Alex Wong/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Fox News host Laura Ingraham apologized Thursday to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg for her tweet mocking his college rejections, but that hasn’t stopped advertisers from fleeing her show.
At least eight companies have told ABC News they intend to pull their sponsorship of Ingraham’s evening show. The companies include Nutrish, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Nestle, Hulu, Wayfair, Stitch Fix, and Office Depot. Johnson & Johnson told The Huffington Post it had yanked its ads as well.
“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,” Wayfair said in a statement yesterday.
ABC News has reached out to Fox News for comment.
The sponsor exodus follows a spat between the outspoken Parkland, Florida, student and the Fox News host, one of several involving conservative figures and the students who have advocated for greater action against gun violence in the wake of the mass shooting at their school last month.
Hogg told TMZ this week that several colleges had rejected him, but dismissed the rejections in the face of his and his classmates’ advocacy.
“We’re changing the world,” he said. “Right now, it’s too hard to focus on that.”
Ingraham tweeted about the comments on Wednesday, saying Hogg “whines about” the 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 tweeted.
On Thursday she issued an apology.
“Any student should be proud of a 4.2 GPA —incl. @DavidHogg111,” she tweeted. “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.”
Hogg, who has proven adept at leveraging the pace and amplification of social media, quickly responded with a tweet of his own, listing her major sponsors and encouraging his rapidly growing social media base to pressure them.
Ingraham’s apology came after a few companies pulled their ads, which led Hogg not to accept her apology.
“An apology in an effort just to save your advertisers is not enough,” he tweeted Thursday. “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.”
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