The Ingraham Angle

In February 2018, Ingraham was criticized after she publicly said that basketball star LeBron James should not talk about politics and that he should "shut up and dribble."[18] Professional athletes complained about Ingraham's comment,[19] which was in response to Lebron's statement that President Donald Trump "doesn't understand the people, and really don't give a f--- about the people."

On March 28, The Daily Wire wrote an article listing the colleges which were and were not offering admission to Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor David Hogg.[20] Later that day, Ingraham ridiculed the rejections Hogg received, tweeting: "David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA...totally predictable given acceptance rates.)"[6][21][5]

Hogg responded by accusing Ingraham of cyberbullying[22] and posted a list of Ingraham's advertisers, suggesting they be contacted by his followers.[22][7][23] In response to the boycott, 27 advertisers left the show.[24][25][26][27][28][29]

The following day, Ingraham tweeted an apology.[30][31][6][32] Hogg said that Ingraham's apology had only been caused by the walkout of several advertisers.[30] He said that he would accept an apology in the future if she denounced the way her network had been treating him and his friends.[33] Hogg and his supporters continued their pressure campaign on her show's advertisers.[32]

At the end of her Friday, show of March 30, Ingraham announced she was taking a week-long absence from the show for Easter; a break that was already planned according to Ingraham and Fox News.[34][35][36] A week later, on her show, Ingraham characterized the boycott as "Stalinist".[37] Ingraham returned to her show with the support of Rupert Murdoch.[38]

Within a day of Ingraham's comments about Hogg, sponsors started announcing that they would no longer advertise on The Ingraham Angle.[27][28][29][26][39][25] Rates for advertising during the show dropped since the start of the boycott. Prices for a 30-second spot dropped from an average range of $12,310–$14,732 to an average range of $11,305–$13,405, according to analysts.[40] Advertising time during the show dropped by as much as 52 percent.[40][39][38] By mid-April 2018, a total of 27 sponsors stopped advertising on The Ingraham Angle.[24][28][29][41][42][43] As of December 2018, only two major advertisers had returned to sponsoring the show.[44]

Following Ingraham's tweet, responses, and Hogg's tweets, polls showed that public perception of Fox News declined more than that of any advertiser.[45] Polling by YouGov BrandIndex in the days following the announcement of the boycott showed that the Fox News brand had sustained significantly more consumer perception damage than any of the advertisers.[45] The positive consumer perception of Ingraham dropped from 53 percent to 33 percent, according to the celebrity data and research firm Spotted.[46]

Hundreds of Russian bots on Twitter came to Ingraham's defense during the weekend following the boycott.[47] According to Hamilton 68, posts under the hashtag #IStandWithLaura jumped 2800 percent and was the top trending hashtag for Russian Twitter accounts.[47][48]

Ingraham was supported by singer and NRA board member Ted Nugent,[49][50] and talk show host Bill Maher who defended her on the grounds of free speech. Republican strategist Steve Schmidt speculated why Ingraham's advertisers pulled their support: "...this kid's not scared. He's not scared of the NRA. He's not intimidated and scared by Laura Ingraham."[51]

Fox News co-president Jack Abernethy issued a statement of support for Ingraham: "We cannot and will not allow voices to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts."[52][53][43]

Following Ingraham's return to the show on April 9, AdAge reported that as of the April 11 Wednesday night episode of The Ingraham Angle, the show averaged 2.7 million viewers with 559,000 in the 25-to-54 viewer age demographic. In comparison, the show averaged 2.2 million viewers and 434,484 in the same demographic on March 29, 2018.[43] According to TheWrap, viewership for the week of Ingraham's return to the show were up 25 percent for 2018 at 3,099,000 total viewers and up 36 percent for the age 25 to 54 demographic with 685,000 viewers.[54] In June, the show earned 2.654 million total viewers per night, the best monthly average since the show was launching in October 2017.[55]

Twenty-seven sponsors stopped advertising on the show due to the March boycott.[24] The controversy surrounding the boycott resulted in a decline of favorable public perceptions of the Fox News brand.[45][46] Upon Ingraham's return to the show on April 9 following a week-long vacation, The Ingraham Angle occupied the top position for its time slot against CNN and MSNBC.[43] Following Ingraham's comments on her show regarding facilities used to detain minor children separated from their undocumented immigrant parents, David Hogg renewed his call for boycotts of The Ingraham Angle's advertisers. During the show's June 18, 2018 broadcast, Ingraham referred to the detention facilities as "essentially summer camps" that "resemble boarding schools." In response, Hogg called for a renewal of the previous boycott via Twitter the following day.[56] Ingraham's comments followed an MSNBC report by Jacob Soboroff which was broadcast on June 14, 2018. The report described a Texas detainment facility setup to be like a "dormitory structure" with a cafeteria and rooms that contained four beds in each.[57][58]