Dobb's Immigration Focus Is A Ratings Winner

Project For Excellence In Journalism:

In the weeks between the May 17 introduction of the Senate immigration legislation and its June 28 demise, many hosts--including conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, and Sean Hannity--mounted an aggressive campaign against the bill. But over the long haul, no one devoted more energy to derailing what he called the "amnesty" measure than Dobbs, the veteran CNN personality who has transformed himself from a pinstriped chronicler of the corporate boardroom to a full-blown populist, though he still has the suits. (Critics might use other words to describe him.)

In the last three months, from April 1-June 29, Dobbs devoted more than a quarter (26%) of the airtime on his nightly show to immigration. (That's almost twice as much attention as he gave to the next leading subject, the Iraq war policy debate.) Last week, the immigration debate was the most popular cable and radio talk topic, filling 24% of the airtime, according to PEJ's Talk Show Index from June 24-29. And nearly half the week's talk stories on immigration originated from Dobbs's program, including the segment in which he basked in the citizen kudos.

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