Laura Ingraham Blasts ‘Speech Czars’ on the Left: They’re ‘Stalinist’
The Fox News host stormed back after a weeklong break and ad boycott, blasting critics of her mockery of David Hogg by saying they were attempting to silence her.
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast
Laura Ingraham lashed out Monday night in a fiery monologue at activists who supported an advertising boycott of her show last month, saying they were attempting to stifle free speech.
Well over a dozen advertisers pulled ads from The Ingraham Angle following her tweet mocking Parkland shooting victim and 17-year-old gun control activist David Hogg’s college rejection letters.
After a weeklong hiatus from the show, Ingraham returned on Monday. Although she did not address her mockery of Hogg, she railed against “speech czars” on the left who she claimed wanted to silence politically disagreeable ideas.
“Their efforts are Stalinist, pure and simple,” she said. “Their objective is a total transformation of American society, not through rational discourse and open debate, but through personal demonization and silencing.”
While she previously apologized in a tweet to the Parkland survivors, Ingraham was far less conciliatory on Monday.
The Fox News host railed against incidents that she described as censorship of conservative speech by left-leaning institutions.
She decried The Atlantic’s decision to part ways with conservative writer Kevin Williamson, who left the magazine after multiple clips surfaced of him proposing hanging women who had abortions.
Ingraham also interviewed pro-Trump internet commentators Diamond & Silk, and blasted Facebook for allegedly labeling the duo’s videos “unsafe.” Facebook said on Monday evening in a statement that the label was “inaccurate.”
“This is the intolerant left in action,” Ingraham said. “Whether it’s striking voices from social media or driving certain viewpoints on the airwaves, beating people up, organizing boycotts for perceived unforgivable offenses or preventing speakers from being heard on a college campus, it’s all coming from the same place: a desperate desire to stop debate by branding your opponent unacceptable and driving him or her from the public square.”
Ingraham ended the show by introducing a new recurring segment called “Defending the First,” calling on viewers to share stories of apparent censorship of conservative values and speech in other situations.
“We are not afraid to debate ideas here: We relish a vigorous debate,” Ingraham said. “They run from it.”