Dobbs To Rally Anti-Immigrant Fans On Capitol Hill

On September 15 and 16, Lou Dobbs is scheduled to once again broadcast his radio show from Capitol Hill as part of the "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" lobbying conference and rally sponsored by the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

FAIR is a fervently anti-immigrant group, founded by white nationalist John Tanton.

Media Matters is pushing hard against Dobbs' participation in the event, sending a letter to CNN President Jonathan Klein and asking readers to do the same.

The full letter:

August 28, 2009

Dear Mr. Klein:

On September 15 and 16, Lou Dobbs is scheduled to broadcast from Capitol Hill as a leading voice of the annual "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" two-day legislative advocacy conference and rally sponsored by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Including Mr. Dobbs, the event will feature 47 conservative talk radio hosts from around the country. We write to urge you to prohibit Mr. Dobbs from participating in this event.

FAIR is a rabidly anti-immigrant organization founded by an unrepentant racist, who remains on its board. The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated FAIR a "hate group." Mr. Dobbs' participation -- and, inextricably, CNN's -- would bestow legitimacy on the rally and on FAIR, as the group itself recognizes and touts. In announcing its 2008 "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" conference (from which Mr. Dobbs was allowed to broadcast his CNN television show), the FAIR Congressional Task Force boasted in a press release that Mr. Dobbs' "prominence will add to the visibility and stature of an event that has already had an enormous impact on the national debate about immigration policy." FAIR's website approvingly stated that in 2007, "talk radio and cable news programs such as Dobbs' " helped turn the public against immigration reform efforts, which it labels as "amnesty." The press release announcing this year's rally notes that it will be "led by Roger Hedgecock ... and Lou Dobbs." In addition, the group has given Mr. Dobbs its "People's Voice Award" for "his continued efforts in leading the immigration reform movement through both his talk radio show and his television show."

CNN's association with FAIR through Mr. Dobbs is nothing less than a stain on an organization that calls itself "The Most Trusted Name in News." FAIR was founded by John Tanton, who still sits on the organization's board of directors. Tanton has a long history of making racist statements, espousing racist beliefs, and funding racist organizations. In 1986, Tanton reportedly wrote: "As Whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night?" In 1993, he reportedly wrote: "I've come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that." In 1997, Tanton was quoted by the Detroit Free Press as saying that without a reduction in immigration levels, the United States will be overwhelmed by people "defecating and creating garbage and looking for jobs." In 2001, Tanton reportedly praised the work of John Trevor, a notorious Nazi sympathizer, saying his work should form "a guidepost to what we must follow again this time." Tanton is not a relic of FAIR's past: In the organization's 2004 annual report, chairman of the board of directors Nancy Anthony wrote that Tanton's "visionary qualities have not waned one bit. He stills floods us with more ideas than we can possibly absorb."

Story continues below

advertisement

In March, Dobbs' CNN show reported that FAIR "supports a temporary moratorium on immigration." FAIR executive director Dan Stein has been quoted saying the following: "Many [immigrants] hate America, hate everything the United States stands for. Talk to some of these Central Americans."

FAIR has been sharply criticized in the media for racially tinged ads. A 2000 campaign ad the group ran against former Sen. Spencer Abraham, a Lebanese-American, attacked his support for making more visas available for foreign workers and accused him of "trying to make it easier for terrorists like Osama bin Laden to export their way of terror to any city street in America." In 2004, a group of FAIR-backed ads targeting former Texas Democrat Martin Frost and former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel featured dark-skinned men loitering on street corners and running from the police. The Dallas Morning News denounced the ads in an April 2004 editorial, calling them "as racially tinged as those Willie Horton ads the late Mr. [Lee] Atwater put together for the first President Bush during his 1988 White House bid." In an April 24, 2004, editorial, the Lincoln (Nebraska) Journal Star called the ads "trash" that "incite hate," "play upon stereotypical racial fears," and "are full of half-truths and lies.'"

And yet, rather than denouncing the group, Mr. Dobbs' CNN show has cited FAIR as a credible source on immigration issues no fewer than six times in the last year while also routinely failing to disclose his close association with the group.

There should be no doubt concerning the content of the upcoming rally. It will give a platform to precisely the type of radio host you, Mr. Klein, reportedly said would no longer be invited on CNN. Speakers last year included Les Kinsolving, a WorldNetDaily.com columnist who asked Robert Gibbs at a White House press briefing why the president won't release his "long-form birth certificate." Another speaker from last year, South Florida radio host Joyce Kaufman, has reportedly said of undocumented immigrants: "If you commit a crime while you're here, we should hang you and send your body back to where you came from, and your family should pay for it." Also on the roster last year was Steve Gill, a Nashville radio host who has said of President Obama: "This man, and his evil minions, really do hate this country." Jeff Katz, while a radio host in Sacramento, reportedly "said motorists should be awarded a sombrero-shaped bumper sticker for every illegal immigrant hit while attempting to cross the border from Mexico," adding, in the words of the Sacramento Bee, that "[f]or every 10 bumper stickers ... a motorist would earn a free drink or meal at Taco Bell."

As Media Matters has highlighted repeatedly, Mr. Dobbs represents an ongoing threat to CNN's credibility as a serious news organization, in no small part because of his polemical coverage of immigration issues and his continued use of his CNN show to lend prominence to groups such as FAIR. The attention and legitimacy he gave to the "birther" movement -- and CNN's condoning of his actions -- did real damage to that credibility. His participation in the upcoming FAIR rally would do further, serious damage. We urge you to finally acknowledge that Mr. Dobbs' actions in this and other contexts are inconsistent with the reputation that CNN strives to maintain.

We await your response.

Sincerely,

Eric Burns
President
Media Matters for America

Comments

[tlwinslow]

Dobbs, Wilson, Tancredo, FAIR et al. are sad throwbacks to the white supremacist era of the U.S., which is now kaput, as are they, sorry. Instead of letting them try to co-opt the issue of relations with our neighbors from Mexico by shouting "illegal aliens" to stop calm cool reasoning, let's realize that it's time that we accepted the existence of Mexicans and learned to share the New World with them peacefully, avoiding the mistakes of the Old World.

Instead of letting people like Dobbs spread heat, let's spread light, by implementing my Megamerge Dissolution Solution of Congress officially inviting the Mexican people to dissolve their corrupt cartel-controlled govt. and join the U.S. as 10+ new states sans racism, after which all 414M Americans can finally work together to solve our health care, security, economic and other problems.

Click http://go.to/megamerge to read the proposal if you already haven't done so, and let Dobbs, FAIR and other dinosaur groups eat torta.

[chomedey]

Is anybody knows if Klein will answer to the letter

[RationalAgent]

I just can't take anyone who classifies human beings in any manner, let alone using something as meaningless as the spatial co-ordinates of their birth, seriously. Lou Dobbs, sorry to say this, just isn't a very serious thinker if he argues that those born south of the border shouldn't be afforded basic human rights like health care, freedom of speech, and an education. It's not surpirising that he works for a transnational tyranny peddling propaganda like CNN/Time Warner. Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, Dobby-boy. Keep those airwaves slimy and stultified!

[anelder]

What a lot of nonsense over semantics and the abuse of language. Racism has become the byword and is used to often when the word xenophobia is more appropriate.

We have a group present within a society that is not considered part of that society. Often they are recent immigrants, but xenophobia may be directed against a group which has been present for centuries, or became part of this society through conquest and territorial expansion. This form of xenophobia can elicit or facilitate hostile and violent reactions, such as mass expulsion of immigrants, pogroms or in the worst case, genocide. Think Hitler and fascism. It fits.

Then there is the form of xenophobia, primarily cultural, and the objects of the phobia are cultural elements which are considered alien. This can result in political campaigns for cultural or linguistic purification. Isolationism, a general aversion of foreign affairs, is not accurately described as xenophobia. Lou Dobbs exemplifies this with his aversion to any kinkd of cultural celebration. St. Patrick's day an example.

That one doesn't know his/her phobia is rooted in fear is normally the case. We see currently all kinds of push back in the healthcare proposals that are rooted in fear, it's quite the most powerful of emotions.

And to the gentleman who concludes my comments are never relevant, I suggest you live smack dab in the middle of that river called denial.

[truthyguy]

Gee - I wonder what color hair Dobbs will choose for the event. White, yellow or Tang.

[chomedey]

Good question mon ami

[Grannysue]

Will his wife and kids be joining him???

[Lolotehe]

Aw....and to do that on diez y seis. That's low, guys.

[BambooHarvester]

... at least he doesn't wear a rug . . . . . .
~ I'm just so shallow

[sliznim]

Lou Dobbs is filth. CNN wonders why the ratings are in the toilet.

[AspenSyzygy]

Filth? No evidence of that, "sliznim".

[jwadvocate83]

He's a xenophobe. Wanna say there's no evidence of that, too?

[popart]

i would be willing to bet that immigrants love the united states more than many americans do.

[AspenSyzygy]

Define "United States". I would argue that the Cherokees love the land more than anyone. And from our perspective, everybody is an immigrant.

[winningticket]

If only there were immigration laws in the western hemisphere in 1492.

[Poiks]

Wouldn't matter to Dobbs, I'm sure he's a believer in Manifest Destiny

[yliza]

How many times do I have to keep saying it? We don't have an illegal immigrant problem, we have an illegal immigrant EMPLOYER problem. We need to crack down on the companies who hire illegal immigrants to avoid paying a fair wage. That would take care of most of the problem.

[CelticMajic]

Supported!

[Cil]

I second that!

[Poiks]

Perhaps true. I'm not economist though, but I think that would raise the price of food and many services that are traditionally done by undocumented aliens. I was shocked to learn that a friend was paying $60 PER MONTH for landscaping in Southern California. Growing up in NJ in the 80's, similar service cost about $200.

[jwadvocate83]

Totally agree. The price on some commodities and certain services will almost definitely skyrocket. Still doesn't get away from the fact that, along with this type of employment comes the potential for abuse, on the part of employers. I think a guest worker program that allows for reporting of abuse is a start.

[jemiltd]

Have a read of A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki -- which should be a must-have history book in high school. It was a strategy from the beginning to use and misuse "illegal" immigrants as the support tool of the economy, especially since slavery was abolished. Politicians complained about it then for PR purposes, but had no intention of really doing anything about it, even supporting it secretly. Why? Money. Cheap labor, high profits. Today, it's only a more visible issue because of the economic downturn and it plays well in Texas and other red --- states.

[yliza]

Well said. I'll have to check that book out. Fanned :-)

[dfranz]

While Lou's at it why doesn't he just rearm the Posse Commitatus and start his own little army of vigilantes? He's made a boat load of money from striring up hate everyday for the last 5 years.

Watching his program is like being in the movie Groundhog Day over and over.

[Skyhawk]

Does that mean Lou should his wife back to Mexico?

[CelticMajic]

only if she is an illegal.

[Cil]

WOW!

Are you saying that Lou's WIFE IS MEXICAN?

You've GOT TO BE KIDDING RIGHT?

How can his wife live with a man who CONSTANTLY RIDICULES
her own people?

[Poiks]

$

[AspenSyzygy]

Because he DOESN'T criticize Mexicans - or any ethnic group for that matter. Geeze, clearly you haven't seen him, so THINK about the fact that his wife is Mexican, Einstein. He's critical of US authorities for failing to enforce laws. Duh.

[randyjet]

It is absurd that so called progressives can now fault FAIR and yet cry foul when Obama sat on a five person board with a self confessed TERRORIST. If that guilt by association was wrong for Obama, then such is true for Dobbs, and FAIR. I support Dobbs on this issue and I have been on the left for most of my life of 63years.

It is those who support illegal immigration who are the ones who are the racists since they feel that being Latino is MORE important than being an American. That RACE trumps citizenship. As a long time civil rights activist, it reminds me of the attitude of white southerners who felt that being WHITE was MORE important than being an American. Thus they could deny black GIs dining in train station cafes while they allowed white German POWs in. I have more in common with a black American than I do with a white German,even though my ancestors came from there.

Illegal supporters are also racist in that they have NO concern for the black, brown,etc.­Americans who are hurt the MOST by such illegal immigration. They are more concerned with getting cheap household help and yard workers than their FELLOW Americans. It is elitist and racist to be in support of illegals, and puts such supporters on the SAME side as the MOST reactionary groups in the US, the Chamber of Commerce, NAM, and the small businessmen who LOVE illegals.