It’s time to drop Lou Dobbs: A call to action
September 15, 2009 5:48 pm ET by John V. Santore
For years, Lou Dobbs has been one of the most dangerous hosts on cable news. He benefits enormously from the legitimacy of the CNN brand, which provides him with an unparalleled platform from which to mainstream the hate speech and racially charged conspiracy theories normally relegated to Fox News and other conservative news outlets. Dobbs calls himself an "advocacy journalist," but he doesn't even live up to that ambiguous standard. Good journalism enhances the discussion of serious topics, but Dobbs helps to undermine and debase that discussion, routinely infusing it with misinformation and fear. And when it comes to issues like immigration, he has more in common with birther Orly Taitz than with Anderson Cooper.
If CNN won't drop Dobbs, it's time that his advertisers did. It's time to do more than simply highlight the damage Dobbs does and the threat he poses. We must demand accountability from the advertisers who, by their purchase of airtime on his shows, actively support his hate speech.
Today, 11 organizations, including America's Voice, National Council of La Raza, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and many others, joined together to launch the Drop Dobbs campaign and DropDobbs.com. The effort aims to let companies know that their continued financial support of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight makes them complicit in the hate speech and wild conspiracy theories that he promotes.
The hugely successful Glenn Beck advertiser boycott currently under way shows how effective this kind of coordinated pressure can be. In just a matter of weeks, 62 companies have dropped Beck, costing the program 50 percent of its ad dollars. Companies simply don't want to be associated with Beck's on-air hate speech. They should feel the same way about Dobbs.
Watch the video and join the effort:
The stakes
Dobbs has a long history of spreading hate and paranoia. He has routinely discussed the North American Union conspiracy theory, incorrectly claimed that undocumented immigrants drain social services and don't pay taxes, and repeatedly amplified the falsehood that undocumented immigrants are disproportionately violent. He has been an unrepentant purveyor of hateful attacks, fraudulently claiming, for example, that immigrants are spreading leprosy and seek to reconquer the southwestern United States. And this past summer, he encouraged racially charged paranoia by legitimizing the (thoroughly debunked) birther conspiracy theory concerning the authenticity of President Obama's birth certificate.
Just today, and for the second year in a row, Dobbs was a leading voice at an annual conference of radio personalities hosted by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). FAIR was founded by a white supremacist, John Tanton, and has been labeled a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center. FAIR certainly understands the value of Dobbs' presence at the event. In fact, it is promoting his participation as evidence of the gathering's supposed credibility.
Because of his shockingly long record of extremism and factually inaccurate reporting -- reporting that often directly contradicts the work of other journalists on CNN itself -- the network's reputation has already been dealt a severe blow. The AP even declared Dobbs to be a "publicity nightmare" for CNN. And yet, rather than dropping him, CNN continually makes excuses for its prized anchor. The network is even willing to ignore a recent decision by CNN president Jon Klein that talk-radio hosts will no longer be allowed on the network. In spite of this, Dobbs is permitted to host a vitriolic radio show that he promotes on his CNN program.
Together, we can close this glaring Lou Dobbs loophole. Visit DropDobbs.com and help us bring accountability to "the most trusted name" in hate speech.
MMFA please make a list of Lou Dobbs' advertisers so we will know what products not to buy anymore.
Thank you,
Mr. News
Making every effort to keep our dollars from winding up in their pockets, that's maybe the best and most immediately effective way.
I think that the terms of our political discourse should always be clearly defined, because otherwise how do we know whether others understand what we're trying to say (or do), and also, we might not even understand our own political opinions well enough, if we haven't clearly resolved them into their exact concept or concepts.
Here's the very beginning of Wikipedia's entry for 'Boycott', which is as good a definition as you can write:
"A boycott is a form of consumer activism involving the act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons."
Of course, the key words and concepts in that definition that apply to us here, are 'consumer activism', 'abstaining', 'buying', 'organization' (or corporation), and 'for political reasons'.
For political reasons, we vote.
And we do more than just vote for political reasons, we get actively involved too (political activism), we stay current and informed, we talk amongst ourselves, we debate and even argue, we write letters to particular persons (like Congresspersons), we volunteer our time and efforts, and we might even contribute money to political causes and political activists (but hopefully not to candidates themselves... no, never, that's too much like bribery or tribute... I'd rather give millions to the offense of political activism, than give a single penny in tribute to a politician).
Much more than the money we might spend for political reasons, is all the other money we spend, some of which maybe winds up (through some strange but sure route) into the pockets of the highly paid media hacks who oppose our Democracy and offend us as Democrats.
You know, we outnumber them, the recent electoral results prove that... I bet if we outnumber them, we probably outspend them too, that makes sense doesn't it?
Well anyway, I like the idea of boycotts, and I like the above definition, for so clearing resolving the concept of 'consumer activism for political reasons'.
We only get to vote once every year or two, and so that's the only time we get to register our political opinions that way, and make them felt... but we spend money every day and in a multitude of ways, and for me personally, all I want is to be told who are the organizations (corporations) that maybe I'm giving money to, that in turn give that money to glenn beck and lou dobbs etc.
Then I know what to do next:
Boycott, for political reasons.
I mean, I know they hate me, that's abundantly clear... but do they hate my money too?
There's one sure and effective way to find out.
In other words, that's MSNBC.
In shows with opinion pieces, I want perspectives I both agree and disagree with.
Do you notice it's only way extreme left groups that are calling for his dismissal? What's next? Pressuring the cable channels to drop Fox News?
Not only ridiculous, it's stupid. Santore, you're an idiot.
Lou, you better run away now or they might summon PETA, WWF and NOW next.