The 5-Minute Fix: About this Fox News boycott

March 31, 2018

Democracy Dies in Darkness

Keeping up with politics is easy now

By Amber Phillips

Get this: One of the biggest political stories of the week actually had nothing to do with President Trump.

It had everything to do with a surprising amount of power flexed by gun-control activists in the wake of last month's Parkland, Fla., shooting.

A high school student tweeted a call to action for advertisers to boycott a Fox News show, and at least half a dozen major companies accepted. That fact alone is remarkable, but what's even more remarkable is this all happened in 36 or so hours, suggesting the national conversation on guns is changing extremely rapidly.

Students Kelsey Friend and David Hogg recount their stories about a mass shooting at their high school a day after it happened. Hogg has turned into a spokesman of sorts for stricter gun laws. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Here's what happened, and why it's important:

Wednesday morning: Fox News host Laura Ingraham tweets a conservative article claiming Parkland shooting survivor and gun-control activist David Hogg is whining about his college rejection letters.

Wednesday night: Hogg tweets an idea: Top advertisers of Ingraham's show should boycott it. He says he's working on a list, and later that night, he's got one. He urges his 674,000 Twitter followers to put pressure on those companies to stop supporting Ingraham's show.

Thursday morning: At least half a dozen advertisers take him up on that. Rachel Ray's dog food brand Nutrish, online home goods retailer Wayfair. Nestle. TripAdvisor. They all pull their ads.

Thursday afternoon: Ingraham apologizes.

Will the boycott kick Ingraham off the air? Probably not, says The Fix's Callum Borchers.

But the fact that a high school student — even one as prominent as Hogg is right now — got a boycott going at all suggests we've entered a new reality in the gun debate. One where a single tweet can spur a national reaction that puts gun-rights supporters on notice. Some of Washington's most powerful lawmakers wish they could create change as swiftly as Hogg just did.

Everything, everything, EVERYTHING is political, part 1,739

'Roseanne' reboot gets political

Nineties sitcom reboots are a big thing right now. And the biggest of them all, “Roseanne,” returned to television this week outfitted for the Trump era. Which is to say, ultra political.

In the show, a main plot point is that Roseanne voted for Trump while her sister voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein. And, yes, they fight about it.

That's cool, says The Fix's Eugene Scott: “Hollywood has an opportunity to help those who don't understand Trump supporters outside of the white working-class caricature see what it was about his message that resonated with more than 60 million Americans.”

But a word of caution to those Hillary Clinton/Stein/Evan McMullin voters watching “Roseanne”: Not all of Trump's supporters were white working class. In fact, it's a myth that most of them are.

Scott again: “Trump won most men, most white millennials, about half of wealthy Americans, most college-educated white voters and most independents.”

You wouldn't know that from watching “Roseanne” or any other Hollywood shows attempting to tackle the political world we live in.
Your weekend outrage

Rep. Elizabeth Etsy (D-Conn.) said she consulted her personal attorneys and advisers regarding the allegation made against her chief of staff, not authorities. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Associated Press)

1. A Connecticut congresswoman learned that her chief of staff threatened to kill a former aide he had been dating. And he stayed in the job for three more months, reports The Post's Elise Viebeck. And then, Rep. Elizabeth Etsy (D-Conn.) blamed congressional rules for delaying his exit, rules that do indeed seem to protect the powerful. Oh, and one more thing to be outraged about: Congress's efforts to reform those rules and be a leader in the global #MeToo movement seem to have indefinitely stalled.

2. Remember that Smirnoff icing game we played in college? (Or some of you inevitably will play in college?) Turns out Trump administration officials are playing it, too, at the office. The Post's Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg found that a little-known White House office responsible for vetting thousands of political appointees is shorthanded, inexperienced and, apparently, a little fratty. They report: “In January, they played a drinking game in the office called “Icing” to celebrate the deputy director’s 30th birthday. Icing involves hiding a bottle of Smirnoff Ice, a flavored malt liquor, and demanding that the person who discovers it, in this case the deputy director, guzzle it.”

And yes, Trump is way behind other presidents in staffing the government.

One feel-good story for the weekend

Emergency goalie Scott Foster becomes the Chicago Blackhawks hero

I couldn't find much in the realm of politics for you to feel good about this week. So I turned to sports, where a 36-year-old accountant who had never played major league hockey helped the Chicago Blackhawks win their game Wednesday night. Matt Foster was the team's emergency backup — the backup to the backup. He got called to play, and he killed it, and now you know his name.

Analysis

Laura Ingraham doesn’t really want to debate David Hogg

Taunting the Parkland student over college rejections was her effort to signal that he is overrated and unqualified to opine about public policy.

By Callum Borchers • Read more »