Did Fox cancel ‘The Ingraham Angle’?

In early May 2024, posts began circulating online that Fox had canceled Laura Ingraham’s “The Ingraham Angle,” purportedly in response to advertiser pressure and the host’s alleged health issues.

The source of the false report appears to be a Facebook page running a series of advertisements with headers such as “You’ll never see Laura Ingraham again!” 

Notably, the ads themselves never make any direct claims that “Angle” has been canceled, likely a mechanism to evade any content controls placed on advertising.

The ads appeared on both Facebook and Instagram, which share a parent company, Meta. Meta’s advertising platform allows pages to run coordinated campaigns on both social media networks.

Clicking on the ads sent users to the domain borat2.ink to a page that mimics the look of the conservative network’s website with the headline: “Lawsuits Pile Up As Sponsors Threaten Fox – ‘The Ingraham Angle’ is Officially Canceled. MacCallum Eyes Timeslot Takeover.”

The article was purportedly authored by “Heaton L.” 

Farther down in the “article” was a mention that Ingraham had been diagnosed with a form of dementia and used CBD gummies as a cure.

The article claims that Ingraham had purchased the “formula” in order to market the product to consumers.

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None of the claims made are true. “The Ingraham Angle” is, as of June 10, 2024, still running on the channel, and there has been no official word that Ingraham has any of the medical conditions described in the faux article.

The story also falsely claimed that Fox host Sean Hannity along with Ann Coulter and Kevin Costner are endorsing the product. It also included claims that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer was pressuring the network to make Ingraham stop selling the product.

There is also no scientific evidence that CBD products can treat dementia. None of the personalities mentioned endorse the product and Pfizer was not involved in any way.

Unfortunately, this type of scammy article is not uncommon and misleading advertisements claiming prominent media personalities or programs endorse products appear frequently across social media networks. 

While many social networks claim that advertising is vetted, the campaigns still pop up frequently and likely end up generating money for the scammers — otherwise they wouldn’t make the effort. Many of these ads contain sophisticated efforts to evade detection and look largely legitimate, especially on only cursory review.

The entire scheme contained several hints that it was a scam:

• The Facebook page running the ads, Xenocity, had no followers and lists a phone number linked to Indonesia
• The domain borat2.ink is extremely suspect; not only does it not include the word “Fox” or similar branding, it, perhaps ironically, could be in reference to the fictional journalist Borat Sagdiyev, the main character of the mockumentary “Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” which featured actor Sacha Baron Cohen masquerading as a Kazakhstani national touring America to interview unsuspecting Americans
• Even if Xenocity was a legitimate operation, that name does not appear prominently in the domain name or on the article page as one might expect from a legitimate brand
• While the “article” page appears very similar to a legitimate story at first glance, clues such as the awkward headline, partial author name and grammar errors within suggest it was not produced by a professional media organization
• The rash claims about Ingraham’s supposed diagnosis and purchase of the formula are additional red flags