ANDERSON COOPER (HOST): Another Fox News personality is facing fleeing advertisers. This time it’s Laura Ingraham, more on why in a moment. But it is the latest controversy for Fox. The family of Seth Rich, a murdered DNC staffer has sued the network and others for pushing conspiracy theories about his death. Police say it was probably a botched robbery, that of course did not stop Sean Hannity from relentlessly peddling unfounded claims trying to tie the case to the DNC (Democratic National Committee) hacking. This happened night after night until he started losing advertisers. Now it’s Laura Ingraham who is feeling the wrath of advertisers. 



RANDI KAYE: Laura Ingraham took aim then fired off this tweet: “David Hogg rejected by four colleges to which he applied and whines about it.” Ingraham’s tweet linked to a story from a conservative news site which described Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland shooting, as a gun rights provocateur. That was Wednesday morning, by Thursday afternoon, another tweet and a wildly different tone from the Fox News host apologizing “in the spirit of Holy Week to the brave victims of Parkland.” Why the about-face? Because Hogg who has a 4.2 GPA had been tweeting, too, calling for advertisers to boycott Ingraham's Fox News show. At least three brands now promising to cut ties with Ingraham. After Ingraham apologized, Hogg tweeted he would only accept her apology if she denounced how her network has treated Parkland survivors. No response from Ingraham. Hogg also took heat from right-wing media like Breitbart and Infowars after his speech at the March For Our Lives. 

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That image led Hogg's critics on the right to falsely suggest it was a Nazi salute. Infowars actually edited in Hitler's voice over Hogg, but Hogg wasn't the only student targeted by conspiracy theorists. Parkland survivor Emma Gonzalez took heat from the right about the Cuban flag patch sewn on to her jacket at the March For Our Lives. It represented her Cuban heritage. Congressman Steve King, a Republican from Iowa, posting on Facebook, “your ancestors fled the island when the dictatorship turned Cuba into a prison camp. After removing all weapons from its citizens, hence, their right to self-defense.” Gonzalez was also accused of ripping apart the Constitution. It turns out the fake image was made from a picture of her in Teen Vogue in which she ripped up a paper for target practice. It was promoted on Gab, the alt-right alternative to Twitter. And the hits keep coming. The conservative blog Red State questioned openly whether or not David Hogg had even been at school the day of the shooting. Even though this video of him hiding inside a closet at the time of the shooting had been widely available. Later the writer admitted her story was incorrect. And an aide suggested Hogg and others were actually students but crisis actors. 

Previously:

Alex Jones’ Infowars releases video depicting Parkland survivor Emma Gonzalez as member of the Hitler Youth

The right wing's conspiracy theory network is now going after high school kids

Here are the hoaxes surrounding the Parkland shooting and the Stoneman Douglas students