Weeks before conservative Fox New host Laura Ingraham went after Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg, a teenage gun control advocate, she attacked NBA star Lebron James for daring to criticize President Donald Trump.
“It’s always unwise to seek political advice from someone who gets paid $100 million a year to bounce a ball,” she said about James and fellow NBA star Kevin Durant in February. “Keep the political comments to yourselves. … Shut up and dribble.”
There was no backlash to telling two multi-millionaire African-Americans to "shut up." Undeterred, Ingraham upped the ante the next month.
But her mean-spirited tweet mocking the 4.2 GPA student for not being accepted into some California schools backfired, rapidly causing dozens of advertisers to drop their sponsorship of Ingraham's Fox News show. Before announcing a sudden week-long vacation, Ingraham offered an apology to Hogg.
"On reflection, in the spirit of Holy Week, I apologize for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland," Ingraham tweeted. She also tried to curtail the damage by noting Hogg had appeared on her show after the shooting.
For his part, Hogg, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, first called on Ingraham to denounce all of Fox News' dismissive and derisive coverage of the student shooting survivors advocating for increased gun control measures.
Hogg followed up his call for accountability on CNN on Saturday.
“A bully is a bully and it’s important to stand up to them,” Hogg said, calling on the Fox News host to also apologize to the countless men and women she publicly derided over the years. “She told Lebron James to shut up and dribble. I don’t see any apology for those people. It’s sad, it’s disturbing to know that somebody can bully so many people and just get away with it, especially to the level she did. I think now with advertisers standing with us, we can accomplish anything."
He said Ingraham's apology to him was less inspired by Holy Week and more inspired by fleeing advertisers.
"I hope she uses this time to reflect not only on how she treated me but so many others like the students at Dartmouth or even people like Lebron James," Hogg told the New York Daily News.
“I would only consider doing it after she apologizes to all the people that she’s hurt throughout her professionalism career because of her immaturity and unprofessionalism,” he said.
Watch the interview below:
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