Fox News host Laura Ingraham takes week off after losing nearly a dozen advertisers

David Canfield
Updated
Fox News host Laura Ingraham takes week off after losing advertisers

Conservative Fox News host Laura Ingraham announced Friday evening that she’d be taking a week off from her show, a move that Fox News has indicated to EW was pre-planned, but which is raising some eyebrows given its timing: The Ingraham Angle has lost nearly a dozen advertisers in the days since Ingraham criticized Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg via Twitter, on Wednesday.

Ingraham merely said the vacation was timed to Easter Sunday, and teased a “great” lineup of guest hosts over the next week.

Ingraham found herself in hot water after she tweeted out an article that mocked Hogg, who has emerged as a gun control activist in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, for not getting into colleges to which he applied. “David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it,” she wrote. “Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA…totally predictable given acceptance rates.”

That same day, Hogg responded by encouraging his followers to boycott Ingraham’s Fox News show, tweeting out a list of companies who advertise for it and encouraging people to call them in protest. As of Friday night, according to CBS News, 11 companies have announced they’ll be pulling their ads from The Ingraham Angle, including Nestlé and Hulu.

Ingraham apologized the next day, explaining that “any student should be proud of a 4.2 GPA.” However, Hogg did not accept and continued to apply pressure. “She only apologized after we went after her advertisers,” Hogg said to the New York Times. “It kind of speaks for itself … We can show that if you continue to bully the students that survived a mass murder, there’s going to be consequences.”

Ingraham’s abrupt announcement of a vacation in the face of swirling controversy recalls a similar situation surrounding Bill O’Reilly around this time last year. The former Fox News host had announced, after a series of Times investigations revealed he’d paid around $50 million to settle sexual harassment lawsuits, that he was taking a “pre-planned” vacation of a few days. But he ultimately never returned to his show The O’Reilly Factor, having been fired days later.

Ingraham’s vacation will take effect Monday. In response to the news, Hogg tweeted Friday night, “Have some healthy reflections this Holy Week.”