Lou Dobbs Almost Calls Condi A "Cotton Picker"

Ted Turner was on television last night saying that if he still owned CNN he would reign in Dobbs. He said something along the lines of "all this hating of Mexicans" is unfortunate.

A lot of Dobb's comments can be construed as racist, I think it's more likely just plain old ignorance. Lou routinely calls people "stupid", or rails about how they don't measure up to his self perceived brilliance, as opposed to making an argument on it's merits. He spends the majority of every show on his personal pet peeve, immigration, and hasn't said anything new on the subject for years, blabbers about how HE is responsible for every independent vote in the country, I've been an independent since Carter, so this really bothers me! Then he wraps up with a few emails complementing his program or himself, maybe one poorly composed criticism, and a blatant plug for his "New" book. (How long can you apply the term "New", anyway, he's been hawking this thing daily for years!) He is probably the best example of what is wrong with the MSM in every category, if he wasn't up against Chris Matthews, he wouldn't have a program at all!

Lou Dobbs came two syllables from losing his job.

You DO NOT call the first black Sec. of State "cotton picking"!

What a nasty jerk.

An innocent gaffe that serves only to show how racial-based discourse is ingrained.

That's funny, I grew up in rural wisconsin and I'd heard cotton picking used as a derogatory remark, but never against a black person. I can see where it comes from now though. I wonder if it was a slip or a carefully construed to draw out the reaction he was railing against.

Minor gaff. Pretty irrelevant. I watch Fox News for five minutes and I feel like I need a shower.

Political Entertainment, it has nothing to do with anything substantive, just like most of this type of stuff on TV. .

Want to have some fun? Please send a bag of cotton balls to CNN:
Lou dobbs

c/o CNN NY

1 Chase Manhattan Plaza

New York

NY 10005

On Lou Dobbs tonight, he was discussing border security with the guy filling in for Wolf, John somebody, (a republican), says the democrats say they will re-examine the border fence. Then lou goes off calling them names, bad ones. Hello Lou, your informed public watched the debates when the candidates discussed some of the fencing would split colleges, parks and just didn't make common sense. They talked about using other types of high technology in those areas along with manpower, (jobs) Either Lou isn't aware of this or he wanted his viewing public to think the dems are against border security. Lou, you looked like an idiot. What is your real plan lou, try to convince your audience to be independants and then trash the dem candidates so they ultimately vote what you are, a republican. nice....

He did exactly the right thing. He considered the context. Given that he had to confront using the term in a context where it might have offended he may consider trying to remove it from his lexicon. What does it even mean, "wait one cotton picking moment" ??? Maybe I'll google it. I mean we know who picked most of the cotton ... so chances are it's problematic ...

i agree with you

I'm usually the first person who will notice something is racist but I really think that wasn't the case with Dobbs. I didn't connect "cotton picking" with racism, I heard the term in various Looney Tunes cartoons. And in the Flintstones. I actually thought it was a way to avoid cursing. Maybe because I was brought up in NY?

I know people who use the term "Jew someone down" when talking about haggling prices. I never heard it until I moved down to the DC area and as a Jewish person, it was very offensive to me but I had to accept that the person didn't even think anything Anti-Semitic about it.

I think the above examples are cases where the expression is used so commonly that people don't know the racist or offensive origins.

But, Al D'Amato learned the hard way. When he was the Republican Candidate for NY Senator in 1999, D'Amato called Schumer a "putz." He thought it meant jerk.

"Putz" is Yiddish for penis. So is "schmuck."

Half a point to Dobbs for remembering, ALMOST in time, that cotton-picking is a slave-era and southern white trash epithet.

I guess he MUST be right, that race is no longer a factor, in our society (snerk- sorry, had to stop laughing out loud).

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stop watching tv. just stop, and let it die.

I don't know if Lou Dobbs is a raciest, after all he has been married to a Mexican American for over 25 yrs. and his children are bi-racial. However, if Lou believes there are no race problems in the United States, he is Crazy.

THIS CANTANKEROUS DOBBS IS ONE DAY GOING TO WEAR A CONE SHAPED HAT AND A CLOACK AND GOING TO BURN CROSS. CNN SHOULD GET RID OFF THIS GUY.

White men (like myself) who say there is no race problem have zero insight or credibility. And America is hardly the "most progressive and ethnically diverse country" (to paraphrase). For example, I'd argue that Canada may be both more progressive and more ethnically diverse. Why do Americans seem to assume, without evidence or reflection, that they are superior in every conceivable way?

That's really funny... This guy tries to talk how not-racist America is and he ends up with a racist slur... :)
Maybe his point was: "I'm not using the N-word anymore... just 'cotton picker'... That's a huge improvement".
It's hard to find a better way to say: "Look. How stupid and racist I can be".

This whole election has been one outrage after another.
First Bill Clinton said "fairy tale"
Then some Obama advisor said "monster"
Then some Clinton surrogate said "Hussein"
And Michelle Obama used the words "for the first time"
And Obama used the word "claws"
And Bill Clinton said "Jesse Jackson"
And Reverend Wright said "Goddam"
And Hillary said "as far as I know"
And Obama used the word "typical"
And Dobbs said "cotto..."
Words are important. But it seems we're constantly missing the context. And by context, I mean we've got to reverse the disasterous damage the Bush administration has done to this country. For all the outrage over the above words, I don't think any of the people who uttered them would disagree with that sentiment. Fight the real enemy.