Parkland Survivor David Hogg Refuses Fox News Anchor’s Twitter Apology

March 29, 2018 March for Our Lives, National News, Social Media

Parkland shooting survivor turned gun-control advocate David Hogg refused Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s public Twitter apology yesterday, after she retweeted a story about his college rejections, asserting that his belief that it was a publicized stunt to appease her sponsors.

Hogg, one of the prominent #NeverAgain student activists leading the “March for Our Lives” campaign for gun control, admitted to TMZ on Tuesday that he had received his rejection letters from a couple of University of California campuses, including UCLA; UC Santa Barbara; UC Irvine and UC San Diego, several weeks ago. He also disclosed that fellow Parkland survivor and activist Ryan Deitsch’s application to UCLA was also declined.

Hogg stated although “it’s not been too great for me and some of the other members of the movement, like Ryan Deitsch,” he and his fellow Parkland activists were preoccupied with “changing the world” regardless of the decisions of college administrators.

Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle host Laura Ingraham retweeted conservative news site Daily Wire’s write-up on Hogg’s TMZ interview Wednesday, dubbing Hogg as a whiner “dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA…totally predictable given acceptance rates.”

Ingraham’s tweet was instantly met with an onslaught of public backlash. Shannon Coulter, co-founder of the  #GrabYourWallet campaign, condemned Ingraham’s tweet as “really egregious violations of basic human decency.”

In lieu of directly responding to Ingraham’s jibe, Hogg targeted his tweet to his compiled list of Ingraham’s corporate sponsors on Twitter, with the aid of his 640,000 followers as well as fellow prominent social media influencers, urging them to #BoycottIngramAdverts Wednesday evening.

Within the span of a day, Hulu, Nestle, Wayfair, TripAdvisor, Johnson & Johnson, and Expedia have broadcasted their decisions to discontinue their ad sponsorships of The Ingraham Angle.

Ingraham issued a public apology to Hogg on Twitter Thursday morning, stating that “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.”

Additionally, she emphasized how she had been the first to interview Hogg, following the February 14th tragedy, and invited Hogg to make a reappearance at any time for a “productive discussion.”

Fred Guttenberg, the father of a slain Marjory Stoneman Douglas student, subsequently lambasted Ingraham for her seemingly insincere apology on Twitter, claiming that “an apology to save your advertisers is not enough. What you did was disgusting.”

Hogg tweeted his corresponding sentiment with Guttenberg Thursday afternoon, announcing that he would accept Ingraham’s apology on the condition that she publicly denounces Fox News’ treatment of the Parkland student survivors.

As of Thursday evening, Ingraham has yet to respond to Hogg’s stipulation.

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Rachel is a senior at UCLA majoring in Art History

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