At least one advertiser—and possibly more—has dropped Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s show, “The Ingraham Angle,” after her comment Monday comparing immigration detention centers to summer camps, according to a Thursday Politico report.
IAC, a media and internet company that is reportedly Ingraham’s second biggest advertiser, has pulled commercials for Angie’s List and Home Advisor from the show’s block.
A Fox News spokesperson told Politico that the boycott is not affecting business. “There’s been no impact on our business, and new advertisers continue to opt in for our powerful prime-time lineup,” the spokesperson said.
According to research analysts, the ad time on Ingraham’s show has dropped “significantly” since Monday’s show during which she made the remark, leading them to conclude that other advertisers have pulled out as well. Many advertisers declined to discuss their ad buys with Politico.
Ingraham tried to walk her comments back at the end of the show Monday: “Apparently, there are a lot of people very upset because we referred to some of the detention facilities tonight as essentially like summer camps,” she said. “The San Diego Union-Tribune today described the facilities as essentially like what you would expect at a boarding school. So I will stick to there are some of them like boarding schools.”
She omitted details in the story referring to round-the-clock surveillance and armed doors that blare alarms if a child tries to escape.
David Hogg, a Parkland shooting survivor who successfully pushed Ingraham’s advertisers to boycott when she previously made offensive comments about him, tweeted at her “we meet again” and a list of her advertisers.
Despite the criticism and advertising drops her comment garnered, Fox News is standing by the host.
“Laura Ingraham’s very personal, on-the-ground commitment to the plight of impoverished and abandoned children — specifically in Guatemala — speaks for itself,” a Fox News spokesperson told Politico in reference to her adopted child. “So, too, does her strong belief in a common-sense, legal immigration system, which will continue to be a focus of her show. Fox News will never tolerate or give in to attempts to silence diverse viewpoints by agenda-driven intimidation efforts.”
