David Hogg Makes Another Right-Winger Cry Uncle (VIDEO/TWEETS)

By
Darrell Lucus
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When the history books are written about the horrific Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, it’s a safe bet that a lot of ink will be devoted to how the survivors went toe-to-toe some of America’s most prominent conservatives. And with few exceptions, the right-wingers have been the first to blink.

We got another example of this on Thursday. Fox News’ Laura Ingraham was all but forced to apologize after she publicly rejoiced at Stoneman Douglas survivor David Hogg being rejected by several universities.

On Tuesday, Hogg told TMZ that he’d been rejected by four schools in his native California–including UCLA. Watch here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqYlxualEgs

Hogg has a 4.2 GPA and an SAT score of 1270–and yet, it still wasn’t enough. He hasn’t had much time to be disappointed, though, since “we’re changing the world.”

When Ingraham saw the video on Wednesday morning, she decided to take a victory lap.

Excuse me, Laura? Are we watching the same video? It didn’t sound like Hogg was whining at all. TMZ founder Harvey Levin was wondering the same thing.

Twitter saw this for what it was–yet another case of a right-winger bullying a mass shooting survivor.

Hogg didn’t take this lying down. He decided to hit Ingraham where it hurts–in her wallet.

He culled a list of the biggest advertisers on “The Ingraham Angle,” and urged his followers to pester them.

It’s not the first time that Hogg and his friends have thrown down the gauntlet to the right. On the one-month anniversary of the shooting, Hogg posted a Twitter video in the style of the NRA’s infamous dark-themed commentaries.

Hogg posed several all-too-simple questions.

“What if our politicians weren’t the bitch of the NRA?”
“What if we all voted and said, ‘This is NOT okay’?”
“What if we stood up as Americans, and fought for our freedom and our childrens’ lives?”

Hogg was apparently taking notes from fellow survivor Sarah Chadwick–best known for telling Donald Trump what he could do with his thoughts and prayers. Ten days earlier, she brutally trolled NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch for warning Hollywood and the media not to get any ideas about pushing for gun control.

Given this history, I knew right away that this wasn’t going to end well for Ingraham.

As Thursday dawned, Ingraham’s advertisers started heading for the exits. One of the first to bolt was Nutrish, Rachael Ray’s pet foot company.

Nutrish added that Ingraham’s remarks were “not consistent with how we feel people should be treated.”

TripAdvisor followed suit soon afterward. In a burning statement, the travel-rating site said Ingraham’s attacks on Hogg “cross the line of decency.” Along similar lines, housewares site Wayfair cut ties with Ingraham for making comments “not consistent with our values.” As Thursday morning wore on, Nestlé, Expedia, and Joseph A. Bank had also cut ties with Ingraham.

By Thursday afternoon, Ingraham had finally realized she stepped in it. She took to Twitter to apologize.

Sadly, Ingraham couldn’t leave well enough alone. She had to get a plug in for her show. That probably explains why Hogg was decidedly unimpressed. In an interview with The New York Times, Hogg noted that Ingraham only came to her senses “after we went after her advertisers.” He’s taking the high road, saying that he’s not going to attack her personally, but concentrate his fire on her advertisers. He believes that this should be an example to Ingraham’s right-wing buddies.

“(I)f you continue to bully the students that survived a mass murder, there’s going to be consequences. Deal with the issues, not the individuals.”

Fred Gutenberg, whose daughter Jaime was among those killed on Valentine’s Day, was equally unimpressed. He saw Ingraham’s apology as a craven attempt to keep her advertisers from fleeing.

Hogg was of the same mind, and called for Ingraham to do more than just apologize.

More than reasonable. Is it too much to ask for the highest-profile woman on the fair and balanced network to call out her own network? Until she sees reason, Hogg is still twisting the knife.

The ball’s in your court, Laura. Will you show some leadership for once?

So once again, a right-winger has been run all over the room by the kids who have become the most famous teenagers in America. And once again, these teenagers have shown they’re more adult than the actual adults.

(featured image courtesy Barry Stock, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)

Darrell Lucus
Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.

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