Frothing-mad right-wing media personalities just can’t seem to stop themselves from personally attacking the teenage survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. They’ve spread vicious conspiracy theories, mocked them for their heritage, spread doctored videos—you name it. Since the massive March For Our Lives rallies for gun control across the country, their efforts have only intensified.
Last time we checked in with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, she was VERY concerned about the “tone” of the “discourse” these Parkland teens were using.
HOW TEENS SPEAK TO AND ABT ADULTS: “We shd change the names of AR-15s to ‘Marco Rubio’ bc they are so easy to buy,” Stoneman Douglas sophomore Sarah Chadwick tweeted.
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) February 23, 2018
She seems to have forgotten her own advice, because today she decided to mock Parkland survivor and activist David Hogg for failing to get into four colleges he applied to:
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.) https://t.co/wflA4hWHXY
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) March 28, 2018
Though he has a 4.2 GPA, Hogg was rejected from four California schools, an experience he called “annoying to deal with” because, unlike Ingraham, he’s capable of feeling feelings other than anger, fear, and ideologically driven schadenfreude.
And that “whining” she accused Hogg of? If more teens “whined” like this the world would be a much better place.
This is “whining”? “I am not surprised at all in all honesty. I think there’s a lot of amazing people that don’t get into college, not only that do things like I do but because their voices just aren’t heard in the tsunami of people that apply every year to colleges…” https://t.co/k1j5Pe31Mj
— Matt Wilstein (@mattwilstein) March 28, 2018
“I am not surprised at all in all honesty. I think there’s a lot of amazing people that don’t get to college, not only that do things like I do but because their voices just aren’t heard in the tsunami of people that apply every year to colleges in such an economic impacted school system here which we have here in America where people have to go into massive amounts of debt just to go to college and get an education,” Hogg told TMZ. “I think it’s really sad but it’s the truth.”
What a big baby, right?
Twitter let Ingraham have it:
Just a Fox News host attacking a school shooting survivor for getting rejected from colleges. What a world. https://t.co/i0HYUpLHgN
— Matthew Nussbaum (@MatthewNussbaum) March 28, 2018
Imagine if a journalist for any other television news outlet was dragging a school shooting survivor for not getting into his first-choice college. https://t.co/z0V9YkT36n
— Aaron Fullerton (@AaronFullerton) March 28, 2018
We would (rightfully) be disgusted if, say, Rachel Maddow tweeted jokes about a teenage pro-life activist failing her algebra test. But with Fox News, we expect the worst… and they deliver.
— Aaron Fullerton (@AaronFullerton) March 28, 2018
My first reaction to this: revulsion. My second reaction: amazement that some of the most powerful voices in America are terrified of a 17-year-old. https://t.co/aLL7tFGciG
— Pamela Colloff (@pamelacolloff) March 28, 2018
There is something truly rotten at the core of the GOP. If your political ideology leads you to this, it’s time to take a step back and ask you what your values really are and where your loyalties lie. https://t.co/ubUhlcklm2
— Dan Turkel (@daturkel) March 28, 2018
I get they disagree with his politics, but truly do not understand adults with large national platforms attempting to embarrass a teenager for not getting into a few colleges. https://t.co/6kqeZkyXo7
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) March 28, 2018
Laura, you’re a parent. This is pretty deplorable. https://t.co/nLXrgmZhm0
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) March 28, 2018
Ingraham’s got a record of bullying college-aged kids. When she was the editor of a conservative publication at Dartmouth, she sent someone to surreptitiously record a meeting of gay students. She then published the names of students in the meeting, called them “sodomites,” and sent copies of the tapes to their parents.
But hey! College kids do crazy things and it was the 1980s! In the decade that followed, Ingraham’s brother came out as gay and she softened her tone on gay issues somewhat. Let’s hope the next decade brings about some further evolution, or at least her ratings suffer enough that she’s forced into an early retirement. (Just no whining about it!)