When she’s not too busy attempting to dunk on LeBron James and her own Fox News colleague Shepard Smith, conservative personality Laura Ingraham spends her time taunting the progressive survivors of the Parkland shooting. The radio talk show host turned television figure most recently joined in a chorus of largely conservative voices on Wednesday to ridicule David Hogg, one of the more outspoken Stoneman Douglas High School students, after it was reported that he didn’t get into multiple colleges that he applied to. So he launched a boycott against her program, which has already lost several advertisers as a result.
According to the Washington Post, Ingraham shared an article from the conservative website The Daily Wire announcing Hogg’s news late Wednesday morning. “David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it,” she wrote, adding: “Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA… totally predictable given acceptance rates.”
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
In response, Hogg asked his over 600,000 followers who Ingraham’s top advertisers were and subsequently produced a list.
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
The response was swift, according to Vice News, because many of Hogg’s followers and other sympathetic observers began hounding Ingraham’s advertisers about the matter. The pet food-maker Nutrish was one of the first to go, announcing its decision in a tweet responding directly to Hogg: “We are in the process of removing our ads from Laura Ingraham’s program.”
We are in the process of removing our ads from Laura Ingraham’s program.
— Nutrish (@Nutrish) March 29, 2018
Not long after, the Huffington Post confirmed that TripAdvisor was also pulling its ads from Ingraham’s show:
TripAdvisor confirms to HuffPost that it's pulling its ads from Laura Ingraham’s show too… https://t.co/bPATzehFCA
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) March 29, 2018
Perhaps in an attempt to staunch the bleeding (as more advertisers might join the exodus), Ingraham has issued an apology to Hogg on Twitter. Will it help her situation?
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
UPDATE #1: According to CNBC, the online home goods company Wayfair announced that it too will stop advertising on Ingraham’s program because of the tweet. “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,” a company spokesperson told the cable news station.
UPDATE #2: In comments made to the New York Times, Hogg refused to accept Ingraham’s tweeted apology. “She only apologized after we went after her advertisers,” he said. “It kind of speaks for itself.” Even though it was “extremely frustrating” to see the Fox News host criticizing him for something that had nothing to do with the Parkland school shooting or gun violence, however, Hogg stressed he wan’t “going to stoop to her level and go after her on a personal level.” Instead, he concluded, “I’m going to go after her advertisers.”
UPDATE #3: Hulu announced that it would be pulling ads as well. It is believed to be the 7th advertiser to do so.
We’d like to confirm that we are no longer advertising on Laura Ingraham’s show and are monitoring all of our ad placements carefully.
— Hulu (@hulu) March 29, 2018
(Via Washington Post and Vice News)