Three of the top 12 advertisers on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show have bolted in response to a boycott that was caused by the host attacking Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg.
Ingraham tweeted about Hogg:
David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA…totally predictable given acceptance rates.) https://t.co/wflA4hWHXY
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) March 28, 2018
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Hogg responded by calling for a boycott of the advertisers of Ingraham’s Fox News show:
Pick a number 1-12 contact the company next to that #
Top Laura Ingraham Advertisers
1. @sleepnumber
2. @ATT
3. Nutrish
4. @Allstate & @esurance
5. @Bayer
6. @RocketMortgage Mortgage
7. @LibertyMutual
8. @Arbys
9. @TripAdvisor
10. @Nestle
11. @hulu
12. @Wayfair— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) March 29, 2018
So far, three of Ingraham’s top 12 advertisers have pulled their ads off of her show. Trip Adviser, Wayfair, and Nutrish have all announced that they will not be advertising on her show.
Ingraham responded to the growing boycott, and threat to her Fox News gig with an apology:
Any student should be proud of a 4.2 GPA —incl. @DavidHogg111. On reflection, in the spirit of Holy Week, I apologize for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland. For the record, I believe my show was the first to feature David…(1/2)
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) March 29, 2018
Of course, that wasn’t a real apology. It was the typical I apologize if I upset anyone apology that doesn’t take any ownership of what she said, but Ingraham does give herself plenty of credit.
The Parkland kids aren’t afraid. They are mustering a non-partisan force in our culture that is bigger than Fox News, the Republican Party, and the NRA. Ingraham didn’t apologize because she was wrong. She apologized because one-quarter of her advertisers have bolted in less than a day. Nothing will get a Fox News host canned faster than an advertiser boycott.
Laura Ingraham is already losing in the ratings to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell. A stronger advertiser boycott could quickly get her thrown off of the air and banished back to AM talk radio Siberia.
The free market will not tolerate extremist hosts who attack victims of gun violence. It is going to take more than a semi-apology for Laura Ingraham to save her job.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
