On the May 28 edition of Podcast One’s The Laura Ingraham Show Podcast, Fox’s Laura Ingraham did a live read of an ad for President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again Committee, a joint fundraising committee for his 2020 reelection campaign.
The Trump Make America Great Again Committee is now a sponsor for Laura Ingraham's podcast pic.twitter.com/tm4kugqjAv
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) May 28, 2019
Ingraham’s ad read is just another example of the unethical conflicts of interest posed by the unofficial alliance between the Republican Party and right-wing media, especially Fox News. Media Matters reporting has shown that multiple Fox hosts, including Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Pete Hegseth, and Jeanine Pirro have received over $500,000 combined in speaking fees from Republican groups during their time at the network. Members of Fox’s purported “news” division, including Shannon Bream and Neil Cavuto, have also headlined conservative events and appeared alongside Republican officials. In November 2018, Fox host Hannity even joined Trump onstage at a campaign rally, despite promising his audience that he would not appear. An advertising partnership between a prominent prime-time cable news personality and the incumbent president’s reelection campaign is a glaring conflict of interest.
Previously:
Laura Ingraham: “The Democrats want to replace many of you”
Correction (5/29/19): The headline of this piece initially described the Make America Great Again Committee as a “PAC.” It is in fact a joint fundraising committee, as the body of the piece explains.