On Friday, all three network morning shows touted Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student and gun control activist David Hogg demanding that advertisers pull their sponsorship of Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show after she mocked him on Twitter – for which she has apologized. However, missing from all the hand-wringing about civility was any acknowledgment that Hogg and several other student activists have repeatedly used media appearances to hurl vile attacks against anyone who disagrees with them.
“Now to a growing controversy tied to the Parkland school shooting. Facing a boycott of her show, conservative Fox News host Laura Ingraham is apologizing this morning for mocking one of the survivors,” Today co-host Hoda Kotb announced while introducing a full report on the controversy.
Correspondent Kerry Sanders couldn’t contain his excitement: “The students here at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who are taking on the powerful gun lobby, may have just realized the power at their internet fingertips. This is a David and Goliath story. And as you’ll see, it appears David has won.”
After explaining that Hogg “who has more than 600,000 Twitter followers, encouraged his supporters to boycott advertisers sponsoring Igraham’s show,” Sanders noted that he spoke with the 17-year-old about the issue. Hogg told the reporter: “If you call me out my friends, we’re aren’t going to go after you, because we aren’t as immature as that. We’re going to go after the money, because that’s where it hurts them the most.”
Sanders went on to bemoan: “Since the massacre at Parkland, as the calls for gun control have gotten louder, so have the personal attacks on social media.” The only example that he came up with was some remarks from an obscure former Republican candidate for the state legislature in Maine: “Leslie Gibson, a Republican candidate for Maine State House was forced to drop out of the race after he called Hogg a ‘moron’ and a ‘bald-faced liar.’”
Wrapping up the fawning segment, Sanders proclaimed: “David Hogg says what he’s learned in this back and forth with Laura Ingraham at Fox is that they’re really ready for the much bigger fight now. The bigger fight, of course, to restrict the sale of some weapons in this country, like an AR-15.”
At the top of ABC’s Good Morning America, co-host Robin Roberts cheered the boycott: “The Fox News host versus the Parkland shooting survivor. New fallout after Laura Ingraham targets student David Hogg, making light of his college rejections....The power of the 17-year-old’s call to boycott and the companies responding this morning.”
During the report that followed in the 7:30 a.m. ET half hour, correspondent Linsey Davis hailed:
Just one more example of the power of social media, that with just a few tweets a high school student is able to succeed at getting so many companies to pull their ads. And it wasn’t until the companies starting bowing out that Ingraham issued an apology, but even that isn’t stopping more companies from bailing.
“Ingraham now faces a wave of advertisers pulling support from her show after taunting Hogg on Twitter about being turned down by several colleges,” Davis explained. “Hogg immediately fired back, tweeting, ‘Soooo @IngrahamAngle what are your biggest advertisers...Asking for a friend. #BoycottIngramAdverts,’” she added.
At the end of the story, Davis assured viewers: “Also important to know that Hogg has been accepted to several schools, he says right now he may take a gap year and that’s he more focused on saving the future of America.”
CBS This Morning only offered a news brief on the feud, with co-host Norah O’Donnell noting:
The New York Times reports that Fox News host Laura Ingraham facing advertiser boycotts, apologized for taunting Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg. On Twitter, Ingraham accused Hogg of whining for getting rejected from colleges. In response, Hogg called on advertisers to boycott her show. Trip Advisor, Wayfair, Hulu, Nestle, Nutrish and Expedia said they would pull the ads. Ingraham has apologized for any hurt her tweet caused.
As dismayed as the anchors and correspondents were with Ingraham’s mocking tweet about Hogg, the broadcast networks failed to report on any of the offensive rants that Hogg and his fellow student activists have launched into against gun rights supporters over the past month:
- During an appearance on CNN’s New Day on February 19, Hogg labeled the National Rifle Association “child murderers” and fellow Stoneman Douglas student Emma Gonzalez addressed Republicans who accept campaign contributions from the NRA by saying: “...if they accept this blood money, they are against the children. They are against the people who are dying....You’re either funding the killers or you’re standing with the children.”
- While participating in a CNN town hall event on February 21, Stoneman Douglas student Cameron Kasky smeared Florida Senator Marco Rubio with this invective: “Senator Rubio, it’s hard to look at you and not look down the barrel on an AR-15 and not look at Nikolas Cruz, but the point is: You’re here and there are some people who are not.”
- Later in that same event, Gonzales implied that NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch was a bad mother because of her support for the Second Amendment.
- On ABC’s Good Morning America on February 22, anchor George Stephanopoulos teed up Stoneman Douglas student Ryan Deitsch to blast Senator Rubio for taking “money from an organization that has been known to help in the aiding of killing innocent lives.”
- On February 28, while talking to CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, Stoneman Douglas student Alfonso Calderon accused the NRA of “basically killing kids.”
- Appearing with Calderon on CNN’s New Day on March 12, Hogg launched into a similar tirade against the gun rights group, claiming they want to “put more people at risk, scare more people, cause more violence, kill more people, and sell more guns.”
- During a March 24 interview with National Public Radio host Scott Simon, Hogg morbidly suggested: “We can and we will outlive our opponents because they’re old, and they are stuck in their old ways.”
- On March 26, ABC’s The View co-host Megan McCain called out Hogg for saying this: “It just makes me think what sick blankers [f---ers] out there want to continue to sell more guns, murder more children, and honestly just get reelected, What type of blanking [s–tty] person does that? They could have blood from children splattered all over their faces and they don’t take action, because all they see are dollar signs.”
In response to all of those horrible remarks, Hogg and his friends received little or no push-back from the journalists they were speaking with.
Back on March 19, as the networks promoted the upcoming March for Our Lives, the NBC, ABC, and CBS morning shows all welcomed various Stoneman Douglas students on the air for softball interviews, including Hogg, Gonzales, and Kasky. None of them were asked a single question about their offensive comments.
The liberal media suddenly care about civility when a conservative Fox News host like Laura Ingraham is under fire, but when teenage activists pushing an anti-gun agenda engage in outrageous rhetoric the press is silent. The double standard is glaring and shameful.
Here is a full transcript of the March 30 report on NBC’s Today:
8:03 AM ET
HODA KOTB: Now to a growing controversy tied to the Parkland school shooting. Facing a boycott of her show, conservative Fox News host Laura Ingraham is apologizing this morning for mocking one of the survivors, but it came too late for several major companies that have already pulled the advertising. NBC’s Kerry Sanders has that story. Hey, Kerry, good morning.
KERRY SANDERS: Well, good morning, Hoda. The students here at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who are taking on the powerful gun lobby, may have just realized the power at their internet fingertips. This is a David and Goliath story. And as you’ll see, it appears David has won.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Ingraham Apologizes for Dig at Parkland Student; Anti-Gun Activist Urges Pressure on Sponsors]
This morning, 17-year-old Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg is winning his fight with Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
LAURA INGRAHAM: Welcome to The Ingraham Angle.
SANDERS: On Wednesday, Ingraham tweeted a story from a conservative news sight that described Hogg as a “gun rights provocateur.” Ingraham writing, “David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it.”
Hogg, who has more than 600,000 Twitter followers, encouraged his supporters to boycott advertisers sponsoring Igraham’s show. In just two days, at least eight sponsors now say they’re either pulling their ads or have no plan to buy ads in the future, some not giving a specific reason. Wayfair writing in part, “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.”
I reached Hogg by phone late last night.
DAVID HOGG: If you call me out my friends, we’re aren’t going to go after you, because we aren’t as immature as that. We’re going to go after the money, because that’s where it hurts them the most.
INGRAHAM: Tweet me @IngrahamAngle, keep it nice.
SANDERS: Ingraham apologized, tweeting, “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.
HOGG: I don’t accept her apology and I don’t think it was sincere.
SANDERS: Since the massacre at Parkland...
PROTESTERS: Enough is enough!
SANDERS: ...as the calls for gun control have gotten louder, so have the personal attacks on social media. Leslie Gibson, a Republican candidate for Maine State House was forced to drop out of the race after he called Hogg a “moron” and a “bald-faced liar.”
One of Hogg’s teachers, Greg Pitman.
[TO PITMAN]: Is there something we learn by what’s happened here with Laura Ingraham that applies to the bigger fight?
GREG PITMAN: I think that these other guys better look out because these kids have a lot of power, and they don’t like it.
SANDERS: David Hogg says what he’s learned in this back and forth with Laura Ingraham at Fox is that they’re really ready for the much bigger fight now. The bigger fight, of course, to restrict the sale of some weapons in this country, like an AR-15. Hoda?
KOTB: Alright, Kerry Sanders. Kerry, thank you.
Here is a full transcript of the March 30 report on ABC’s GMA:
7:32 AM ET
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We’re going to move on now to that showdown between Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg and Fox News host Laura Ingraham. She has now apologized for taunting him after he convinced several companies to remove ads from her show. ABC’s Linsey Davis here with the story. Good morning, Linsey.
LINSEY DAVIS: Good morning, George. Just one more example of the power of social media, that with just a few tweets a high school student is able to succeed at getting so many companies to pull their ads. And it wasn’t until the companies starting bowing out that Ingraham issued an apology, but even that isn’t stopping more companies from bailing.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Parkland Survivor Takes on Fox News Host; Ingraham Apologizes After Companies Drop Ads]
A showdown between 17-year-old Parkland high school survivor David Hogg...
DAVID HOGG: We say no more!
DAVIS: ...and Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham.
LAURA INGRAHAM: And they scapegoated their favorite boogeyman and political enemy, the NRA.
DAVIS: Hogg first appeared on Ingraham’s show following the Parkland shooting.
HOGG: There is a serious issue in this country that we all need to face.
INGRAHAM: David, thank you so much. We really appreciate your words tonight and our prayers are with all of you.
DAVIS: But Ingraham now faces a wave of advertisers pulling support from her show after taunting Hogg on Twitter about being turned down by several colleges, writing, “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.)”
HOGG: She literally called out the survivor of a mass murder and made fun of me. Who in their right mind would support that?
DAVIS: Hogg immediately fired back, tweeting, “Soooo @IngrahamAngle what are your biggest advertisers...Asking for a friend. #BoycottIngramAdverts.” The high school senior, with more than 640,000 Twitter followers, then called for advertisers to boycott her show. Listing the advertisers with a call to action.
HOGG: It doesn’t matter how many viewers they get or how much they get paid or who they are, a bully is a bully, and we all have to stand up together against that regardless of who they’re bullying.
DAVIS: Within hours, TripAdvisor, Nestle, Nutrish pet food, Expedia, Hulu and Wayfair all answered the call, pulling the plug on ads on her nightly show. Wayfair released this statement to ABC News, 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.”
We reached out to Igraham and Fox for comment and they referred us to her tweet apologizing to Hogg early Thursday morning, writing, “Any student should be proud of a 4.2 GPA – including David Hogg. 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.”
HOGG: Notice how she only apologized after a third of her advertisers dropped out. Not that surprising.
DAVIS: While Hogg’s supporters and fellow Parkland supporters have been praising his stand, with messages like, “As a parent, I would be proud to call David Hogg my son,” the boycott battle is drawing scorn from some local Fox viewers. One writing, “Let Laura Ingraham know we have her back.” And others threatening to begin their own boycotts against the companies who stopped running ads on her show. Tweeting messages like this to Hulu, saying, “I’m a customer but will pull my subscription/money if you allow David Hogg to bully Laura Ingraham. #ImwithLaura.”
DAVIS: Overnight, more advertisers have decided to pull ads from her show, including Johnson & Johnson and Stitch Fix. Also important to know that Hogg has been accepted to several schools, he says right now he may take a gap year and that’s he more focused on saving the future of America. And he also says he does not accept her apology because it didn’t come until after the companies started putting out.
STEPAHANOPOULOS: This one’s not over yet.
DAVIS: Not over by any stretch.
ROBERTS: Wow.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Okay, thanks, Linsey.
