Odds are you’re probably aware that Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg was the target in Laura Ingraham’s cross-hairs recently. Ingraham sent out a tweet basically making fun of Hogg for not getting into some of the colleges he applied to.
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
Because, you know, any time you can stick it to a 17-year old school shooting survivor for not getting into colleges, you do it.
Hogg’s response?
Pick a number 1-12 contact the company next to that #
Top Laura Ingraham Advertisers
1. @sleepnumber
2. @ATT
3. Nutrish
4. @Allstate & @esurance
5. @Bayer
6. @RocketMortgage Mortgage
7. @LibertyMutual
8. @Arbys
9. @TripAdvisor
10. @Nestle
11. @hulu
12. @Wayfair— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) March 29, 2018
To sum up our feelings about this spat, Laura Ingraham, who has long since been a jerk with a microphone, picked a petty fight with a high-schooler. Advantage: high-schooler. Ingraham made her career as a provocateur spouting countless amounts of garbage. She’s not losing sponsors solely because she made fun of a teenage school shooting survivor. David Hogg is merely the straw that broke a jerk’s back. Is David Hogg a saint himself? Who knows? None of us actually knows the kid. We do know that he’s helping to lead what most of us deem a positive movement re gun control. But for all we know, he could be a jerk himself. The point is, we know for sure that Laura Ingraham is a jerk. She chose to be a political commentator with a TV show. David Hogg, by virtue of being a school shooting survivor, was thrust into the public eye and chose to use his newfound celebrity status to fight for gun control. In the process he might act like a normal teenager and get into petty fights along sometimes. Oh well.
Why is any of this important? Because people listened to Hogg and started pressuring Ingraham’s sponsors to drop her, and they did. Now people on the right-wing are calling David Hogg the bully. They’re saying that it sets a bad precedent for someone like Ingraham to lose her show because of something she said. First Amendment! (Never mind that abridging someone’s 1st Amendment rights requires state action).
Can anyone think of a time when right-wingers called on people to lose their jobs? Hmm . . .
Do you remember the right-wing losing its mind over the President calling for the jobs of NFL players who silently protested against societal injustice? Not so much. Moreover, Sean Hannity’s site says that the Houston Texans owner is “putting its foot-down” in refusing to sign free agents who won’t stand for the national anthem. No explanation was given by Hannity for the hyphen that shouldn’t be there.
The right-wing went ballistic on the NFL players for protesting systemic racism and police brutality during the national anthem. And the NFL players’ movement has led to many positive steps being taken. Even if you ignore the $1M that Kaepernick donated to charity, look at Doug Baldwin’s accomplishments. So these guys are the ones we should call on to lose their jobs? Kaepernick is still out of work but we’re worried about Laura Ingraham?
What did Ms. Ingraham think of the players’ protest you ask? Ask and ye shall receive:
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): Part of me is like, a lot of these guys are punks. I mean, that’s part of me, like, that’s the old-fashioned Connecticut Yankee in me. It’s like, you’ve got to be kidding me, you guys are like — you guys are the elite of the elite. You make millions of dollars to play a game, you’re like — can’t stand for the National Anthem? You’ve got to be kidding me. Like, that’s part of me. The other part of me is, don’t elevate silliness or disrespect by further demonizing it. It’s almost like you give your adversaries more power by elevating them, I think, in a way, as Donald Trump did on Friday. Suddenly they have a bigger platform now.
Someone should have listened to her own advice.
There is a lot of hypocrisy on both sides of the aisle these days. People tend to be okay or not okay with certain behavior based upon whether it is their own viewpoints being elevated or denigrated. If you’re okay with people protesting against the NFL players, you’re on the right-wing. If you’re okay with people protesting against Laura Ingraham, you’re on the left-wing. Guaranteed. But just remember what that says about you in these specific instances. Standing with Laura Ingraham means standing with a race-baiting bully. Standing with the NFL players means standing with people who chose to silently protest during our nation’s anthem in order to combat police brutality and systemic racism. With whom do you want to stand?
Marjorie: Laura Ingraham, Fox News”s female rejoinder to Bill O”Reilly, is catching flack from David Hogg, the March-For-Our-Lives leader, who justifiably calls her a “bully. As a result, advertisers have been dropping her show (12 so far). Ingraham has escaped the heat by abruptly going on vacation. Can you provide an astro profile of Ingraham and projections re her career? Is her job in jeopardy?