ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT): Why [David Hogg] was effective, I think, and this is the single biggest reason, is that he didn't bother appealing to Fox News for decency and for accountability. He understood automatically that they were not going to do it, that this is their business model, and then the way to go about it is to go directly to the entities fueling and propelling them.
JOY REID (HOST): Absolutely, and to your point, this is not Laura Ingraham's first rodeo, Gabe. She told LeBron James and Kevin Durant, black NBA stars to “shut up and dribble.” She has called the NAACP “a push organization for racist sentiments.” She's called Planned Parenthood employees “heinous, Hitlerian freaks,” and she's said about Mexican immigrants they “have come here to murder and rape our people.” Don't know what she means by “our people,” but this is why they gave her a show. I mean, this is what Fox wants.
GABRIEL SHERMAN (VANITY FAIR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT): Without question, this was part of the Trumpification of Fox News' primetime. You have Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham; all ardent pro-Trump voices, really identifying with that sort of white grievance culture that Trump taps into. And so yes, to your point, this is exactly the type of rhetoric Fox News wants to see on the air.
[...]
CARUSONE: I think this actually ties in with your previous segments, which is that part of what's percolating in the message board communities about these kids is that they're not kids, that's one of the conspiracy theories, that they're actors. So there's all this dehumanization, or alternatively setting them up as these overwhelmingly powerful figures that you must fight against. And so underneath all of this, and part of what is fueling and fomenting -- and that's why when Laura Ingraham goes out there and attacks [him], given her platform, she gives a wink and a nod to sort of what's percolating in this cesspool that actually intensifies and inflames all of these others who are even worse to go directly at them head on. So that, to me, is partly what's going on here, is a connection and synergy between the absolute worst parts of these communities and then their leading figures, like Laura Ingraham and Fox News.
