Laura Ingraham may have pulled off an impressive broadcasting feat Thursday night.
The Fox News host, who has endured a two-week long advertiser boycott, managed to throw some shade at departing sponsors as well as her critics without ever mentioning the boycott itself.
During a new installment of her segment called “Defending the First,” where she promises to “expose enemies of the First of Amendment, free expression and free thought,” Ingraham talked about “the dark forces behind organized efforts to silence conservatives.”
In a discussion with conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, Ingraham focused on billionaire financier George Soros, who gave a $1 million donation to liberal watchdog group Media Matters.
“You have these corporations that just wilt,” Ingraham said. “They just wilt. They get a hundred emails from some left-wing activist and they wilt. Meanwhile millions of conservatives are like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ That makes no sense.”
Ingraham has been hit hard by an advertiser boycott campaign spearheaded by Parkland student David Hogg after she mocked him for “whining” about his rejection by several California colleges. Since the campaign began, most of her biggest sponsors, including Mitsubishi, Blue Apron, SlimFast, Ace Hardware, and IBM have bailed, and ad time on “The Ingraham Angle” has been cut roughly in half.
Thursday night’s episode of “The Ingraham Angle” show featured ads from 12 mostly lesser-known national brands, several Fox News promos, and a more than a couple of repeated ads.
The list of advertisers included: BASF, Ace Hardware (which reversed its decision to cease advertising on the show), Gilead, Spectrum, Ovation Hair, Invisalign, Beaches Resorts, MyPillow, Tac Light Elite, Senekot, Cabela’s, Old Dominion and hemorrhoid care system RectiCare.
The commercial breaks added up to just under 10 minutes total. By contrast, data from the tracking firm Kantar showed that “The Ingraham Angle” averaged 14 and a half minutes of ads prior to the boycott campaign.