Fox News announced their continued support for embattled host Laura Ingraham Monday amid speculation that her personal criticism of Parkland student David Hogg, and the resulting loss of advertisers, would lead the network to discontinue her program.
“We cannot and will not allow voices to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts,” Jack Abernethy, co-president of Fox News, said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. “We look forward to having Laura Ingraham back hosting her program next Monday when she returns from spring vacation with her children.”
Ingraham embarked on a scheduled vacation this week after more than a dozen advertisers pulled their commercials from the Ingraham Angle after Ingraham mocked Hogg on Twitter for not being accepted to certain colleges. Hogg responded to Ingraham’s provocation on Twitter by listing Fox News advertisers and calling on his supporters to boycott the companies.
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
The defecting firms, which include Johnson & Johnson, Liberty Mutual, Office Depot, Expedia, Nestle, and Hulu, did not pull their advertising dollars entirely from Fox News, opting instead to shift their ads to other programs.
Ingraham later apologized on Twitter but Hogg said he would not accept what he believed to be a financially motivated concession.
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
The loss of advertisers and ensuing controversy has not resulted in a significant financial blow to Fox News’, one person familiar with the situation told the Los Angeles Times.