Laura Ingraham’s return to Fox News tonight doesn’t mark the end of her bad news: Allstate insurance has quietly dropped Ingraham’s show, telling employees in an internal memo that her comments about Parkland student David Hogg were “inconsistent” with company values.
Ingraham returned to “The Ingraham Angle” Monday night after the week-long vacation she announced amid the fallout over her comments. In a March 31 memo, obtained by TheWrap, Allstate said it severed ties with Ingraham’s show on Wednesday, March 28. That was the day Ingraham posted a tweet accusing Hogg of “whining” that he didn’t get into several colleges. Allstate is at least the 20th advertiser to drop Ingraham.
“Laura Ingraham’s comments about David Hogg were inconsistent with our values,” the memo read. “Allstate believes in youth empowerment and last year helped 5 million youth find their voices and take action to make the world better. We have not advertised on ‘The Ingraham Angle’ since Wednesday. We hope our youth can help us find a path to a less divisive future.”
Three Allstate customers, who do not know each other, sent TheWrap emails that they said were sent by their Allstate agents which included the exact same statement used in the memo.
A spokeswoman for the company would not confirm the memo’s authenticity, only saying: “We’ve taken note of your concern.”
When asked if the company had any future ads scheduled to appear on the show, the spokeswoman said: “I cannot answer that question.”
This isn’t the first time a company has subtly dropped “The Ingraham Angle.” Some advertisers have struggled with the Ingraham issue, trying to distance themselves from her tweet about Hogg without offending conservative customers who may agree with her on other issues.
As TheWrap first reported last week, Ace Hardware also quietly dropped Ingraham but did not send a statement announcing its decision.
Men’s clothing retailer Jos A Bank has said it never bought ads on Ingraham’s show specifically, but rather from Fox News. Still, ads for the clothing company have stopped appearing on the show since the flap arose, according to liberal watchdog group Media Matters.
Because of the questions over whether Jos A. Bank advertised with Fox News or Ingraham, TheWrap is not counting it among the 20 advertisers that have dropped her show.
Hogg responded to Ingraham’s March 28 tweet by urging his followers on social media to target Ingraham’s advertisers. Ingraham subsequently apologized, and noted that anyone would be proud of his 4.1 GPA.
Since the “whining” tweet, “The Ingraham Angle” has had its ad time cut roughly in half, according to CNN.
Ingraham went on vacation two days after her tweet, and is scheduled to return to the airwaves tonight.
Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.