Colbert, Stewart viewers more well-informed than those watching O’Reilly, Dobbs.
Colbert, Stewart viewers more well-informed than those watching O’Reilly, Dobbs.
A new Pew Survey on News Consumption released yesterday reveals that viewers of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are more knowledgeable about current events than those who watch Bill O’Reilly, Lou Dobbs, Larry King, and the “average consumers of NBC, ABC, Fox News, CNN, C-SPAN and daily newspapers.” Thirty percent of Daily Show and 34 percent of Colbert viewers correctly identified Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the majority party in the U.S. House of Representatives, compared to the national average of just 18 percent.
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Lou Dobbs finds his reason to impeach Bush… food safety.
Lou Dobbs finds his reason to impeach Bush… food safety.
Last night on his TV show, CNN host Lou Dobbs expressed frustration and anger at the incompetence with which the Bush administration has handled food safety in this country. Federal health officials have learned of 106 more cases of salmonella linked to tainted tomatoes, putting the outbreak’s toll at 383 and counting. “I know there is a great deal of frustration” that the mystery hasn’t been solved, said Dr. David Acheson, the FDA’s associate commissioner for foods. “We’re continuing to work flat-out.” Last night, Dobbs lashed out:
You know, I have heard a lot of reasons over the years as to why George W. Bush should be impeached. For them to leave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in this state, its leadership in this sorry condition and to have no capacity apparently or will to protect the American consumer – that is alone to me sufficient reason to impeach a president who has made this agency possible and has ripped its guts out in its ability to protect the American consumer. It’s insane what is going on here.
Watch it:
Will Lou Dobbs be the next governor of New Jersey?
Will Lou Dobbs be the next governor of New Jersey?
The Newark Star-Ledger reports today that “several well-connected Republicans” in New Jersey have heard buzz that “CNN’s Lou Dobbs is thinking of running for governor of New Jersey.” Dobbs, who has reportedly “inquired about the steps necessary to start a campaign,” refused to deny that he is considering a run, only saying, “I’m just not going to comment.” A gubernatorial run by Dobbs would likely not be without controversy. The non-profit Hispanic Institute recently announced “a Latino boycott of CNN” largely because of Dobbs’s coverage of immigration issues.
Dobbs Crumbles When Pressed On His ‘NAFTA Super Highway’ Myth: ‘I Reject You!’
Dobbs Crumbles When Pressed On His ‘NAFTA Super Highway’ Myth: ‘I Reject You!’
Last Wednesday, Media Matters Action Network issued a report, which found that cable news commentators Lou Dobbs, Bill O’Reilly, and Glenn Beck regularly “serve up a steady diet of fear, anger, and resentment on the topic of illegal immigration.”
Last night on his CNN show, an edgy Lou Dobbs hosted Media Matters fellow Paul Waldman to discuss the report’s finding. Waldman asked Dobbs to provide evidence of the “myth” he often promotes — that there is a “secret plan” to build a “NAFTA Superhighway” from Mexico to Canada. Having trouble providing evidence, an exasperated Dobbs said finally, “You’re charging nonsense.” “I reject it, I reject you, and I reject your position,” he angrily added. From the exchange:
WALDMAN: So the question is, do you have — do you have actual evidence that there — that there is a plan that is going to take this all the way from Mexico to Canada? What is the evidence there? […]
DOBBS: The evidence is straightforward. … We haven’t enough time for this. … You are a left-wing advocacy group. You’re charging nonsense … I reject it, I reject you, and I reject your position!
Watch it:
In fact, Dobbs has a history of perpetuating myths on his show, previously linking undocumented immigrants with cases of leprosy, airing a report saying that the “invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans.” When CBS News confronted Dobbs and told him his claim was false, Dobbs simply replied, “If we reported it, its a fact.”
Last night, Dobbs similarly dismissed challenges to his fact-free claims, calling Waldman “an ideologue” and “a left-wing hack.”
Lou Dobbs: I’m afraid to say ‘I love you’ to a guy from San Francisco.
Lou Dobbs: I’m afraid to say ‘I love you’ to a guy from San Francisco.
Last night on CNN, host Lou Dobbs expressed his displeasure at having “one of those days” when “some folks are kind of just on you.” He then aired a clip of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) taking a subtle dig at Dobbs, in which, Menendez said: “I love you, Lou.” Dobbs then aired a clip of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (D) also taking subtle dig at Dobbs. “Sen. Menendez said he loved me, and so I’m going to say ‘I love you’ back,” Dobbs said, but added: “I can’t say ‘I love you’ to a fellow in San Francisco I suppose.” Watch it:
Last week, Dobbs caught himself just before he uttered a racial slur when referring to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
CNN Scrubs Dobbs’ Racially Charged Comment From Transcript
CNN Scrubs Dobbs’ Racially Charged Comment From Transcript
Referring to Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) recent speech on race while speaking with a group of journalists last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. “still has trouble dealing with race because of a national ‘birth defect’ that denied black Americans the opportunities given to whites at the country’s very founding.” Rice added that this “birth defect” makes it “hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today.”
When asked to respond to Rice’s remarks on the Situation Room last Friday, CNN host Lou Dobbs became agitated. TPM’s Josh Marshall noted that Dobbs explained “how he’s sick of ‘cotton pickin’ black leaders telling him how he can and can’t talk about race (he catches himself at the last minute — sorta).”
Watch it:
While it appears that Dobbs was about to say “cotton picking” (often used as a racially charged slur) in reference to Rice, he caught himself, only uttering the word “cotton.” Yet, the CNN transcript from Friday’s Situation Room has omitted the word “cotton” from Dobbs’ remarks:
DOBBS: We’ve got to be able to talk about it and I can guarantee you this, not a single one of these [the word “cotton” should appear here] — just ridiculous politicians should be the moderator on the issue of race. We have to have a far better discussion than that.
One could perhaps wonder then if CNN has a habit of doctoring Lou Dobbs’ statements for its official transcripts.
Dobbs challenges Goldman Sachs chairman to a duel.
Dobbs challenges Goldman Sachs chairman to a duel.
On his CNN show this week, host Lou Dobbs discussed the new Economy.com report that 8.8 million American homeowners are now “underwater” — meaning they owe more on their homes that the homes are worth. Dobbs then took issue with Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein, who had earlier suggested Dobbs’ prognosis of a worsening economy was false. Dobbs proceeded to challenge Blankfein to tell it to his face:
Perhaps Lloyd would like to come on here and show me the error of my ways and educate me perhaps from his lofty Wall Street perch on how millions of Americans are faring and what their prospects are. Lloyd, you certainly — I would love to have you do it. I would love to have you come on and talk to my face, not to my back, partner. I know it’s not the way you do it on Wall Street there, hot shot, but try it here. Come on down. Open invitation.
Watch it:
Glenn Beck’s Rants Against ‘Juan McCain’ Would Not Be Welcome At RedState.com
Glenn Beck’s Rants Against ‘Juan McCain’ Would Not Be Welcome At RedState.com
Discussing last night’s GOP debate on his radio show today, Glenn Beck and fill-in host Pat Gray mocked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) by derisively calling him “Juan McCain.” Beck, who considers McCain’s sponsorship of a comprehensive immigration bill and the Mexican background of his national director of Hispanic outreach to be “an audacious slap in the face to the American people,” proudly advertised the segment in his daily e-mail to listeners today:
During the segment, Beck also commented on a new campaign by the National Council of La Raza that targets him and Lou Dobbs for their rhetoric, which La Raza believes “demonizes immigrants and Hispanic Americans.” Beck suggested that La Raza’s campaign to get him off the air “before the election” may be “connected” to McCain. Listen to the segment:
La Raza isn’t the only group that doesn’t appreciate Beck’s brand of Latino-phobic humor. On the conservative community blog RedState.com today, Leon H. Wolf posted a message to “commenters,” that it is “not fine, okay, or within the bounds of the rules” to “use Latino names as an insult.” Wolf says users will be “banned for doing it” at Red State:
What is not fine, okay, or within the bounds of the rules, is to use Latino names as an insult. We are speaking, specifically, of “Jorge Arbusto” and “Juan McCain,” although it’s certainly possible that others are floating out there or may yet be invented. Allow me to clue anyone who thinks these names are funny or clever in to something: racism isn’t clever or funny. If you think you’ve really zinged someone by calling them by a Latino name, that’s a pretty reliable (nearly infallible, in fact) indicator that you don’t like Latino people.
Since he can’t help showing his “disdain for Latino people,” CNN host Glenn Beck would apparently be banned from posting on one of the top conservative blogs.
UPDATE: On Beck’s CNN Headline News show last night, Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist compared La Raza to the KKK while smearing the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Don’t Buy The Right-Wing Hysteria On China
Don’t Buy The Right-Wing Hysteria On China
Our guest blogger is Nina Hachigian. She served on the staff of the National Security Council in the Clinton Administration and is co-author of The Next American Century.
This week, Admiral Timothy Keating, the top US comamander in the Pacific paid a visit to his Chinese counterparts. Before the meeting, General Chen Bingde — the Chief of the General Staff Department of the People’s Liberation Army — said, “It is impossible for the U.S. to be afraid of our military development.”
On the contrary, it is quite possible. China-as-the-next-military-menace meme is quite overblown in policy and pundit circles:
Lou Dobbs: “The global war on terror and radical Islamists has overshadowed China’s rapidly escalating military threat to the United States.” [6/28/05]
Frank Gaffney: “[Bush must adapt] appropriate strategies for contending with China’s increasingly fascistic trade and military policies.” [11/5/04]
Bill Kristol and Bob Kagan: “Appeasement of [the Chinese] dictatorship simply invites further attempts at intimidation.” [12/9/03]
And while a recent Zogby poll revealed that a majority of Americans have a positive view of China, only 35% of congressional staffers do. And 86% of those staffers think, wrongly, that Americans have a negative view of China.
Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility that China will, decades from now, have both the capability and intent to confront us directly, and we must stay well prepared for that possibility. But we need China’s help today to confront forces of destruction. We rely on China to stomp out outbreaks of avian flu and other nasty diseases before they spread here. U.S. inspectors are in three Chinese ports to help screen shipping containers for smuggled radioactive devices headed for our shores. Without Beijing’s deep engagement, North Korea will not give up its nuclear weapons. And we are never going to avoid a catastrophic climate crisis without China on board.
Rather than preparing for a military confrontation with a big state — something we know how to do — America has to do something unfamiliar and even more difficult — leverage China and the other “pivotal powers” of the world, India, Russia, the EU and Japan, into working hard to solve common threats we all face: terrorism, pandemic disease, failed states, nuclear proliferation and climate change. Terrorists want to kill us today and could. The Chinese do not want to and can’t.
But for America to thrive in a world with more big powers, we also have to reinvest in American strength at home. If we don’t want US companies to outsource to China and India, we need to develop a healthcare system that delivers excellent care but also controls costs. And if we want our workers to cope with transition instead of rooting for protectionism, we need to provide them not just with retraining, but with a cushion to help them bounce back, in initiatives like wage insurance and universal 401(k)s. And if we want to keep innovation happening here even as more discovery happens overseas, we need to do a better job of growing scientists. Finally, if we want China and India to respond to the specter of the climate crisis, we need to move ourselves to a low carbon economy.
Admiral Keating seemed pleased with his meetings in China. He was forceful about American interests but came away saying he was developing an “honest and true friendship” with Chinese military leaders. Neoconservatives will probably take him to task for that. But we should remember that, as Jon Stewart has said, “The only thing that can destroy us is us.”
Where was Lou ‘prima donna’ Dobbs during IA caucuses?
Where was Lou ‘prima donna’ Dobbs during IA caucuses?
The New York Post reports that CNN anchor Lou Dobbs — who has turned into a “real prima donna” — was “supposed to be a big part of the network’s coverage of the Iowa caucus last Thursday.” But at the last minute, he “pulled out after a fight with CNN president Jon Klein”:
A source at CNN said, “He got into a huge screaming fight with [Klein] and refused to go on set at the last minute. Jon started yelling at him to go on [air], and Lou yelled back, ‘No,’ before leaving the building for the night.” According to TVNewser, Dobbs was upset about lack of airtime.
Dobbs is not slated to cover tonight’s New Hampshire primaries.
Lou Dobbs for president?
Lou Dobbs for president?
Today, the Wall Street Journal notes that CNN’s Lou Dobbs is increasingly being mentioned as a potential independent presidential candidate by pundits such as Robert Novak. Dobbs’s response:
Mr. Dobbs says he isn’t planning to run. “I haven’t got the personality or nature to be a politician,” he said in an interview Thursday. But he makes clear he hasn’t ruled out the idea. “I cannot say never,” he said.
Dobbs himself also “fanned the presidential speculation in November, posting a column on CNN’s Web site that floated the idea that a surprise candidate was poised to enter the race.”
Lou Dobbs gets three-hour daily radio show.
Lou Dobbs gets three-hour daily radio show.
TVNewser reports that CNN’s Lou Dobbs is “entering into a deal with United Stations Radio Networks to host a three-hour daily radio show. The show is expected to launch in March and air from 3pmET to 6pmET.” USRN CEO Nick Verbitsky on the announcement:
United Stations is incredibly proud to be the radio partner for the new Lou Dobbs Show. Lou is a broadcaster of integrity and quality and plenty of charisma. Lou is also currently voicing exactly what most Americans are feeling, and when you combine that with his ability to entertain and engage listeners, in our medium, that’s a bulls-eye.
Dobbs has repeatedly claimed that undocumented immigrants are causing a leprosy outbreak in the United States.
Dobbs: NYT are ‘commies,’ ‘fascists’ for criticizing me.
Dobbs: NYT are ‘commies,’ ‘fascists’ for criticizing me.
On the May 30 edition of his CNN show, Lou Dobbs previewed his response to a scathing New York Times article about him, by saying “We’ll tell you who’s really telling the truth and who the commies are and who the fascists are, who have the temerity to attack me.” Watch it:
David Neiwert debunks Dobbs’ response here. (More from Dan Drezner.)
(HT: Ezra Klein)
Transcript: More »
Medical Expert Debunks Dobbs Report Tying Immigrants To Leprosy
Medical Expert Debunks Dobbs Report Tying Immigrants To Leprosy
In April 2005, CNN’s Lou Dobbs aired a report by CNN correspondent Christine Romans about how the “invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans.” Romans claimed, “There were about 900 cases of leprosy for 40 years. There have been 7,000 in the past three years.” Dobbs responded, “Incredible.”
CBS later found that there had actually been 7,000 cases in the past 30 years, and “nobody knows how many of those cases involve illegal immigrants.” When 60 Minutes host Lesley Stahl confronted him on this error, Dobbs simply replied, “If we reported it, it’s a fact.” Watch it:
Barely 24 hours after 60 Minutes exposed his leprosy figures as inaccurate, Dobbs reiterated his support for Romans’s report saying, “We don’t make up numbers, I stand 100 percent behind what you said” and invited her to report the freshly-debunked figures once more.
The New York Times found, however, that Dobbs’s reporting is still not based on facts. The Director of the National Hansen’s Disease Program, James Krahenbuhl, verified the 60 Minutes report:
The official leprosy statistics do show about 7,000 diagnosed cases — but that’s over the last 30 years, not the last three. […]
“It is not a public health problem — that’s the bottom line,” Mr. Krahenbuhl told me. “You’ve got a country of 300 million people. This is not something for the public to get alarmed about.“
Despite such a public and complete rebuke, Dobbs, Romans, and CNN have all refused to issue a correction. You can urge them to do so HERE
UPDATE: On Friday, the Southern Poverty Law Center will be hosting a live webchat about this controversy.
Transcript: More »
Right-Wing Solution To Undocumented Immigration: ‘Make America A More Inhospitable Place’
Right-Wing Solution To Undocumented Immigration: ‘Make America A More Inhospitable Place’
The immigration compromise reached last week is a flawed deal, an attempt to “bridge the chasm between brittle hard-liners who want the country to stop absorbing so many outsiders, and those who want to give immigrants — illegal ones, too — a fair and realistic shot at the American dream.” Yet it represents a critical first step toward fixing our shattered immigration system and providing a path to citizenship for most of the 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the country today.
Yesterday on PBS’s Newshour, Jessica Vaughan of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, argued that the best way to “deal with the problem” would be to make “this a more inhospitable place to be for people who are working in the country illegally.” She added that “people are eventually going to give up and go home on their own. And that’s what the American people most definitely wants to see happen.” Watch it:
Many people on the right wing — such as Vaughan — are opposed not only to this bill, but to any deal that doesn’t immediately deport every undocumented immigrant. CNN host Lou Dobbs recently said that “because this is the United States,” it is possible to deport all undocumented immigrants. Today on NPR, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) advocated that the U.S. government “round them up.”
Additionally, the overwhelming majority of Americans — 80 percent — support the process of earned citizenship.
Transcript: More »
Lou Dobbs Becomes Lifetime Member Of Hispanic Journalists Association
Lou Dobbs Becomes Lifetime Member Of Hispanic Journalists Association
An article in the Spanish-language newspaper El Diario La Prensa today notes that the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) has accepted CNN host Lou Dobbs as a national lifetime member. A lifetime membership costs $1,000; Dobbs donated $5,000. NAHJ president Rafael Olmeda tried to justify Dobbs’s membership:
“We cannot pretend that illegal immigration is not part of the story. Lou Dobbs, in my opinion, tells this story in an incomplete, not constructive, way. But he has the right to disagree with me,” reaffirmed Olmeda in writing after a 36-minute conversation on Friday afternoon. (trans.)
Dobbs’s reports are more than just “incomplete” and “not constructive.” They often contain inaccurate, biased, and misleading information.
Last night, CBS’s 60 Minutes caught Dobbs in one of these lies. Following “a report on illegals carrying diseases into the U.S.,” his show reported that there were 7,000 cases of leprosy in the United States in the last three years. CBS found out that there were actually 7,000 cases in the past 30 years, and “nobody knows how many of those cases involve illegal immigrants.” When host Lesley Stahl confronted him on this error, Dobbs simply replied, “If we reported it, it’s a fact.” Watch it:
Last year, the NAHJ put out a statement condemning the phrase “illegal immigrant,” noting it “can often be used pejoratively in common parlance and can pack a powerful emotional wallop for those on the receiving end.” Dobbs continues to use that term.
Transcript: More »
Lou Dobbs: We Can Deport All Undocumented Immigrants ‘Because This Is The United States’
Lou Dobbs: We Can Deport All Undocumented Immigrants ‘Because This Is The United States’
In a 60 Minutes interview last night, CNN’s Lou Dobbs said that, while he has never explicitly called for the mass deportation of all undocumented immigrants living in the United States, he believes it can be done.
“When this president and open-borders, illegal-alien-amnesty advocates say, ‘You can’t deport them,’ my answer is, ‘You wanna bet?’ Because this is the United States,” Dobbs said.
Host Lesley Stahl followed up, “If you think it’s possible. How’s it possible?” Said Dobbs: “I think this country can do anything it sets its mind to.” Watch it:
To quell the rising clamor of those like Dobbs who suggest mass deportation, the Center for American Progress produced the first-ever estimate of the costs of a policy designed to deport all undocumented persons currently in the United States. The July 2005 study found it would cost at least $206 billion over a five-year period. The report concluded:
The cost assessment presented in this report hopefully illustrates the false allure of adopting a mass deportation policy as a response to the challenges threatening our immigration system. The costs of a massive deportation policy would not only be substantial, but in many ways, financially reckless. Implementing such a policy would seriously jeopardize our commitment to secure the homeland and pay for our commitments overseas, as well as threaten other vital national priorities.
The non-financial costs associated with mass deportation may be even more painful. The AP notes the “hidden side” of the government’s stepped-up efforts to track down and deport illegal immigrants: “When illegal-immigrant parents are swept up in raids on homes and workplaces, the children are sometimes left behind — a complication that underscores the difficulty in enforcing immigration laws against people who have put down roots and begun raising families in the U.S. More than 3.1 million American-born children have at least one parent who is an illegal immigrant.
Dobbs appears too willing to muster the national will to waste financial resources and permanently fracture American society.
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