: "He's been driving an electric car for a very long time. James Hirsen, author of Hollywood Nation and also a Newsmax.com columnist. James thank you very much for joining us live today from the west coast."