The pretext being used to destroy a conservative woman, Fox News star Laura Ingraham, is that she accused a 17-year-old of “whining.” Even after apologizing to anti-gun activist David Hogg, the corporate media and the organized left, with a lot of help from gutless corporations, are still determined to dismantle Ingraham’s entire professional life — to shut a conservative woman up by removing her platform, all because she accused a teenager of “whining.”

Keep in mind that Hogg is not just any 17-year-old. He is a foul-mouthed hurler of extremist, partisan venom and a shield for a media eager to disarm and silence their enemies on the right. And in order to enjoy that shield, the media have handed Hogg unlimited power.

To begin with, the media, most especially CNN, knowingly allow Hogg to spread conspiracy theories, to accuse the NRA of being “child murderers,” to describe anyone who disagrees with him as “pathetic fuckers that want to keep killing our children,” to accuse Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) of taking money in exchange for the lives of students, and to claim NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch “doesn’t care about these children’s lives.”

In other words, Hogg is not some wide-eyed innocent. He is old enough to own a firearm, to join the military, to drive, to get married, and to step into the political arena to hurl spittle-flecked nuclear bombs at his political enemies on the right…

…but Laura Ingraham accused him of “whining.”

Let us call this what it is — un-American McCarthyism, a partisan witch hunt in which the establishment media is an active participant and cheerleader.

To some extent, you can blame Hogg, who is obviously drunk on his unearned power. But I still remember being 17 — I was a jerk, too. You have to keep in mind that very few at that age can handle this kind of fame and cultural power. Hogg may never snap out of it. Most, unfortunately, don’t and, in many ways, I pity him as I would any child star.

But maybe someday he will wake up and realize that he is being used, not only as the media’s shield in its malevolent quest to regain a monopoly on disseminating information by stripping away the First Amendment rights of those on the right but also as the media’s hate-avatar.

Hogg’s hate is blind. America’s Beautiful People have convinced him he is a Moral Messiah, that only pearls of wisdom drop from his lips. They also serve as his Praetorian Guard, always at the ready to ensure no one breaks through the narcissistic bubble to tell him that the way in which he is abusing his power is monstrous, morally wrong.

I honestly believe Hogg has been so poisoned that he cannot see how obscene his own behavior is, and I keep wondering where his parents are.

The media, however, are not blind. They know exactly what they are doing, and they are doing it from behind a teenager. Backed by billions of corporate dollars, the media have set out to destroy an entire human being, not because she used the word “whining,” but because she dares to be a strong, independent, powerful, unashamed conservative woman.

This is the new Scarlet Letter in America.

Whether you are a rodeo clown, a maker of memes, an elderly Trump voter, or a conservative woman, if you displease the media, you will be destroyed. If a word like “whining” needs to be the excuse, so be it. But the bottom line is still this: if expressing yourself in a non-violent way costs you your livelihood, there is no free speech in America.

The blacklist has returned, and the media leads the charge.

For those who doubt this, explain to me why all these terrible left-wing men continue to flourish…

For three decades Alec Baldwin has hurled hate at everyone from gays to photographers to his own daughter to a Starbucks clerk. “Faggot,” “coon,” “pig,” “uptight queen,” “nutty bitch,” “little bitch, “cocksucker” — Baldwin has been accused of or admitted to using all of those racist, sexist, homophobic words, but his career is flourishing on TV and in movies, from Saturday Night Live to the Mission: Impossible franchise. ABC just gave Baldwin his own talk show.

Even in the #MeToo era after Baldwin has admitted to bullying women, after his ex-wife Kim Basinger claims their marriage was like the Julia Robert’s movie Sleeping with the Enemy, his career flourishes.

Then there is Michael Rapaport. How wonderful it must be not to face any repercussions — especially in the #MeToo era — to be able to fire off a podcast where you call a woman a “bitch” and demand she “dribble” your “nuts,” and a second podcast where you call her a “fucking pig.”

The beauty of being Michael Rapaport is that even in this era of #MeToo you can serially harass your ex-girlfriend to a point where you are forced to plead guilty to two counts of aggravated harassment and still add six credits to your Hollywood résumé in 2017 and enjoy a career in sports.

Imagine being Chris Matthews and living in a world where you still have a career even after NBC pays off your sexual harassment accuser.

How about Mike Tirico, who has been credibly accused of “stalking, groping, and making explicit comments to female colleagues” and still got to host the Winter Olympics for NBC.

David Corn is still a beloved media big shot even after being credibly accused of making rape jokes and touching women without their consent.

…but Laura Ingraham accused David Hogg of “whining.”

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.