The Patriot Post® · One Parkland Teen's Outsized Influence
It is now evident that a 17-year-old Parkland student wields far more power than he should. The Leftmedia has made David Hogg the obnoxious voice of the anti-gun high-schooler crowd, and he’s busied himself viciously attacking Second Amendment supporters. He recently accused the NRA of being made up of “pathetic f—ers that want to keep killing our children.” He added, “It just makes me think what sick f—ers out there want to continue to sell more guns, murder more children, and honestly just get re-elected. What type of s—ty person does that?” No NRA member has ever perpetrated a mass shooting, and the NRA doesn’t sell guns. Candidates who are supported by the NRA receive money because they already support the Second Amendment, not as payment for their mercenary services. So aside from Hogg’s savage and vulgar attacks, he’s just plain wrong on the facts.
Last week, Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who had previously hosted Hogg on her show, tweeted a link to a Daily Wire story, saying, “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.)” It was a pretty innocuous tweet, even if it did hit him personally.
Hogg quickly responded, “Soooo @IngrahamAngle what are your biggest advertisers … Asking for a friend. #BoycottIngramAdverts” Naturally, he soon thereafter produced a list, and at least 14 folded almost immediately, pulling ads from her show — even after she apologized. Ingraham promptly went on vacation.
For his part, Hogg very ungraciously rejected Ingraham’s apology and called for her total and unconditional surrender instead: “An apology in an effort just to save your advertisers is not enough. I will only accept your apology only if you denounce the way your network has treated my friends and I [sic] in this fight. It’s time to love thy neighbor, not mudsling at children.” If this 17-year-old “child” can get on national TV to lie and besmirch the character of millions of Americans, he should expect a little bit of pushback.
As The Washington Post marveled, “The swift results showcase the power that the Parkland survivors have, not just in organizing rallies but in spurring corporate America to act.” (For more on the term “survivors,” see Mark Alexander’s thoughts to correct that record.) But more to the point, it is astounding how these kids have been given a supposedly unassailable moral authority from which to push the agenda of their anti-Second Amendment backers. They are pawns in a much bigger game.
In related news, CNN’s Joan Walsh berated Parkland student Kyle Kashuv, who supports the Second Amendment. No word on boycotting CNN advertisers.
On a final note, this is a great example of why The Patriot Post does not accept advertising. We don’t wish to be at the mercy of corporations that are afraid of their own shadows and susceptible to these rabble-rousing boycotts.
Update 4/3: Fox News co-president Jack Abernathy issued a statement defending Ingraham and Fox: “We cannot and will not allow voices to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts. We look forward to having Laura Ingraham back, hosting her program next Monday when she returns from spring vacation with her children.”