The renewed vigor with which the national movement for common sense gun law reform has operated in the aftermath of last month’s horrifying high profile mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, has certainly irked some conservatives.
One such individual is Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who went so far as to cyberbully one of the survivors of the attack over being rejected by colleges that he had applied to. In the face of a campaign to get advertisers to boycott her show, she eventually offered an apology of sorts, but that wasn’t enough to stop the hemorrhaging of advertiser dollars. At least fifteen advertisers have dumped her show as of early Saturday.
Now, Ingraham has announced that in the midst of this turmoil, she will be taking what she indicated is a pre-planned break to spend the Easter holiday and the days afterwards with her children. She will be apparently taking the entirety of next week off, as you can see her explain in the short clip from the Friday night edition of her show below.
BREAKING: Laura Ingraham announced on tonight’s show that she would take next week off and be replaced by “a great lineup of guest hosts” pic.twitter.com/Ucoa4D45O2
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) March 31, 2018
Although the going line is that, as mentioned, the host taking the next week off is a pre-planned event, it’s certainly not happening in a vacuum.
ABC reports that the advertisers to so far ditch Ingraham’s show include Nutrish, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Nestle, Hulu, Wayfair, Stitch Fix, Office Depot, Ruby Tuesday, Entertainment Studios, Miracle Ear, Liberty Mutual, Jenny Craig, Atlantis Paradise Island Resort, and Johnson & Johnson.
As mentioned, Ingraham did apologize for her initial cyberbullying of the Parkland survivor, but that has neither earned her Hogg’s support nor that of her advertisers.
Hogg responded to the host’s attempt at an apology by quipping:
‘I will only accept your apology only if you denounce the way your network has treated my friends and I in this fight. It’s time to love thy neighbor, not mudsling at children.’
Wayfair, one of the companies to dump Ingraham’s show, indicated in its own statement that it’s hardly impressed with Ingraham’s antics, saying:
‘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.’
Former Fox News president Joe Peyronnin pointed out that the exodus of advertisers from Ingraham’s show “could be fatal,” so in that light, even if her Easter vacation was pre-planned, that doesn’t mean that her position at the network isn’t in apparent jeopardy. Not many people — or companies — are interested in going along with cyberbullying the survivors of a mass shooting.
Two other Fox hosts took vacations in the midst of controversy that led to an array of advertisers dumping their show; one of those hosts (Bill O’Reilly) no longer works at the network, so there is certainly precedent for Fox hosts losing their shows over something like this. (The Fox host who survived a round of fleeing advertisers is Sean Hannity.)
Both Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity took “vacations” as advertisers fled their programs
… One came back — One did not. pic.twitter.com/CvQ5YTc0ih
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) March 31, 2018
As for Hogg himself, he responded to the news of Ingraham’s impending vacation by playing off her reference to the Christian observance of Holy Week in her initial attempt at an apology, quipping:
‘Have some healthy reflections this Holy Week.’
Have some healthy reflections this Holy Week. https://t.co/bjSLmj3gyH
— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) March 31, 2018
Featured Image via Screenshot from the Video
