Immigration Group, MoveOn Slam CNN Over Lou Dobbs’ Birther Obsession
CNN’s Lou Dobbs problem — to the extent that the network thinks it has one at all — just got a little bit worse.
A source sends over a letter that America’s Voice, an oft-quoted immigration group, just fired off to CNN president Jonathan Klein, ripping the network for letting Dobbs turn its airwaves over to the birthers and to other sludge-hawkers. The letter, from executive director Frank Sharry, is hard-hitting and worth quoting in full:
As America’s “Most Trusted Name in News,” CNN has a responsibility to its viewers to provide commentary and analysis that is substantive and accurate. However, those promoting conspiracy theories about President Obama’s citizenship, the threat of leprosy from immigrants and other falsehoods should be held accountable for spreading misinformation.
America’s Voice is writing you today to express our urgent concern about the quality of reporting on Lou Dobbs Tonight. Anchor Lou Dobbs enjoys regular opportunities to make inaccurate comments on matters of immigration and national origin, without apparent oversight by CNN. Most recently, Dobbs has repeatedly claimed on both his television and radio shows that President Obama has failed to address the claims of “birther” conspiracy theorists. He has said that Obama needs to “produce a birth certificate” and that the birth certificate the president posted online more than a year ago has “some issues.” He never has retracted the outrageous and inaccurate claim, peddled by a known white nationalist, that immigrants are responsible for 7,000 cases of leprosy in the U.S. each year.
CNN should hold their anchors, news producers and researchers to a very high standard of accuracy. By allowing Mr. Dobbs to operate with impunity and with little regard for journalistic standards, CNN is tarnishing its brand as the “Most Trusted Name in News.”
The letter stops short of charging racism, but the link drawn between Dobbs’ immigration commentary and his birther flirtation hints in that direction. It’s unclear whether having a respected immigration group do this is enough to persuade CNN that it’s got a bit of a problem here, or whether the network will tell itself that this is just more noise being drummed up by self-interested Dobbs foes. Not betting on the former…
Update: MoveOn just weighed in with an email to its massive list calling on members to complain to CNN for promoting “paranoid conspiracy theories” about Obama’s birth certificate.
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Hopefully racist dobbs is a friggin’ documented worker since he may find himself out of a job soon.
The threat of leprosy from immigrants? WTF?
We have it here – in Louisiana and Hawaii. I guess I shouldn’t mention Hawaii…
and there’s Bubonic Plague in New Mexico.
Dobbs is as bad or worse than Glenn Beck, he rants and raves and acts concerned about things that are provably false. He also does have a hard on for immigrants, I can’t even watch him.
Tena, be careful
Others, I’m having trouble believing there will ever be any consequences for Dobbs on this one…
@Greg:
“Others, I’m having trouble believing there will ever be any consequences for Dobbs on this one…”
I agree, though it would still be funny if Dobbs had to make the move to FOX. He’d likely be happier in the long run on that network anyways.
But I’m perfectly fine with him spewing his bogus hate on CNN. Every minority group will pay these ignorant fools back at the ballot box. These hacks will follow the Republican party out the door once they are completely irrelevant.
I’m with amk. I haven’t seen Dobbs’s birth certificate. He claims to be eligible to work in the US, but doubts remain.
Oh leave Lou alone. He’s CNN’s token conservative or libertarian or whatever. With Beck gone they’ve got to keep someone aboard that appears to challenge those in power.
My cable company dropped CNN programming quite a while back and I don’t know why…so I guess I have not missed much. Last time I had watched Lou he was on a roll regarding illegal immigration…I live in TX so it hit home. I am very disappointed that Lou doesn’t understand that President Obama is a legal US citizen. Maybe it is true what they say that he has GOP tattooed on his arse!
Everyone keeps saying that Lou Dobbs is married to a Hispanic woman, where the hell is she. Is this an urban legend? Is he keeping the poor woman locked up ala “Misery”? WTH!
Anyway, I can’t stand Lou Dobbs. I refuse to even watch his show. The only time I might catch it is if Kitty Pilgrim (?) is subbing for Lou.
Besides, he teeth are too damn large and bright for me. It oogs me out when he does that toothy grin he likes to do. Like the frickin Cheshire Cat
Lou Dobbs is a hate monger,preaches to an immigrant bashing group,dont make sense to level headed people,dont see how his show is productive- Yeah! U can trust CNN
It is not enough to say write to CNN. Move On ought to join the CNN boycott and be a player. It is too much like Pontius Pilate washing his hands of going along.
Write and tell Move On to get off their duffs. –mo
Rampant population growth threatens our economy and quality of life. Immigration, both legal and illegal, are fueling this growth. I’m not talking about environmental degradation or resource depletion. I’m talking about the effect upon rising unemployment and poverty in America.
I should introduce myself. I am the author of a book titled “Five Short Blasts: A New Economic Theory Exposes The Fatal Flaw in Globalization and Its Consequences for America.” To make a long story short, my theory is that, as population density rises beyond some optimum level, per capita consumption of products begins to decline out of the need to conserve space. People who live in crowded conditions simply don’t have enough space to use and store many products. This declining per capita consumption, in the face of rising productivity (per capita output, which always rises), inevitably yields rising unemployment and poverty.
This theory has huge implications for U.S. policy toward population management, especially immigration policy. Our policies of encouraging high rates of immigration are rooted in the belief of economists that population growth is a good thing, fueling economic growth. Through most of human history, the interests of the common good and business (corporations) were both well-served by continuing population growth. For the common good, we needed more workers to man our factories, producing the goods needed for a high standard of living. This population growth translated into sales volume growth for corporations. Both were happy.
But, once an optimum population density is breached, their interests diverge. It is in the best interest of the common good to stabilize the population, avoiding an erosion of our quality of life through high unemployment and poverty. However, it is still in the interest of corporations to fuel population growth because, even though per capita consumption goes into decline, total consumption still increases. We now find ourselves in the position of having corporations and economists influencing public policy in a direction that is not in the best interest of the common good.
The U.N. ranks the U.S. with eight third world countries – India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Uganda, Ethiopia and China – as accounting for fully half of the world’s population growth by 2050. It’s absolutely imperative that our population be stabilized, and that’s impossible without dramatically reining in immigration, both legal and illegal.
If you’re interested in learning more about this important new economic theory, I invite you to visit my web site at OpenWindowPublishingCo.com where you can read the preface, join in my blog discussion and, of course, purchase the book if you like. (It’s also available at Amazon.com.)
Please forgive the somewhat spammish nature of the previous paragraph. I just don’t know how else to inject this new perspective into the immigration debate without drawing attention to the book that explains the theory.
Pete Murphy
Author, “Five Short Blasts”
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