Alternet: Is Lou Dobbs, CNN's Resident Bigot, on His Way Out?
By Jonathan Marrero on 09/29/2009 @ 09:37 AM
Our friends at Alternet.com recently wrote:
Protest campaigns urging CNN to dump Dobbs are gathering momentum. Will 'the most trusted name in news' do the right thing?
It's time to give Lou Dobbs the boot: Add your name to AlterNet and CREDO's petition, and send him to the sidelines.
The heat on CNN to dump right-wing nativist news host Lou Dobbs has reached a boiling point.
Several grassroots and Internet campaigns urging CNN to drop Dobbs in response to his relentless hate-talk are gathering momentum and tens of thousands of signatures. Will Dobbs finally be stopped from using his on-air bully pulpit to bash immigrants and spread misleading and inaccurate information?
One major anti-Dobbs campaign, Basta Dobbs.com, calls Dobbs the "most dangerous man for Latinos in America."
Just how dangerous is Dobbs? According to Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, "The rise in hate crimes against Latinos coincides almost exactly with the time Dobbs has been propagating false conspiracy theories about Latinos on the air. He's not urging people to go hurt and kill -- but that is the effect of what he does."
A recent poll of the top 100 Latino leaders, including members of Congress and business leaders, conducted by Bendixen and Associates for Democricia Ahora, showed that 89 percent had a negative opinion of Dobbs. Many believe him to be a racist and question his journalistic credentials. Seventy percent of those polled thought that a campaign aimed at ousting Dobbs was a good idea.
John Santore of Media Matters explains the position of DropDobbs.com, another coalition of groups, which include the National Council of La Raza, LULAC and the Southern Poverty Law Center, working for Dobbs' ouster:
For years, Lou Dobbs has been one of the most dangerous hosts on cable news. He benefits enormously from the legitimacy of the CNN brand, which provides him with an unparalleled platform from which to mainstream the hate-speech and racially charged conspiracy theories normally relegated to Fox News and other conservative news outlets.
Dobbs calls himself an "advocacy journalist," but he doesn't even live up to that ambiguous standard. Good journalism enhances the discussion of serious topics, but Dobbs helps to undermine and debase that discussion, routinely infusing it with misinformation and fear.
Meanwhile, Dobbs has become even more unhinged.
In a rambling, bizarre attack on one of his critics, Roberto Lovato, a key leader in the BastaDobbs.com campaign, Dobbs resorted to juvenile name calling, going so far as to call Lovato a "flea" and a "bozo."
Dobbs was set off by an AlterNet article in which Lovato charged that Dobbs postures as "the victimized defender of American virtue" in order to spread his bile.
A Big Problem
The intensity of the protests against Dobbs have made the news host a "big problem" for the network, sources inside CNN report. Closed-door discussions on Dobbs' fate appear to be under way.
CNN executives have a lot to talk about. The cable channel is losing market share, and Dobbs is leading the way in the drop in viewers. Raw Story reports that after harping on the Obama birth certificate story, Dobbs' ratings fell 15 percent -- in two weeks.
Long-term, big-picture audience demographics should also figure in CNN's decision. The Latino market in the U.S is exploding. Naturally, CNN has much invested in its Spanish-speaking audience, and it is well aware that Latinos are not happy with the anti-immigrant Dobbs.
The more Dobbs viciously attacks Latino immigrants, the more he alienates the very audience that CNN is trying to woo. One insider said off the record that they think Dobbs will probably be gone by year's end.
CNN's Big Contradiction: Marketing to Latinos While Dobbs Alienates Them
The message aimed at CNN by the drop-Dobbs campaigns is, "How can you seemingly embrace your Latino audience with marketing and special programming on the one hand, while allowing Dobbs to spread hate with the other?"
The BastaDobbs campaign is spearheaded by Lovato, as part of Presente.com, an online organizing effort affiliated with the Color of Change. CoC is the group credited with getting more than 60 advertisers to drop Fox's Glenn Beck Show.
I spoke with Lovato on Sept. 27, and he said this about the nationwide campaign against Dobbs' hate:
For many years, Latinos throughout the United States have organized local street protests and press conferences denouncing Dobbs' dangerous rhetoric. Think tanks have produced numerous reports proving the falsehoods and fakery that passes for "news" on Lou Dobbs Tonight. Yet, all we get are more silly outbursts from Dobbs -- and silence from CNN.