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What Happened to the Real Lou?
By now, CNN’s highly capable PR staff, which refused to comment for this story, is accustomed to coping with the embarrassing flaps Dobbs occasionally creates. Aside from the current controversy—which has provoked an anti-Dobbs commercial from the liberal watchdog group Media Matters and a call for his dismissal from the Southern Poverty Law Center—the most notable fracas was a damaging 2007 controversy in which Dobbs kept insisting (until he was publicly shamed by New York Times columnist David Leonhardt) that cases of leprosy in the U.S. had spiked by 7,000 in a recent three-year period, largely spread by illegal immigrants. In fact, Leonhardt wrote, there were 7,000 total cases over a 30-year period, and in recent years the incidence of leprosy had actually declined; meanwhile, there was no evidence at all that leprosy was connected to foreigners.
“The problem with Mr. Dobbs,” Leonhardt wrote, “is that he mixes opinion and untruths. He is the heir to the nativist tradition that has long used fiction and conspiracy theories as a weapon against the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Jews and, now, the Mexicans.”
Leonhardt added: “Mr. Dobbs has a somewhat flexible relationship with reality.”
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
keepakeeper43
Good luck with that one.
I gotta go find out why grass grows.
prostock69
Did it ever occur to you that maybe this IS the real Lou. Duh!
mclaubr1
Let's settle this once and for all. Let's not accept any candidate born in Hawaii (it's not part of the continguous 48 states), no Alaska (it's Cnanadian territory anyway), nor Panama. So there. Cooky. He was born in Hawaii people. Get over it. Even I, a Republican can accept it. We have a mess to clean up. An economy to put back on track. We have made a mess of our country over the last eight years (or more). Let's get behind this President and help move the country forward! Grow up America.
DeeAmbro
mclaubr1...wow! You are so right but it is so sad that at this very perilous financial time, so many republicans and media personalities are hell bent on bringing this president down. On Lou, I used to enjoy his show. As a democrat if found him fair-minded, even if I didn't agree with him 50% of the time. But now, I can't even watch him or listen to him. I feel his personal hatred towards me and all other democrats and minorities. Listening to him scares me! There, I said it. Yes, I get a creepy, anxious, feeling in my gut as if he were personally assaulting me. I don't know what happened to that man but I am so disheartened by all the hate in the media and among so many people I know. Come on people, we do have some common goals! As mclaubr1 said, let's grow up and fix the problems so we have something worthwhile to pass on to our children.
sophia5
Not sure why Dobbs jumped on the "Birthers" bandwagon.
The Birther movement is run by far right kooks.
People rip Dobbs for his ILLEGAL immigrant stance
and of course assume the guy is a Xenophobe, a racist.
Wonder how Dobb's Chicana wife and Latino children
feel about the old racist husband and father ?
Not to mention Dobb's Mexican in-laws who live with
Dobbs and his wife.
NoMoreBlatherDotCom
Rather than just posting a cutesy comment, I have a fun challenge for Lou's detractors: fact check an anti-Dobbs report. A few weeks ago, CNN broadcast a "debunking" from another anchor in which they simply made something up.
They claimed that HI's governor had confirmed BHO was born there, but HI's governor never said anything like that. In fact, she sends out a form letter pointing out that it would be illegal for her to confirm where he was born. And, HI is stonewalling me: they won't give me a definitive statement either way and they won't tell me whether they're going to ask for a correction.
So, perhaps you might factor into your opinion of this issue the fact that Dobbs' detractors - including Avlon at this site - have lied about this issue:
24ahead.com/kitty-pilgrim-cnn-lies-smears-over-obama-certificate-issue- j
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
sippewissett
If you spent half the energy that you are currently using to beat this dead horse instead on live issues that afflict our nation, you -- and we -- would be better off.
Forget what the Hawaiian governor is or is not saying. The bottom line is that the birth certificate has been validated by the state agency that converted the paper versions to scanned documents and there is a birth announcement in the HI paper immediately afterwards. The HI state doesn't owe you any attention on this matter. Go to FactCheck.org for an impartial review of the facts...and get a life. This so-called "issue" is over.
DeeAmbro
Sigh, if not this issue, then another equally inane one. As eeasyrider said, these republicans are just sore losers! I've been saying lately that I know plenty of nice republicans....until they find out I'm a democrat! Then the daggers come out and we can no longer be friends (their choice). My neighbor won't talk to me since the election...she turns her back to me when she sees me outside. This is their idea of democracy? Christianity? The republicans need to dump Rush, Lou, Beck and all the other angry white males. In the meantime, they are alienating everyone else in the world with their vitriolic rhetoric. The demographics are turning against them and I think what we're seeing are the death throes of the once respectable Republican Party. Now they're just a bunch of mean old white men and women who have theirs and don't care about anyone else.
democracyforall
Lou Dobbs is against illegal immigration. What's wrong with that?
The fact that he did a story on anything, especially on CNN, does not make it the final word on anything.
Obama was born in Hawaii. This story is not important. What is important is our country going bankrupt. That alone makes the next election a thriller.
judeseverin
You idiot. You really think that Hilary Clinton (political animal that she is) and then John McCain-Sarah Palin crew, include Cheney people and Karl Rove, political cut-throats, who threw everything they had at the guy.Let BHO take the oath of office while sitting on this little gem, that would disqualify him. Can you be that stupid?
jchastn
Does Lou mean that anyone born in King County of Washington State who no longer posesses an original birth certificate cant run for President? The county destroyed all the paper years ago and went to uniform digital reproduction. If you need a copy, they just access your data and print a uniform print that looks nothing like the original except for the data. This is what the Obama campaign released a year ago. No originals remain on file at least in King County (seattle area). So I guess Bill Gates can never run...
anghiari
That's an easy one...he saw Rubbish Limpbag aka Rush Limabaugh's paycheck. Hasn't anyone else noticed that when many of these people's careers are marginal, they opt to go conservative because ANYTHING GOES...no requirement for intellect, decency, ethics, conscience, honesty or decency! Look at Joe Scarborough...he now has a place in NYC...more diversity, more sophistication and he is now touting a "new republicanism" which he is selling as the Republicans need to retreat to their old ways...Mostly he is like a lot of Republicans who cannot abide those guys on the hill. Those neantherals have yet to step into the 21st century. Scarborough doesn't want to have to exist in the Republican party those guys want, so he has to sell another idea. One only has to look at Sanford, Enright, Palin, Craig to see how the faux patriotism, the mangling of personal choice, homophobia and the rest of the lies inherent in the Republican partyline have made it so difficult for some Republicans to live with or in other case has provided the leaping off place for others without much there there to try for a national campaign.
mcmchugh99
I disagree with my fellow progressives on this one, but I could care less. I'm not in any party.
Lou Dobbs had the right idea with his "War on the Middle Class" book, since that's exactly what we've had for the last 30 years. Only the war on the poor and the working class around the world has been even more brutal. This Second Gilded Age was another capitalist war of all against all.
Lou Dobbs does seem to have a grasp on the fact that there's something very wrong with the global capitalist system. He sees the trade imbalances with Asia, and the spillover of the poor and unemployed from Latin America, although he doesn't seem to understand that the free market policies of the last 30 years are the cause of all this--and much worse.
He knows there's a problem, but he has no idea how to fix it, beyond vague nationalist rumblings. The problems are systemic, however, and can only be cured by a reformed global system--one that emphasizes balanced trade and internal social and economic development in poor countries, rather than free trade and migration.
crymeariver
That may all be true, however since his 'birther' awakening, I really can't trust his show or the news casts that are part of it. If he can so boldly mislead the public on something as factual as the president's place of birth, how can I trust anything else he said.
I was actually surprised by how much his stance with the 'birthers' placed doubt in my mind about Lou Dobbs' reporting. I expected to laugh it off and just watch CNN as normal, but I view his show to be in the same category as FIXED news.
clearthinker
Lou is frustrated and he never should have stooped to the "birther" topic. He needs to stick with real policies and issues and not stoop to FOX and MSNBC. Let them have their own war.
"FIXED News"? Is that kinda like PMSNBC?
xlntcat
Lou has been seen running around with an openly racist's crowd recently.
bhavanibbana
I believe the "broken clock" analogy is apt in this case.
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mclaubr1
Are you kidding??!! Joe Scarborough was a foaming at the mouth Conserv that is trying to appear "open minded" to debate after his viewers went off on him. Nothing's changed. He stacks his guests to support his positions. I'm a Republican and I can see through it all.
whipmawhopma
mcmchugh99 & crymeariver - Think you're both right. I suspect Lou went mad with frustration and his mind has departed reality. It can happen to anyone who makes the mistake of actually giving a damn and having to watch the political class muck things up while at the same time the money vultures are eating the economy that belongs to ordinary people for lunch.
I think this brings out the need for vengence and retribution in all sorts of lefties, righties, and us inbetweenies (yes, I know how that last one sounds, but sometimes we are weenies).
I feel bad about Lou. I don't loathe him like I do Lokai and Bele (Olbermann and O'Reilly)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_That_Be_Your_Last_Battlefield
boj4ngles
This is old news. Mr. Dobbs' xenophobic rhetoric has been evidenced ever since he got his "Lou Dobbs Tonight" spot.
The real story is where CNN will be headed in the midst of all this. Will they just embrace the rise of leftist opinionated journalism epitomized by MSNBC, or will they go back to just impartially covering the news better than anyone else (which was what they became famous for in the first place)?
rickjr82
That just means he was hiding the crazy.
"Reality has a well known liberal bias." - Stephen Colbert
clearthinker
Stephen Colbert is a comedian isn't he? Not really a head of state or a real respectable journalist? Don't put quotes of Colbert as if he is someone important.
jchastn
Just because Stephen Colbert is a comedian, doesn't mean that what he says isn't true. Conservatives have two goals. One is to stop change, and the second is to roll back the clock and revert to the lovely, idealized picture of the past that they hold in their limited little minds. They have been hijacked by big corporations and banks that love status quo. Reality is NOW and DOES have a liberal bias. Liberals look at actual, current problems and try to find solutions that don't involve time travel back to the 50s. BTW, the 50s sucked if you were, Aftrican American, Older Americans without health insurance or wads of cash, Gay, Latino, Jewish and not living in NY, etc. etc..etc.. Liberal Power has improved the situation for MANY Americans since the "golden era of Eisenhower" simply because we are grounded in reality and want to make things better. If the situation was reversed and McCain had been elected, the Secret Service would have arrested anyone making public comments about him "not being born in this country". They would posture such comments as a "threat against the office" and arrest. THAT is how attached conservatives are to "reality".
JohnnyAces
That really is the big question. What will CNN do? Fox and MSNBC are not reliable sources for impartial news reporting. Thus far CNN has been it. If they allow Dobbs to stay then all we will have left is divisive, red-meat, opinion-based reporting. That would be troubling, to say the least.
fk4711
I agree.cnn's credibility hangs on how they deal with ideologue like Lou who passes as objective journalist.(same thing go with O'Riely at Fox, but Fox don't CARE about being impartial) I intend to hold cnn reesponsible by continuing to boycotting their programs until cnn issue a statement rebuking Lou. Please join m eand write mr.kline at cnn.
jenny4hill
I mourn CNN, sell-outs to infotainment.
There are only two broadcast news shows I can bear to watch anymore: The Newshour with Jim Lehrer -- as always (and long may he reign) -- a program with integrity and a non-glamorous, old fashioned reporting format; and The Rachel Maddow Show, the only non-foaming-at-the-mouth, journalistic MSNBC anchor. She's straightforward about her own opinions and she actively seeks and fairly presents dissenting opinions -- separated clearly from presentation of factual information.
JohnnyAces
Agree on Lehrer, but not on Maddow. I give Rachel credit for her professional tone, but she is clearly partisan and liberally biased.
deebles
How far we have come from the time that a movie like Broadcast News could be made, or even understood. Rachel Maddow is not an anchor. She is the host of a television show. Lou Dobbs is not an anchor--a host.
In Broadcast News the story revolved around the anchor commenting on a news story, an act so vile ,then, that his girlfriend dumped him.
That we've lost sight of what is news and what is just host, commenter or moderators talking ABOUT the news is what happens when the news is sold like a box of cereal. Lou Dobbs is simply a former anchor who seeing the riches, book deals, speeches and ratings available to everyone around him with the same air time is building a platform. That his opinions are becoming increasingly polarizing is just marketing at its best. And Ted Turner who started 24 hour news for a buck has a lot of nerve. Before that, network anchors delivered the news about three times a day for about thirty minutes. Because that's all there is when you just say,"here's what happened: It's true, it's a fact and you figure it out." Than CNN discovers that you can't say the same 90 minutes of news all day long and starts with the people talking about the news. It's been a down-hill slide to reach the point where people watch all three for-profit news channels and don't understand that they may as well be talking around their dinner table. Once the news becomes a topic it is no longer news and you become the person at the dinner table who either agrees with Uncle Joe's opinion or not. To then comment on Uncle Joe's opinion is called gossip. Gossip is the new news. Problem with gossip is that you can't ever know it to be true--you can only believe it to be true. Maddow and Beck are hosts. Liking one over the other just depends on how you feel about Uncle Joe.
AlanD2
JohnnyAces: Of course she is partisan and liberally biased. But she does not foam at the mouth (a la Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly), she presents facts fairly, she doesn't browbeat her guests, she has conservative guests and treats them well, and she apologizes when she makes mistakes (as all commentators do, although few ever apologize - especially on Fox News).
DeeAmbro
What I love about Rachel is that her show, while left-biased is done with good humor, not meanspiritedness. Last night, Jon Stewart did a spoof on the "Big Dog" bringing home the two journalists from North Korea. He showed a few clips of Fox reporting on it...surprise!....they had nothing positive to say about the rescue, even going so far as to suggest that maybe they should have been left there to rot...serves them right! What has happened to our society that this is considered appropriate, responsible journalism? BTW, I can spot a Fox watcher a mile away...as soon as they open their mouth, nothing but vile, sarcastic, meanspirited, negativity spews out. I think it's an addiction and just like any other, if they took a week off from it, they might feel like their old selves again. They might even consider taking up yoga!
clearthinker
jenny, your true colors just showed with the Maddow endorsement.
daddynobucks
I'm with you on the Newshour and Rachel. I might also recommend BBC America's hour long world news. They seem to have correspondents all over the old empire.
jchastn
I love both those broadcasts. Jim because he is so neutral. And Rachel because she backs up her opinions with copious research. She(or her staff) HAVE THE FACTS to back things up.
speechrock
I would add GPS, the Global Public Square, with Fareed Zakaria. Great guests, world perspective. If you like that and truly desire a global view in your news, I would recommend World News Network on the internet which can be found at wn.com. One of the best aggregate news sites around.
BrawkSamson
I just watch PBS news and recreationally listen to NPR.
I read the Gaurdian UK if I want quality global news.
And if I want to see American political life in all of it's hair raising
insanity, I watch The Daily Show.
Fox and MSNBC are different sides of the same coin.
The sad thing is that most people don't know the right and the left are
both fictions born to have us chasing our tails.
No side will ever win the War, because people are different and believe in different things for different reasons. So what we have is battle after pointless battle, chasing something that is better off left uncaught.
If we ever actually do chomp down on our wagging tail, it will just be a severe pain in the butt.
AlanD2
Fox and MSNBC are NOT different sides of the same coin. You cannot find anyone on MSNBC that is as crazy as Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, and Sean Hannity. Fox News seems to be in the business of deliberately spreading conservative lies. Lies on MSNBC are hard to find, and I have heard Olbermann and Maddow apologize on-air for lies they have unintentionally reported. Has anybody ever heard Glenn Beck or Bill O'Reilly apologize?
deebles
Oh but they are different sides of the same coin. A rabid O'Reilley fan would find MSNBC as despicable as you find Fox. The brain likes to hear what the brain likes to hear. When you are conditioned to think one way then anything else will seem vicious and untrue. It is illogical to think that half the country is right and the other half all wrong. It is illogical to think that every issue is either black or white and has one answer. I agree that Rachael Maddow is nice, but so is Shep Smith. I hope the names are right.
AlanD2
deebles: I disagree. A conservative network telling lies and a liberal network telling the truth are not equivalent, no matter how much you would like to believe it.
"Truth has a liberal bias."
P.S. I know this is not as black-and-white as I have portrayed it. I can't write a book here. By the way, I agree that Shepard Smith is one of the best Fox News commentators.
mcmchugh99
Lou Dobbs knows there's something wrong with the global capitalist system, but he doesn't know how to fix it.
He sees many of the symptoms, such as imbalanced trade with Asia, loss of American industry, and the spillover of the poor and unemployed from Latin America, but he does not see the underlying disease.
These are systemic problems, and the only way to deal with them is a global New Deal that will promote internal social and economic development in the poorer countries, as opposed to free trade, free markets and mass migration of the poor.
Vague nativist and nationalist rumblings are not going to cure these terrible problems.
boomslang
You are right, and Dobbs attacks the victims of this system, fomenting anger, usually misplaced, among all those who are at the bottom. It is hard to imagine that Dobbs is so naive that he misses the forest for the trees.
baptox
I agree. It's the same strategy that has been successfully used to keep poor blacks and whites fighting for the economic table scraps instead of uniting to change the status quo.
I have no respect for Lou Dobbs. He needs to be "retired." He has used his powerful position to instigate hate against people of color and has been a shill for right wing extremists, his only loyal following.
Hypnodoc
I am a Hispanic. Hispanics have helped to make this country greater. Yes, there are undocumented workers here, but they are not criminals, the way that Lou Dobbs portrayed them. It is well known that Dobbs is a redneck from Texas. He has lately been seen in the company of hate groups. There is a Hispanic saying, "Tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are." If Dobbs chooses to act as if he is wearing a hood and white sheet, it will get him in trouble. It is said that he is a brilliant Harvard graduate. Brilliant Harvard graduates are not supposed to be fired for being racists. There are many Hispanics who have more sense than Dobbs, and they never went to Harvard! Dobbs always insulted Mexicans in a foaming-in-the-mouth rage manner. With Hispanics rapidly becoming a majority in the US, it is foolish for any television station to hire people like Dobbs who would drive away Hispanic business from their advertisers.
I join all Hispanics in shouting, "Si se puede." We were in a large measure responsible for Dobbs' firing (no, he did not resign!). I'll end this with a warning to Rush Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Mallakay (whatever), and all the other right- winger conservatives---you are next!
aDCBeast
Lou Dobbs is a racist. Even a racist against his mexican wife.
The guy is a swine.
travlr009
like most commenters on here .....you apparently dont watch his show.
How many times has he said he is against ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION not IMMIGRATION?
answer: Countless.
I have heard him say we should have MORE LEGAL immigration.
How much more clear could he be that he is against ILLEGAL immigration, not against immigrants.
It's clear most of the anti lou idiots on here feel free to comment, as they parrot left wing blogs and stories.......... but never watch his show.
But why should we expect any different from that ilk
cbeenthere
Even people who come here illegally are against it. Immigration reform is sorely needed in this country, and it just baffles Dobbs, so he erupts in nonsense.
MariosRight
You are right. I used to watch his show faithfully....not anymore!
Hypnodoc
You have the word "idiot" in the wrong place. The idiot is Lou Dobbs and his followers for going so far in their hatred of Hispanics that he gets fired. It is the uneducated who loved Dobbs, because they have nothing else except hatred in their blood. I can't say I feel sorry for his plight. He deserves it.
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Uncommonsense
Mr. Grove: I know you are an experienced journalist and was shocked to see you use the phrase "fixing to burst". Wtf?
ChanRobt
Lloyd, The Big Lie, over and over.
Dobbs doesn't "hate immigrants". He opposes the opening of our borders to 12 million illegals.
Nations that have no control of their borders ultimately are not nations.
deebles
Chan, the Soviet Union had a pretty tight rein on those borders. Porous enough to let people out is porous enough to let people in. I've experienced controlled borders where you present papers, and armed guards check to see if you can get out. The trickle of sweat down my innocent neck was a lifelong reminder that control and Freedom are seldom friends. I agree with your concern about the problem, but as the Romans discovered when they enforced their walls against intruders, that doesn't work.
ChanRobt
deebles, honest people can disagree about the borders and how to control them. And how we can make immigration policy that is right for us, not have it made by illegals.
But, what I object to more is Lloyd's Orwellian trick of calling Dobbs an "immigrant hater". 1) There was not hate involved. 2) Lloyd purposely does not make a distinction between illegal immigration, which Dobbs and millions more oppose. And legal immigration, which Dobbs and millions more of the same people support.
Lloyd is purposely lying and obfuscating to make his points against Dobbs. Lloyd is intellectually dishonest in the extreme. As are the many on his side who use the same disingenuous technique.
deebles
I certainly agree with you that lying and other tactics to manipulate issues is the last thing we need. My question is why are Lloyd and the others on his side trying to confuse this issue? As you stated, we should benefit from any debate on the issue. Why does the debate take such hard sides and how can it be resolved? What's in it for Lloyd? What's in it for Dobbs?
martykz
Just as no sane person is pro-abortion, no one is pro-illegal immigrant. Pro-comprehensive immigration reform and the woman's right to choose are the rational ideas. Trying to argue that with a conservative...
ChanRobt
martykz, to say that one is "not pro-illegal immigrant" when one also is not for any measure that would stop illegal immigration, is a distinction without a difference.
What "comprehensive immigration reform" always means is total amnesty for the 12 million. Reagan instituted total amnesty when we only had a few million illegals. The result was a deluge of more.
Do you cre to give me the core principles of "comprehensive immigration reform" as you imagine it?
SFGiants
Hey, we stole the Southwest and California from Mexico back in the 19th century; now the illegal immigrants are just trying to steal it back!
Zelduh
Oh, please. As a second generation Mexican-American, I have personally experienced racial bias against me because of Dobbs-indoctrinated, white, intellectually deprived, hateful lemmings who say such things.
Hypnodoc
You are right. Isn't it ironic? Half of Mexico was stolen from Mexico in the 1840s, and now, the victims of that theft are called "illegal"? ""What,"" you say, "it was not theft but a business deal where the US paidMexico 15 million dollars for half of its territory?" Give me a break! Face it. Mexico had no intention of selling one inch of its land, but when superior arms are pointed at you, with the threat of taking all of Mexico if the paltry sum was not accepted,Mexico was forced to accept. You don't believe that? Study your history, Abraham Lincoln said that the US had no right to steal Mexican lands, and that the US deserved to lose the so-called Mexican war. You'll never find the truth in American history books. The whole world knows the truth. Even Hitler knew the truth. During WWII, Hitler sent a message to the Mexican president telling him that if Mexico joined Germany in Fighting against the US, Germany would, after winning the war, give Mexico all the territory that the US had stolen. This, too, you won't find in American history books.
What goes around, comes around. Justice, in the end, will be done.
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Hypnodoc
Why not registered? Can't you take the truth? You too will get yours
MurrayAbraham
Just for the record. According to the NYT piece you quote leprosy in the US is indeed in decline since 1983 and there were 7000 cases over the last 30 years not the last 3 years. However, contrary to what you say, the disease is closely linked to Asian and Latin American immigration, but it's not a national health issue.
In other words, this is a typical example of fear mongering. Use half truths. State that leprosy is linked to immigration and then inflate the numbers to make it a threat.
It also shows that Lou Dobbs isn't an idiot. He knows exactly what he's doing. Pandering to the nutbags while keeping an open door to deniability.
sippewissett
Touche" "He knows exactly what he's doing. Pandering to the nutbags while keeping an open door to deniability." He gets to have his cake and eat it too -- perfect for 'goosing' those ratings!
speechrock
We aren't surprised at Thanksgiving when we go home and Mom or Dad become less elastic in their patience and their views, express dismay of violence in movies, insist on promptness to the dinner table and other natural signs of aging. Because we love them we understand this.
Imagine if this was played out on television with the hubris of having an audience and a one hour show. This is why Johnny Carson, having seen Bob Hope and Jack Benny overstay the light of the stage, left at the top and shunned the spotlight and why Letterman is planning the same. Just the other night, and those of us who follow Dave understand, he announed there are two things he wants to achieve before he retires; get Paul into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and have Regis named "Mr New York." Dave has his own twisted value system and that's why we love him.
I understand "what is happening to the real Lou" It''s just that I never liked him and now it's difficult to tolerate him. We will see how long it take Olbermann, a piece of work who will age worse than Lou for sure, gets Lou to say something out-of-bounds on the air.
martykz
speechrock's analysis above is a must-read for any and all celebrity talkers. As far as questions about Mr. Obama's nativity, legitimacy or even manhood, I see it as a Rorschach capable of smoking out the looneys and closet haters. I imagine Rahm and Axelrod have been jumping with glee plotting how they're going to leverage this in '10 and '12.
rjcrawford33
I think it's pretty simple. Dobbs likes attention. He got it with the anti-immigration stuff, and it went to his head. Now he is out of control, to the point of self-destruction. It's called narcissism.
shortputt
So my news junkie choices at 7:00 PM are, Dobbs, Smith & Matthews. It's almost as if Entertainment Tonight paid these guys off to stink on purpose. Of the three though Dobbs is still the best of the worst or was until very receintly anyway. Things get even worse at 8:00 PM unfortunately.
Derida
His face is too red and puffy most of the time. He should slow down a bit before he goes on air.
Ozone69
Lou Dobbs doesn't "hate immingrants." He is against illegal immigrants and the strain they create on our criminal justice system, health care, schools, social programs, and economy. As for the birth certificate issue, he is curious about where the President was actually born. He may be wrong on that issue. Although, fake documents have been used in the past by more esteemed jounalists like Dan Rather to discredit a President. Does the author of this article have anything to say about Mr. Rather's going off the deep end?
britard
yes he is just 'curious' about something so obvious. The president was born in Honolulu... what is so curious about that?
penscott
You are absolutely correct. What drives lefties crazy is that Dobbs is using CNN as a pulpit to proclaim with eloquence what the majority of Americans believe -
that illegal immigration has to be stopped, that outsourcing of jobs is screwing American workers, that Congressmen are fat and happy with privileges while ordinary Americans are losing ground financially.
That's what gives rise to such dishonest pieces as this Grove article.
bhavanibbana
Well, eloquence is in the eye of the beholder. There are plenty of conservatives opposed to illegal immigration, Ron Paul and John McCain come to mind, who have reasonable views on the situation. What irks most people about Lou is his resorting to fear-mongering and outright lying to slam home is point.
Laconi
penscott ---- I am usually considered a "leftie and I thorougly agree with Lou Dobbs on the matter of immigration. The US is a complex nation with complex problems. So, as a citizen of a complex nation, I am complex ---- not all left or all right ---- like most of us. Don't make assumptions.
anghiari
So penscott tell me if you were to step out of Republican speak...what would you call people who disagree with your view other than "lefties"...I mean the term is so sixties...which has been the problem with the Republican party for awhile.
sippewissett
Dobbs "curious"? If he were curious, he would immediately have gone to FactCheck.org, credited with being a thorough and impartial fact-verification source to see how they checked the documents in question, including newspaper birth announcements -- and he could have used his pull to talk to Hawaiian health officials as well.
Dobbs isn't "curious" at all and that is what is sinking him as a credible commentator. He has learned the potency of innuendo. A slur is as powerful as a fact these days. And it benefits bigots.
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