If Fox News cancels Laura Ingraham, it might as well close the network

If Fox News cancels Laura Ingraham, it might as well close the network

There is an all out assault in progress trying to drive Laura Ingraham off television and radio, led by Parkland student and newly-minted media star David Hogg.

Ingraham is a target, superficially, because she mocked Hogg as a whiner in a tweet after he publicly griped that several colleges had rejected him. On the scale of internet insults, saying that someone is “whining” doesn’t even register it’s so mild.

I don’t believe for a second that any of the outrage against Ingraham is actually a result of what she said. It’s all contrived, or the result of pressure, and part of a political power play.

Certainly, what Ingraham said doesn’t come close to the vile accusations regularly made by Hogg against people who disagree with him on gun control. Hogg is so fundamentalist and absolutist that all his opponents are reduced to demons in his rhetoric.

(Language warning)

It would be a mistake, however, to focus too heavily on Hogg. His current fame will fade when he no longer is politically useful to those who support him now, and I doubt he resonates beyond the bubble of the anti-Trump Resistance. Hogg will be like Sandra Fluke, if you even remember who she was.

Hogg is the excuse to try to deplatform Ingraham, but he’s not the reason. The reason this is happening is that groups like Media Matters have fought a decade-long battle to deplatform conservatives in media by pressuring advertisers.

I explored the history and tactics in my April 19, 2017 post, Here’s why Rush survived pressure on advertisers while O’Reilly didn’t:

Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News career now swims with the fishes.

The conventional wisdom is that after the NY Times exposed a history of sexual harassment  settlements, and two new accusers came forward, advertisers “fled” the show, forcing the hand of News Corp and the Murdochs.

That conventional wisdom is only partially correct — advertisers didn’t flee, they were chased away by the same organized effort as was used against Glenn Beck once upon a time, and Rush Limbaugh in 2012.

Longtime readers will recall my extensive and groundbreaking research into the StopRush operation just after Limbaugh’s comments about Sandra Fluke in 2012, for which he apologized.

I proved then that the operation — at least initially — was a Media Matters astroturfed assault on Limbaugh’s advertiser base, based on a pre-existing plan by Angelo Carusone, then Director of Online Strategy for Media Matters (and now President). Supposedly independent groups coordinated their efforts with Media Matters, and then tried to cover it up….

But of course, for Carusone and Media Matters, it was all about politics, and part of a plan hatched years ago, as we wrote about in 2011, Media Matters Plans “Guerrilla Warfare and Sabotage” on Fox News And Conservative Websites.

As the Daily Caller documented, Media Matters has been an integral part of Hogg’s campaign against Ingraham, providing him from the start with advertiser lists. Media Matter has been joined by individuals and groups under the umbrella of The Resistance to Trump, who have been relentlessly targeting advertisers on social media. They want Ingraham not because of what she said, but because it would be seen as a blow to Fox News and by implication, Trump.

Similar actions were launched right after the Parkland school shooting against corporations partnering with the NRA, and I warned that it wouldn’t stop there. I renewed my NRA membership because attacks on 2nd Amendment rights never stop there:

One of the most astounding aspects of the politics after the Parkland school shooting is how quickly a small group of student leaders and a large number of leftist groups backing them focused on the NRA….

There is an ongoing campaign touted on social media by the small group of students but organizes by groups like Think Progress. Sleeping Giants and Moms Demand Action, who are targeting corporations that do business with the NRA, mostly though discounts offered to NRA members. Using a playbook refined against Glenn Beck, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and others, companies are being bombarded on social media with demands they sever ties….

But it’s going further. People like Joe Scarborough have joined a campaign to deplatform NRA-TV. That is, to force companies like Apple, Amazon and YouTube to shut down NRA-TV’s ability to stream content.

It should surprise no one that what starts with an attack on 2nd Amendment rights quickly moved to an attack on free speech via the handful of internet oligopolies. Leftists have identified a weak point — private entities are not constrained by the 1st Amendment the way the government is, but they perform on the internet quasi-governmental functions over internet infrastructure and access….

If you think the attacks on the NRA are only about the 2nd Amendment, then you haven’t been paying attention. These people are totalitarian in nature, and that nature is on full display.

It’s not about Laura Ingraham or David Hogg — it’s about an unhinged and emboldened totalitarian movement that seeks to deplatform conservatives. Their primary target for a decade has been Fox News, which is the one non-liberal network in a sea of liberal major media.

Sacrificing Laura Ingraham won’t satiate the beast. If Fox News cancels Laura Ingraham over this faux outrage about her tweet, then Fox News might as well close the network.

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.