Zoe Griffin | Staff Writer
The host of “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News returned to Fox after being under fire for tweeting that one of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting survivors “whined” for being rejected by some of the colleges to which he had applied.
David Hogg, the high school senior Ingraham tweeted about, responded to Laura Ingraham’s tweet by suggesting that his supporters who were offended by Ingraham’s tweet should contact her advertisers.
Nineteen companies pulled their commercials from Ingraham’s show in protest of her tweet.
Soon after, Ingraham announced that she would be taking a week off for Easter break and then apologized for “any upset of hurt” caused by her comments on social media.
“[Them] pulling away [ads] from her show is money out of her pocket; she has to choose her words carefully and keep irrelevant opinions to a minimum,” said second-year HU student Jeremiah Smith.
Instead of acknowledging her comment on her show, Ingraham instead played a clip of Bill Maher speaking on liberals and freedom of speech rights.
She then announced a new segment on her show that would be called “Defending the First.”
Ingraham believes that the new segment will “expose the enemies of the First Amendment, of free expression and thought, while showcasing those brave voices making a difference.”
Following the opening of the show, Ingraham tweeted, “I have been the victim of a boycott,” Ingraham said. “It is wrong. You shouldn’t do this by team. It is the modern way of cutting off free speech.”
Ingraham also mentioned affirmative action on her show and announced, “If you are against affirmative action, you are a racist.”
Hogg has not responded to Ingraham’s latest remarks.
Several critics believe that the banter between Ingraham and Hogg is much deeper than his reactions to his college rejections.
Hogg is one of the most vocal of the Parkland students who argues in favor of stricter gun laws; Ingraham has resisted stricter gun laws.
“I feel as though it wasn’t at all Laura Ingraham’s business to give her opinion on a school shooting survivor’s life,” Hampton University student Corei Flowers said.
“I mean, if she felt he was whining, she could have just kept that to herself rather than being overly critical of the student.”
The Hampton Script 