Fox News host Laura Ingraham returned from a one-week vacation on Monday night to castigate what she described as left-wing activists’ attempts to “intimidate those who disagree with them.”
She described the efforts as “Stalinist, pure and simple” on her primetime program.
The commentary comes nearly two weeks after Ingraham mocked Parkland, Fla., shooting survivor and student activist David Hogg in a tweet regarding the 17-year-old’s rejection by several colleges. That tweet in late March prompted Hogg to call for a boycott of Ingraham’s advertisers.
“The left’s propaganda shaped a new generation of young adults, who then parroted all that malarkey about the ‘patriarchy,’ and then they came up with their own new phrases like ‘microaggressions’ and ‘safe spaces’ and ‘white privilege,’ ” Ingraham said. “Today, left-wing activists use these terms as bludgeons to intimidate those who disagree with them from entering the dialogue at all.”
{mosads}“Their efforts are Stalinist, pure and simple,” she continued. “Their objective is a total transformation of American society, not through rational discourse and open debate, but through personal demonization and silencing.”
Ingraham also condemned “retaliatory hit squads” and said “the left” wants to “silence conservative voices.”
“Let’s face it: expressing views that just five or ten years ago were considered mainstream can now get you fired,” Ingraham added later. “It can cause you to lose a promotion. Or you can be branded a ‘hater,’ or yes, you can get boycotted.”
“We’re not going to stand for this.”
On March 29, Ingraham apologized to Hogg “in the spirit of Holy Week,” stating she was the first to feature him on air after the Feb. 14 shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and praised at the time how “poised” he was for speaking so well and informatively.
Hogg almost immediately rejected the apology after earlier calling for an advertiser boycott.
Twenty advertisers have since dropped their ads from Ingraham’s program, “The Ingraham Angle,” which finished fourth overall in the cable news ratings race behind Fox’s Sean Hannity, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Fox’s Tucker Carlson during the first quarter of 2018.
The network has defended Ingraham, condemning “intimidation efforts” against its host.
“We cannot and will not allow voices to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts,” Fox News co-president Jack Abernethy said on April 2.
On Monday night, Ingraham also announced a new recurring segment on her show titled “Defending the First,” in which she vows to “expose the enemies of free expression.”
— This report was updated at 7:51 a.m.