Lou Dobbs Crumbles When Pressed On His 'NAFTA Super Highway' Myth

Think Progress:

Last Wednesday, Media Matters Action Network issued a report, which found that cable news commentators Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly, and Glenn Beck regularly "serve up a steady diet of fear, anger, and resentment on the topic of illegal immigration."

Last night on his CNN show, an edgy Lou Dobbs hosted Media Matters fellow Paul Waldman to discuss the report's finding. Waldman asked Dobbs to provide evidence of the "myth" he often promotes -- that there is a "secret plan" to build a "NAFTA Superhighway" from Mexico to Canada. Having trouble providing evidence, an exasperated Dobbs said finally, "You're charging nonsense." "I reject it, I reject you, and I reject your position," he angrily added. From the exchange:

Read the whole story: Think Progress

Comments

[bagfed]

Here's a phrase that Dobbs should learn:
"Google it, bitches!"
Seriously though, 111,000 plus hits on "NAFTA Superhighway", the first one that returned for me was an article by "The Nation." Correct me if I am wrong but this is not a John Birch Society publication.
How could Media Matters not have ever heard of this? I live in Austin and we have been hearing about it for years, it will run just a dozen miles east of our city.
This is a strange article. Please explain why he was pressed so hard for evidence of something so well-known and documented.

[99hockeyman]

You are as wrong as wrong can be. The Nation is a progressive publication. Maybe you should look it up.

[ErnestineBass]

Do you know what the John Birch Society is, hockeyman?

Maybe YOU should look it up.

Then reread bagfed's post.

[donballz]

I am no fan of Dobbs. But he may have something with this highway thing. Its already being built: http://www.i69info.com/overview.html

I dont know if its directly linked to NAFTA, but it sure wont be slowing that trade agreement down.

[guajiro]

I-69 is a highway being built with U.S. tax dollars and the highway remains the property of the U.S. citizen via the state's ownership of it's roadways. Actually, I-69 upgrades existing roadways to Interstate standards. The difference between that and the Texas-transcorridor is that the Tex-trans-corr is to be OWNED BY FOREIGN CONGLOMERATES. That means the toll monies they charge, roadway, it's easements, and the resources that we will be bound BY LAW to provide for it's construction AND maintenance, will come from us, the U.S. taxpayer. but it's profits won't go back into construction of new roads and maintenance of old ones,all over Texas, but instead will go into the bank account of Cintras owners. Additionally, these roads are meant to weaken unions and labor by accessing the U.S. market via Canada and Mexico without having to "deal" with labor across trucking and port entries. Only those firms associated with the Cintra cartel will have the rights to make money on the NAFTA traffic since competition won't be allowed to open shop in the corridor. Rick Perry, governor of Texas, is basically following in Bush's steps of "no competition bidding" in outsourcing Texas jobs.

[RTIII]

What's going on in Texas, if true, is an OUTRAGE.

The American people need to have a dialogue about this. This is NOT just something for Texans to discuss...

[Eternal]

The Lou Dobbs show replayed an *edited* version yesterday with every point negative to Lou taken out.

No Superhighway question or answer.
No mention of the zero positive stories of legal immigration.

It's a sad day when they use the editing room to change the content of the interview.

[watchingthings]

Maybe this can shed some light on this subject...
http://news.scotsman.com/viewArticle.aspx?articleid=2784324

[TrueThis]

I can't stand to watch him anymore he's so hateful towards mostly all racial lines and it sad. Every since he's has been back from his illness--he grinds his teeth as he uses profane words out of anger whenever it comes immigration or Obama which I find it strange that he supports Hillary so much because her husband started NAFTA.

[sherbug]

Obama keeps calling him out, so that why Dobbs keeps hammering him.

[tel8034]

Lou Dobbs is such a BIGOT ......... He is the reason that I have turned off from CNN.

Lou seems to be on the wrong station ........... Shouldn't he be on FOX where the rest of his COMRADES spew nonsense, lies and hatred?

[lvogt]

While Dobbs provided no proof I hardly think he "Crumbled". All I saw in this particular case was a sort of he said, she said kind of argument that means exactly nothing.

[Centaur]

Whenever I watch Dobbs(which is rare), without fail, he will mention something about illegal immigration. It's absolutely nauseating. The last words out of a dying Dobbs will be il-le-gal..im-mi-gra-t.....he never finished.

[ErnestineBass]

What a shame that only "loonies" like Dobbs are sounding the alarm concerning the very real NAFTA Superhighway. By the time we figure out it's being built, it will be too late to stop it.

Google Lazaro Cardenas (a Mexican Pacific coast deepwater port) and/or Kansas City Southern Railway. It's all there, folks. And it IS coming.

[CandaceInCanada]

Bull. Furthermore, give your head a shake.

Q: Are there highways that connect all the way from Mexico to Canada?

A: Duh. Yes, probably.

Ergo, wtf would be the point of "building" a "super-highway"? To what end?

I was just grocery shopping (in Canada) and bought fruit from the US and vegs from Mexico. Shipped, I'm guessing by the ridiculous prices I paid, via truck. So they must have been on SOME highway or other.

Seriously. There is enough wrong with NAFTA without having to create a boogeyman. And quicker than you can say "cedars and shakes" (google it) or "salmon wars" anyone stupid enough to reopen the agreement (from a US perspective) is going to wish they hadn't. I can't speak for the Mexican side of the deal, but from a Canadian perspective, we gave away not only the (tree)farm, but our energy etc. So feel free to keep pushing that button...

But quit wasting your time (and everyone else's) perpetuating a moronic myth re "superhighway". And what, pray tell, IS a superhighway? A big bridge that goes from Cancun to Ottawa????

Look at a map. Do the math re: gas, mileage, etc. and get over it already.

[BlueOnBlue]

Candace - I've been trying to argue the same thing, but some people on this thread have fastened onto this "NAFTA Superhighway" idea like drunk rednecks on UFOs.

There's nothing quite so powerful as a big lie which has been repeated often enough.

[gypsy508]

Actually studies are now finding that Hispanics immigrants are in better health than American citizens, especially among pregnant women. However, the longer they are in the U.S. the more their health declines. Was on NPR today. Also this link:

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_9156566

[admchriss]

Lou Dobbs lost his mind years ago.

he is just like Hannity as well as OReilly, when caught in a lie, he shouts you down and Hannity usually says, "well, I don't have time to refute the facts."

[haiku1]

I disagree with Lou Dobbs on immigration and find his manner snarly and unpleasant. BUT the Super Highway proposal seems to be real and it's an American labor issue that the left needs to watch carefully. Check out the discussion under the original story for references to the planning that has been going on to bypass the Port of Los Angeles and its labor unions for Mexico and its low wage environment. The road is to go right through the center of the country, through states deemed more sympathetic to big business than California. The Bush administration has been pushing privatized highways--their higher cost will be passed on to American drivers and consumers. And then there's the issue of Mexican and Canadian trucks on US roads--a safety issue (trucks that are longer and heavier and operate with lower inspection standards) and a labor issue again--big trucking companies want to force drivers to drive monster vehicles that are inherently harder to manage at high speeds. Truckers have one of the most dangerous jobs in the country anyway. So listen, Huff Post, while attacking Lou Dobbs is mostly fine with me, you really ought to check this issue out a bit more. This new road system is going to be rotten for unionized American workers in trucks and in the ports and also dangerous for other drivers on the road. We need to be moving away from a trucking environment, anyway, and back onto trains for our cargo.

[RTIII]

Well, presuming the highway thing is real, etc, the only GOOD thing going on is how fuel prices are rising.

Good? Well, a "highway" isn't going to be of much use when the price of fuel makes it cost prohibitive. Rail is going to make a HUGE comeback!

[Audrey85]

Lou Dobbs views are on the slant so are Chris Wallace, Wolf Blitzer the list goes on. They use radio & tv time to spew messages of hate. They appeal to the weak minded! Hispanics and Blacks didn't get dropped into this world, we all came from God, created in his image! We all bleed and beyond the pigmentation of our skin we are all the same. God sees the heart of man. What does your heart say about you? Limbaugh, didn't he turn to street drugs when he couldn't get a prescription for his problem? Yet he is the example of good!?! His hatred attacks against anyone who doesn't look like him?!? Isn't it funny how quickly he was forgiven and his sin/drug habit never mentioned again. See that is how God works, he forgives as people forgave Limbaugh yet he returned to his crazed rants & attacks against minorities. Hate mongers use tv, radio and information superhighway to get out messages of hate. How are they any better or different than the 911 attackers who hate America. Limbaugh and the like come on daily spewing hate messages. Hate such a powerful emotion and senseless! Examine your heart, what will you see?!? WHAT WILL GOD SEE? America land of the free home of the brave! When will America be brave enough to stand up for all Americans with its richness and pigmentation, ethnicities, dialect, texture of hair. We are all one under God! May God Bless America!

[OnePartyEqualsTyranny]

I 69

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/nhs/hipricorridors/hpcfitext.htm
http://www.pbcommercial.com/articles/2006/05/26/news/news2.txt

[therealredstateblues]

Indiana Governeor and Bush crony Mitch Daniels leased the toll road to Cintra, the spanish consortium contracted to build and run the superhighway to get the funds to extend the I-69. The used to call it the Nafta Superhighway until it became politically unpopular to do so

it is for real. Make fun of Dobbs all you want, but any party that cares about US labor should be very concerned about the further facilitation of US jobs sent south of the border this represents

[Madampotential]

HA HA! My besugh of the week. I am glad Media matters finally got a chance to out this nut. I swear CNN hs lost all of it's credibiliy. He gets one hour a day but when is the last time CNN hs broken an improtant story? I can't name one erious investigative journalist on that pathetic network. i am so glad Olbermann is kicking Campbell Brown Senor's a** everyday.

[DesertLight]

Well, if it matters he seems to piss off people on both sides of the fence. I just can't take it when his frickin nostrils start flaring.