Advertisers flee Ingraham after tweet
Fox News host mocked Florida shooting survivor
• Some big name advertisers are dropping Fox News personality Laura Ingraham after she criticized one of the Florida school shooting victims on social media.
Ingraham, a right-wing host who landed a rare one-on-one interview with President Donald Trump last year, wrote on Twitter “David Hogg Rejected by Four Colleges to Which He Applied and Whines About It.”
Hogg, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who filmed students hiding from the gunman in their classrooms, was quick to respond, tweeting a list of a dozen advertisers and encouraging followers to immediately call them and ask them to drop Ingraham. Hogg has faced intense criticism from right-wing conservatives and gun advocates who have falsely called him a crisis actor following the Valentine’s Day shooting in Parkland that killed 17.
“Soooo @IngrahamAngle what are your biggest advertisers … Asking for a friend,” he wrote with the hashtag #BoycottIngramAdverts.
The online home goods store Wayfair, travel website TripAdvisor and Rachael Ray’s dog food Nutrish all said they are removing their support from Ingraham.
Wayfair said in a statement that it supports “open dialogue and debate on issues. However, the decision of an adult to personally criticize a high school student who has lost his classmates in an unspeakable tragedy is not consistent with our values. We do not plan to continue advertising on this particular program.”
TripAdvisor says it does not “condone the inappropriate comments made by this broadcaster. In our view, these statements focused on a high school student, cross the line of decency. As such, we have made a decision to stop advertising on that program.”
A telephone message left for Nutrish was not immediately returned but the company tweeted it was in the process of removing ads from Ingraham’s show.
Ingraham apologized Thursday on Twitter, saying, “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.”
Ingraham tweeted that she thought she was the first to feature Hogg on her show after the shooting and added, “he’s welcome to come on my show anytime for a productive discussion.”
Hogg tweeted later Thursday that an apology to save advertisers wasn’t enough and that he’d only accept Ingraham’s apology if she denounced the way Fox News has treated his friends.
“It’s time to love thy neighbour, not mudsling at children,” Hogg wrote.