After Twitter attack, David Hogg calls for sponsors to boycott Laura Ingraham’s show
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After Twitter attack, David Hogg calls for sponsors to boycott Laura Ingraham’s show

One sponsor already pulled its ads.

NBC News/YouTube

Ana Valens— | Last updated

Fox News host Laura Ingraham just made an enemy out of Parkland survivor David Hogg—and now she may be losing her show’s sponsors.

Ingraham gained widespread criticism after she shared a story on Wednesday from conservative news site the Daily Wire on the teen’s rejections from four University of California’s campuses. She attacked Hogg in her tweet, saying he “whines” about his rejections, of which she called the UCLA response “totally predictable.”

Hogg fired back by crowdsourcing The Laura Ingraham Show’s top advertisers and asking followers to pick one and contact the company in question.

Hogg’s tweets quickly blew up, with both celebrities and followers alike vowing to outright boycott Ingraham’s sponsors.

https://twitter.com/kim/status/979208318093737984

After all, it’s enough to survive a school shooting, be a student activist, apply to college, and simply be a teenager, so to be attacked for rejection seems like a pretty low blow for a grown person to make. Hogg’s friends, family, and followers have stood in solidarity with him, criticizing Ingraham for her behavior.

Interestingly enough, Ingraham’s claims aren’t just inappropriate. They’re also factually incorrect.

Hogg never used his public platform to “whine” about the denials. Footage from TMZ simply shows Hogg calling the Parkland activists’ college rejections “annoying” and admitting that there are “a lot of amazing people that don’t get into college.” But otherwise, he doesn’t have much to say about his applications. If anything, Hogg took the news pretty gracefully.

https://twitter.com/olwyngdh/status/979063314570448896

Oh, and sponsors are listening to the protests. Pet food company Nutrish has already vowed to pull its ads.

Ingraham isn’t the only celebrity attacking Hogg. Roseanne Barr tweeted a conspiracy theory about Hogg earlier this week, claiming Hogg engaged in a “Nazi salute.” She also previously retweeted a conspiracy theory claiming Hogg “didn’t attend Parkland high school.”

H/T Newsweek

Update 1:05pm CT, March 29: TripAdvisor and home goods Wayfair have also announced they are pulling ads from Ingraham’s show.

“As a company, we support 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,” Jane Carpenter, Wayfair’s head of public relations, told CNBC.

Update 2:20pm CT, March 29: After several sponsors dropped out of her show, Ingraham has apologized to Hogg.

“Any student should be proud of a 4.2 GPA —[email protected],” she tweeted Thursday afternoon. “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.”

She then went on to congratulate herself for once having him on her show. “For the record, I believe my show was the first to feature David immediately after that horrific shooting and even noted how ‘poised’ he was given the tragedy,” she wrote. “As always, he’s welcome to return to the show anytime for a productive discussion.”

 

Ana Valens

Ana Valens

Ana Valens is a reporter specializing in online queer communities, marginalized identities, and adult content creation. She is Daily Dot's Trans/Sex columnist. Her work has appeared at Vice, Vox, Truthout, Bitch Media, Kill Screen, Rolling Stone, and the Toast. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and spends her free time developing queer adult games.

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