Fox News host Laura Ingraham, whose nightly program has been struggling under the weight of an advertising boycott for the past year, received some good news in April. Online giant Google, along with its subsidiary YouTube, bought up lots of advertising time on Ingraham's primetime show. The move doubles as a critical display of support from the tech behemoth at a time when Ingraham and the network have been desperate to bring high-profile advertisers back onto the show.
"Google or YouTube ads have appeared during The Ingraham Angle at least 23 times this month, beginning on April 2, with three ads running on the April 16 broadcast alone," The Wrap reports.
The unfortunate cozying up to Fox News comes as more social media giants continue to give in to right-wing bullying. Frantic to avoid the endless claims of "liberal media bias" launched by the Republican Party, conservative activists, and the right-wing media, Internet icons such as Google, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook are doing exactly what traditional media outlets have done for years when faced with GOP bullies: they're caving. Anxious to avoid the spotlight and an erratic Trump administration that's shown it is completely willing to misuse government power to target and thwart its perceived foes in the business world, the companies seem overly anxious to make friends with conservative bullies. And now comes word that Google is helping to support Ingraham's show.
One year ago, the host sparked nationwide outrage when she took to Twitter to mock a Parkland, Florida school shooting survivor for not getting accepted into his top-choice colleges. “David Hogg Rejected By Four colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it,” she wrote on Twitter. “(Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA...totally predictable given acceptance rates.)" The advertising exodus was immediate, as Ingraham's show went from hosting 15 minutes of commercials each night to down to just six minutes, and relied heavily on 1-800 clients because so many iconic brands including Bayer, Hulu, Johnson & Johnson, and Liberty Mutual had dropped her show. By the end of 2018, the show had rebounded a bit and was running 10 minutes of ads each night, but was still nowhere near its pre-boycott strength. Now Ingraham's getting a boost from Google. (No word if Fox offered Google a deep rate discount in order to get the company to advertise on Ingraham's ad-starved program.)
The new Google sponsorship also comes as several Democratic candidates have made a shortsighted miscue by signaling they want to work with Fox News during the campaign primary season, even though the Democratic National Committee has refused the GOP channel the right to sponsor any of the Democratic debates. By doing so, the candidates are helping to legitimize a network that is dedicated to destroying Democrats, defending Trump lies, and demolishing public debate in this country.
In recent months, Ingraham has likened Planned Parenthood to the KKK and “butchers,” called for the return of “Operation Wetback” to deport migrants, and claimed immigration is pushing "Western civilization" toward "tipping over a cliff.” That’s what Google is now sponsoring.
The irony of Google's outreach to Fox News in April? It came during the same month when the company was "pilloried" by congressional Republicans "over allegations they censor conservative users and content online, threatening federal regulation in response to claims that Democrats long have described as a hoax and a distraction."
Conservatives activists complain so loudly about phantom fouls of "liberal bias" via congressional hearings, presidential tweets, relentless messaging from Fox News, and hardball legal action, that tech companies now think twice about even appearing to offend Republicans. Those same Republicans realize that Google, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube represent the most important players in news dissemination today. So they’ve shifted their focus and started using the same playbook that they used on newspapers and television news for years, which consists of raising loud, bogus claims of "bias" and striking fear into the executives who run those companies.
"For decades, Republicans have bashed the supposedly liberal mainstream media in an effort to work the refs," Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii recently explained. "Now that two-thirds of Americans get their news from social media, Republicans have a new boogeyman to target—big tech." Indeed, in March, Trump accused the industry of harboring "hatred" for a "certain group of people that happen to be in power, that happen to have won the election." Added GOP Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, “Facebook, Google and Twitter are pushing a left-wing social agenda while marshaling their marketing power to shut conservative voices out of the marketplace."
The claim is utterly bogus, since conservative voices are among the loudest and most popular on Twitter and Facebook, but conservatives now completely buy into the mythology. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are much more likely to accuse social media networks of censoring political speech than Democrats are, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll. Among conservatives, 85 percent believe it is likely that social media companies engage in partisan, restrictive behavior.
In response to the public hectoring, tech and social media companies are attempting to curry favor with conservatives, trying to prove that they're not really enemies of the GOP. Last summer, Facebook and Twitter executives scheduled hush-hush meetings and dinners with members of the conservative media elite as part of a feel-good outreach tour.
It's one thing for beleaguered tech companies to try to make nice with dishonest conservatives. It's something else entirely for Google to be putting money directly into Fox News's pocket.
Eric Boehlert is a veteran progressive writer and media analyst, formerly with Media Matters and Salon. He is the author of Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush and Bloggers on the Bus. You can follow him on Twitter @EricBoehlert.
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