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.”
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
Hogg fired back by crowdsourcing The Laura Ingraham Show’s top advertisers and asking followers to pick one and contact the company in question.
https://twitter.com/davidhogg111/status/979161878990598144
https://twitter.com/davidhogg111/status/979165114266943488
https://twitter.com/davidhogg111/status/979168957180579840
Hogg’s tweets quickly blew up, with both celebrities and followers alike vowing to outright boycott Ingraham’s sponsors.
https://twitter.com/RichardCheese/status/979336782041919488
https://twitter.com/BellaLuna468/status/979171198801149952
https://twitter.com/kim/status/979208318093737984
https://twitter.com/JillAnne74/status/979169310550777856
https://twitter.com/Kris_Sacrebleu/status/979209562875076608
https://twitter.com/kaybe224/status/979170593915498496
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.
https://twitter.com/Emma4Change/status/979373902639099904
HEY @FLOTUS MY BROTHER IS LITERALLY GETTING CYBERBULLIED BY @IngrahamAngle.
— Lauren Hogg (@lauren_hoggs) March 29, 2018
ANY COMMENTS?
#NeverAgain #MarchForOurLives
https://twitter.com/dsdraper/status/979169901876146176
https://twitter.com/StuntMommy/status/979039174501085185
You’re a mother.
— Bess Kalb (@bessbell) March 28, 2018
Happy Thursday to everyone but Laura Ingraham.
— Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) March 29, 2018
Are you really picking on a teenager who just watched his classmates die in pools of their own blood less than two months ago?
— Brooke Binkowski (@brooklynmarie) March 28, 2018
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.
He doesn’t whine though, there is literally a quote saying he understands why he didn’t get in.
— MOODFOX (@bajablonski) March 28, 2018
https://twitter.com/ronmarans/status/979053994139058176
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.
We are in the process of removing our ads from Laura Ingraham’s program.
— Nutrish (@Nutrish) March 29, 2018
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.”
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.
companies to announce ad suspensions of @IngrahamAngle‘s show:
— j.d. durkin (@jd_durkin) March 29, 2018
1- @Nutrish
2- @TripAdvisor
3- @Wayfair
TripAdvisor says “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.”
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 —incl.@DavidHogg111,” 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.”
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
… immediately after that horrific shooting and even noted how “poised” he was given the tragedy. As always, he’s welcome to return to the show anytime for a productive discussion. WATCH: https://t.co/5wcd00wWpd (2/2)
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) March 29, 2018
