Companies halt ads over Ingraham tweet mocking Parkland survivor

Companies halt ads over Ingraham tweet mocking Parkland survivor
UPI

March 29 (UPI) — Three companies — Nutrish, TripAdvisor and Wayfair — announced Thursday they would stop advertising during host Laura Ingraham’s Fox News program after she posted a tweet criticizing a survivor of the Parkland, Fla., mass shooting.

Ingraham faced criticism from gun-control advocates at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — and their supporters — after she posted a tweet about one student’s college rejections.

“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.)” she posted Wednesday morning.

Hogg, one of the more vocal students among MSDHS gun-control advocates, responded by posting a list of 12 companies that advertise during Ingraham’s program. Hogg urged his followers to call one of the advertisers, including a hashtag suggesting a boycott.

Three of the companies responded, saying they would remove their advertising. Nutrish, a pet food company owned by celebrity chef Rachel Ray, tweeted it was “in the progress of removing our ads from Laura Ingraham’s program.”

Online home goods company Wayfair issued a statement to UPI saying it encourages open discussion about political issues.

“However, 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 do not plan to continue advertising on this particular program,” the company said.

Online travel company TripAdvisor agreed with Wayfair’s support of a “free exchange of ideas.”

“We do not, however, condone the inappropriate comments made by this broadcaster. In our view, these statements focused on a high school student, cross the line of decency. As such, we have made a decision to stop advertising on that program,” a company spokesperson said in an email to UPI.

Ingraham offered an apology Thursday morning, saying Hogg should be proud of his GPA.

“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 immediately after that horrific shooting and even noted how ‘poised’ he was given the tragedy. As always, he’s welcome to return to the show anytime for a productive discussion,” she said in a series of tweets.

Hogg criticized Ingraham for apologizing only after advertisers began pulling money from her show.

“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,” he said.

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