Saturday, December 7, 2024

Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, Facing Massive Advertiser Boycott, Tweets Half-Hearted Apology to Teen She Smeared

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UPDATE: Nestle, Joseph A. Banks also pull ads from Ingraham show despite apology.

Fox News’s Laura Ingraham is on the run. She’s on Twitter apologizing to Parkland student David Hogg after smearing him with a prior Tweet about his high school grades and potential for getting into college.

First Ingraham tweeted: “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.)”

That set off morning talk show host Rachael Ray, who announced she was pulling ads for her pet food line, Nutrish. Ray was followed by Trip Advisor, which also removed its ads. They were added to by Wayfair Furniture. (After these ad boycotts against O’Reilly, Hannity, Watters I would hate to work in the Fox News ad department.)

Suddenly, Ingraham was contrite because Hogg himself called for a boycott, and the word went out on Twitter to protest all her advertisers. Ingraham– backed into a corner– offered a non 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)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”

But Ingraham’s movie is too little, too late. The boycott is underway. Ingraham made a huge mistake attacking a high school kid who’s been outspoken after the murders of 17 friends. You can’t do it. Sorry, right wingers. You just can’t do it. These kids are right about everything right now. They were thrust into the spotlight just six weeks ago, some of them are still 16 or 17. They’ve been incredibly articulate and forthright. The ones waiting for college acceptances– those colleges should welcome them with open arms. They are our future.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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