CNN: It's Time to Deport Lou Dobbs

This week, America's Voice is launching a campaign to air our new TV ad targeting CNN.  The goal: to get CNN to drop Lou Dobbs.

This is about taking a microphone away from one of the most dangerous propagandists in America.

Few individuals have done more to bring extremism and race-based hate speech into the mainstream than Lou Dobbs.  The network that purports to be "the most trusted name in news" broadcasts his vitriol every weekday during primetime - sandwiched between Anderson Cooper, John King, Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash.  And because Dobbs carries the CNN seal of approval, millions are force-fed his bile every day in airports, hospital waiting rooms and public spaces across the country.

White nationalist conspiracy theories flow seamlessly from vigilantes and extremist web sites to Dobbs and back again.  Watch just a couple of episodes and you'll see how he throws around the term "criminal illegal aliens" with the spite and frequency of a mid-century Southern politician using the N-word.  In Dobbs’ world, immigrants are disease ridden criminals who kill cops and are plotting for revolution.  Bogus claims that immigrants are bringing a new wave of leprosy to America might be taken with a grain of salt on Fox - but on CNN, it’s news.

Perhaps to quell the criticism, CNN is airing a new mini-series in October called, "Latino in America."  The network is in heavy promotion mode, sending the show's host, Soledad O'Brien, around the country to drum up interest.  In fact, O’Brien is speaking today at a Washington, DC luncheon for Latino leaders.  From the show's Facebook page:

"CNN's Soledad O'Brien journeys into the homes and hearts of a minority group destined to change America. Is it the ultimate clash of cultures or the ultimate melting pot?"

CNN seems to have already answered the question, airing about 260 hours of “culture clash” TV every year, and just a couple of hours to tell the story of Latino families who are a vibrant part of the American experience.

Civil rights organizations believe that there is a causal link between propagandists like Lou Dobbs and the dramatic rise in hate crimes against Latinos.  CNN gives Dobbs a platform to perpetuate his disturbing worldview that immigrants are less than human, should be looked at suspiciously, and deserve fewer rights.  And how does the average person tell the difference between a disease carrying “illegal alien,” a legal immigrant, and Latino US citizen?  You can’t.  Your Latino neighbor might be one of them, so watch out, is the message from CNN.

The movement to challenge CNN to drop Lou Dobbs Tonight is growing.  Dozens of local and national advocacy organizations are standing together to take the fight to CNN. Media Matters with DropDobbs.org, Presente.org and dozens of Latino groups with BastaDobbs.org, and Democracia Ahora with TellCNNEnoughisEnough, have all launched excellent campaigns against Dobbs. And groups like the National Council of La Raza have chronicled Dobbs’ extremism through websites like WeCanStopTheHate.org.

Our new campaign to get Dobbs off the air will hit CNN both on the air and online.  In addition to the TV ad, we’re running online ads and targeted ads on Face Book.  You probably won’t see them unless you work for CNN or Turner – we’re asking Anderson Cooper, Soledad O’Brien, Wolf Blitzer and others how they feel about promoting and enabling Dobbs and his unrelenting campaign of immigrant bashing.

The real question is, what else does Dobbs have to do to get fired?  He called Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst a "public service," perpetuated the birther conspiracy, has congratulated the Minutemen, and just last week was honored by the anti-immigrant group FAIR -- designated a Hate Group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

It's time that CNN executives and the other "talent" at CNN deport Dobbs to Fox or talk radio where he belongs.  He doesn't deserve the CNN seal of approval. Until CNN deals with its Lou Dobbs problem, any attempt to reach out to Latino audiences will be pure hypocrisy.

Comments

[kittyma]

I turn off the TV when Dobbs is on and I do the same when John King starts to talk like he knows anything about everything or Wolf Blitzer shows his lack of intelligence. It is so pathetic. Thank God for Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. She saves TV newsmags!.

[WeThePeopleAreAwake]

Tell you what......­..........­if CNN gets rid of Lou Dobbs they won't have any conservatives left watching their station (except GPS with Fareed Zakaria on Sunday mornings - He is awesome!). CNN is already hurting big time with their ratings, and I doubt that they want to get rid of any more viewers.

People are tuning to the FOX News channel because CNN is so obviously biased towards the liberals and holding back stories. Fox is biased towards the conservatives and MSNBC is radically biased toward the progressives. So, if CNN wants to just have liberal viewers they can trade one "GERALDO" from FOX for a "Lou Dobbs".

On September 24, 2009 according to tvbythenumbers.com
Total Day
FNC (FOX) – 1,451,000 viewers
CNN – 540,000 viewers

Prime Time
FNC (FOX)– 2,792,000viewers
CNN— 794,000 viewers

If CNN can afford to lose the viewers...­..........­.........

[liviapeacock]

I stopped watching CNN because of Dobbs when he whined about the birth certificate nonsense. Stopped visiting cnn.com as well.

Good riddance.

[lemonyashes]

I no longer watch CNN at all because of Dobbs, so it has already hurt Larry King, Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper and Soledad O'brian anyway. I love Fahreed Zakaria but will not watch his show while Lou Dobbs is on the air. So MSNBC gets all my viewership andd CNN none. I watched more CNN than MSNBC before I just couldn't change the channel fast enough to hear a single second of Dobbs, or the ads for Dobbs show. I figure that Zakaria and Anderson, etc... support Lou Dobbs.

[nee]

Yeah lemmonyashes losing one viewer has really hurt the network - LOL

[nee]

Instead of spending all you time, money, and energy trying to get Lou Dobbs fired - why don't you try to make changes in the governments that send us their poor? We need to enforce our immigration laws. Those who hire ILLEGALS should be heavily fined and/or jailed. The jobs would dry up and ILLEGAL ALIENS would self-deport. All ILLEGAL ALIENS, no matter where they come from or who they are related to need to be deported. American citizens, including Latinos, are sick of spending BILLIONS on ILLEGAL ALIENS. We need to use that money on our own citizens and LEGAL immigrants!

[scdan]

Lou Dobbs is one of the few on CNN who makes any sense!

[scdan]

Lou Dobbs is one of the few on CNN that makes any sense.

[GodsCOMMENT]

THAT IS not true. GPS is excellent, as are the latest Ananapour......and AC can also do a good job if he takes time to prepare.......they have tons of excellent people in the field.....some of the best......­..........­..........­..........­..........­...its JUST KING AND BLITZER that are sinking the ship

[coolmaiden]

It's CNN's marketing ploy to attract some of the Fox viewers. He's not going anywhere anytime soon. Yet another reason, America, to cease all contact with American TV news outlets and turn to the Brits for truly balanced news.

[WhiteOnWhite]

The only way to get rid of Dobbs is to go after his advertisers. If advertisers drop him, the network will quietly retire him.

[coolmaiden]

Hasn't worked with Beck. Dobbs is CNN's ticket to high viewership. He'll get more airtime before he'll ever get booted off.

[jhNY]

What Lou Dobbs will have to do to get fired is have lower ratings than everybody else on the air when is-- and probably for some good little while, since the number of viewers for anything on cable news is breathtakingly small. Until CNN rethinks its bet that it must be a slightly more reasonable analog of FauxNews to succeed, we'll have Dobbs around to kick about. And that's only, if by success, CNN means a gain in viewers. Often, it seems to me that cable news is more about establishing the establishment bona fides of the ownership than it is about news or ratings or money.

[Omishinji]

The truth is he is very popular and to remove Dobbs would be a poor business decision. Unfortunately, there are just to many people who believe in his nonsense which is shown by his viewership. If more people honestly thought from themselves then he would lack the popularity that he has. Just ignore him, and by analytical when you do.

[truthglow]

No he's not. His numbers are low. CNN's ratings are now third for cable. They have lost millions!

[pinkibus]

Just turn him off.