Laura Ingraham in Trouble: Her Comments See Advertisers Drop Her Show…By The Dozen!

Popular Fox News show host, Laura Ingraham is in trouble. So deep in murky waters is she that she decided to take a week off. The announcement was made during the filming of her Friday show.

The advertisers’ withdrawal came shortly after Parkland student David Hogg, 17, called for a boycott of her advertisers. Hogg took a swipe at the hosts’ show, “Ingraham Angle”, right after she taunted him on Twitter on Wednesday. In her Twitter post, she opined that he was simply whining after he was rejected by four colleges he had applied to.

David Hogg came into the public limelight after he survived the February 14 massacre in Parkland, Florida. The shooting ended after claiming 17 fatalities and numerous injuries in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The institution is situated in the suburb region of Parkland, Fort Lauderdale. Hogg together with other classmates have now become the faces behind the youth-led movement advocating for tighter restrictions on firearms.

In the whirlwind of it all, 12 advertisers announced that they were going to drop her show. This was in response to public’s outcry following her comments as a conservative pundit. She drew ire after mocking a teenage survivor of the Florida school massacre on Twitter

The withdrawal of 12 companies as advertisers on Ingraham’s show was inspired by Hogg’s actions. He tweeted the list of a dozen companies advertising on ‘The Ingraham Angle’ calling for his followers urge the companies involved to pull out their support.

Apologies

Some of the companies canceling their ads are Nutrish, a pet food line created by celebrity chef Rachael Ray, Nestle SA, travel website Expedia Group Inc, travel website TripAdvisor Inc., Hulu the online streaming service, Wayfair Inc., the online home furnishings seller.

Other companies joined in on Friday, the Home Supply Store Office Depot, Paradise Island resort, Jenny Craig the dieting company, Neutrogena beauty products, Band-Aids and Tylenol.

Hogg’s Twitter post mollified Ingraham’s post as being insufficient. He labeled her actions as an attempt to please advertisers in a bid for them to retain her show. Ingraham’s show is part of the Fox News, and Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty First Century Fox Inc. fraternity. Attempts to contact a Fox News representative for comment on the matter were to no avail.

On Thursday, a more remorseful Ingraham talked about ‘the spirit of the Holy Week’ and expressed her apologies for all the ‘brave victims’ of the Parkland shooting. However, her apology did not compel the advertising companies to stay on

While Ingraham’s actions are without a doubt, troubling, it could just be what Fox News has been missing all these years. During the Obama presidency, Fox News was considered as just an ordinary news channel.

This was mainly because the Obama presidency was not really riddled with many scandals. In fact, some might make a viable argument that most of their news seemed to have been a variation to what CNN had aired.

Real Numbers

However, all that seems to be in the distant past in recent days. Their rise to significance in households aplenty seems to have coincided with the election of President Donald Trump on a Republican ticket. Their political rhetoric while still unchanged, seems inspired by a completely new set of goals.

So impressive has the turnaround been at Fox that it was the most watched cable news network in the first quarter of 2018. All this has happened despite the numerous scandals in-house at the network. These include departures of signature opinion host Bill O’Reilly and chairperson and CEO Roger Ailes. This was after a slew of misconduct accusations.

Fox News now thrives by treading the lines of political talk stealthily whilst managing to push the very edges of conversations. Laura Ingraham is simply part of the new school of thought at Fox News. Her hiatus was one she needed to take in order to deflect some of the attention.

In the public, a debate about the ‘Stalinist’ tactics employed by Ingraham’s critics was also started. According to Ingraham, she was unfairly being criticized for expressing her bold and conservative opinion. She called them out as ‘bullies on the left intent on silencing conservatives’.