CNN's Dobbs: Creating a Hostile Image of Hispanics

Every weeknight, CNN airs one full hour of Hate TV -- it’s called, Lou Dobbs Tonight.

For 260 hours every year, Dobbs has a bully pulpit from which to spew race-baiting, fear, and intolerance stamped with the CNN seal of approval.

As I wrote last week, when America’s Voice launched its new TV ad:

Few individuals have done more to bring extremism and race-based hate speech into the mainstream than Lou Dobbs.

We’re starting to get a clearer picture of just how extensive that belief is among Latino leaders --- and how much of an impact CNN’s Dobbs has on the lives of Latinos in America.

Last week, Democracia Ahora released a report, “Latino Leaders and their Opinions of CNN’s Lou Dobbs,”  which surveyed 100 Latino leaders about Dobbs. The results should raise serious concerns for CNN’s executives and its on-air talent.  Via Politico:

One of the country’s leading Hispanic organizations is launching a campaign designed to pressure CNN to rein in host Lou Dobbs.

The organization behind the campaign, Democracia Ahora, is kicking off the effort Friday with the release of a report based on interviews with 100 Hispanic leaders about the impact of Dobbs’ evening show.

The results of the report are not surprising – 90 percent of the interviewees believe Dobbs is helping create a negative image of Hispanics, with his frequent criticisms of illegal immigration.

Dobbs claims that his show and propaganda only target “illegal immigrants,” but how is the average person to tell the difference between an undocumented immigrant, a legal permanent resident and a U.S. citizen?  You can’t. The results of Dobbs’ nightly televised rants damage an entire community of Americans. 

Surely, CNN’s Soledad O’Brien will include this new report on her upcoming series, Latino in America. Her CNN colleague, Dobbs, is doing enormous harm to Latinos in America.

Ninety percent of Latino leaders believe that Dobbs is having a hostile impact on Hispanics. We know Dobbs doesn’t care about this, but does his network?

The silence from CNN has been deafening.

Note: Chip in here to help get our new Lou Dobbs TV ad on the air – together we can turn the channel on hate.

Cross-Posted at America's Voice, Daily Kos, and the Sanctuary.

Comments

[TexasDem0]

Lou Dobs is doing a terrible disservice to this country by his hate mongering.
CNN is complicit by not taking him off the air or at least requiring his statements to be FACTUAL. They should both be censured over this, but the corporate overlords are only interested in ratings.

[nee]

Something has to be done about ILLEGAL ALIENS and the BILLIONS of dollars we spend on them each year. Maybe your organization should spend more time working with the countries who send us their poor instead of trying to get Dobbs fired.

[chazmanr]

Yeah, we need to do something about those illegal aliens. Maybe we should start with those annoying Pilgrims.

[nee]

chazmanr - The Pilgrims didn't enter this country ILLEGALLY - there were no immigration laws at the time. Go spin your lies on someone else.

[TexasDem0]

Engraved on a tablet on the base of the Statue of Liberty:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me . . .

http://www.libertystatepark.com/emma.htm

[nee]

TexasDemo - We, along with every other country in the world, have immigration laws. We can't open our doors to ALL of the POOR in the world. We need to take care of our OWN citizens and LEGAL immigrants.

[gs-425]

I wonder if his hispanic wife and kids think the same thing...hmmmm?

[MThomasNC]

I stopped watching LouDobbs couple yrs ago when he started spewing out hate towards the hispanic community. If the issue is doing something about the illegals, then the folks to go after is business america that is hiring the illegals. It's always been one-sided - target the poor guy who is trying to make a living and who can't fight back. It's never the corporations that get blamed or point a finger at because they fight back.
CNN will never curb Dobb's hateful rhetoric - it's about the bottom line (money). A boycott of CNN sponsors will get CNN executives attention.
It's time to boycot - let's roll, folks...

[avocats]

Oh, please. Dobbs is "creating" a negative image of Hispanics? He clearly is talking about the 20 million illegals in this country. A large proportion of those are from Mexico and Central America; that's a fact, not "hate-mongering." A large number of Hispanic organizations support illegal immigration. If you want to identify with illegal immigration, you risk angering Americans who follow the law. Whether you choose to believe it or not, it's about ILLEGAL immigration. Dobbs goes after corporations all the time--do you even watch?