November 12, 2009 10:35 pm ET
With Lou Dobbs' departure from CNN, Glenn Beck and the right-wing media have lost one of their lieutenants in their campaign to mainstream conservative misinformation. On both his TV and radio show, Dobbs has ceaselessly attacked President Obama, members of his administration, and other progressives, and repeatedly adopted the falsehoods and smears that have emerged from right-wing sources.
Dobbs: Moving to "absolute oppos[ition]" of Obama policies. On August 6, Dobbs said on his radio show: "What do you think you're doing, Barack Obama? What kind of mindless, churlish, un-American nonsense are you ginning up this time? I'm moving from being an independent, sir, to being absolutely opposed to your -- any policy you could conceive of." [United Stations Radio Networks' The Lou Dobbs Show, 8/6/09]
Dobbs defended Beck for "stand[ing] up to" Obama. Discussing Beck's statements that Obama is a "racist" and has "a deep-seated hatred for white people," Dobbs said: "So, by the way, I've got to say hats off to Glenn Beck for having the guts to stand up to this -- this morass of mediocrity and pure, pure ideology." [The Lou Dobbs Show, 9/8/09]
Dobbs echoed Beck's attacks on Dunn, Bloom, Jones, Lloyd. Throughout most of his October 15 Fox News program, Beck falsely claimed that comments White House communications director Anita Dunn made about Mao Zedong showed that Dunn "worships" and "idolizes" "her hero" Mao, ignoring numerous conservatives who have approvingly cited the tactics of Mao, Vladimir Lenin, and the Viet Cong, stated that they had used those tactics in their political work or have otherwise highlighted their philosophies. Subsequently, on October 16, Dobbs also attacked Dunn for citing Mao. Later, on October 20, Beck attacked Ron Bloom, whom he identified as the "manufacturing czar," for citing Mao. Later that same day, Dobbs attacked Bloom, claiming to have "uncovered yet another White House adviser quoting Mao." Additionally, Dobbs has repeatedly lauded Beck and Fox News for their attacks on former Obama administration green jobs adviser Van Jones. Dobbs has also attacked FCC chief diversity officer Mark Lloyd, a target of Beck's witch hunt.
Dobbs pushed Fox's false smears of Jennings. On his CNN show, Dobbs repeatedly echoed the Sean Hannity-fueled false smear that Department of Education official Kevin Jennings covered up a sexual relationship between a 15-year-old boy and an older man, even after CNN had itself debunked it. Dobbs also advanced the claim that Jennings "promoted homosexuality" and "openly expressed a hostility toward organized religions".
Dobbs joined Beck, Limbaugh, others in smearing Sotomayor as "racist." On the May 26 broadcast of his radio show, Dobbs called then-Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor's "wise Latina" comments "racist." Dobbs also added of Sotomayor's nomination: "This is pure, pure absolute pandering to the Hispanics, and, you know, filling in the box on one more minority that -- who is actually, you know, they are actually a majority -- and that is women." Earlier that day, Rush Limbaugh had said of Sotomayor: "So here you have a racist. You might want to soften that, and you might want to say a reverse racist. And the libs, of course, say that minorities cannot be racists because they don't have the power to implement their racism. Well, those days are gone, because reverse racists certainly do have the power to implement their power. Obama is the greatest living example of a reverse racist, and now he's appointed one." The next day, on the May 27 broadcast of his radio program, Beck similarly claimed of Sotomayor: "I think she's a racist. I think she has decided things based on race."
Echoing Drudge's misleading headline, Dobbs claimed "Holder is on his way to speak to a CAIR-linked group." On November 10, Dobbs claimed that Attorney General Eric Holder was "on his way to speak to a CAIR-linked group," referring to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Dobbs was echoing a misleading headline from the Drudge Report. In fact, Holder addressed the group, Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community Trust, which lists as its "participating organizations" not only CAIR but the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the FBI, several police groups, and the NAACP.
Echoing Fox News' witch hunt, Dobbs attacked Obama's "commissars," "czars" en masse. On April 16, Dobbs attacked Obama's cabinet secretaries, saying they "are acting like commissars in the old Soviet Union." Dobbs added: "It's time for them to get rolled back. This is America, and it's not some fascist state." Dobbs also attacked Obama officials he has labeled "czars," claiming that, prior to the Obama administration, "the highest number of czars that we were able to document in our own reporting ... was during the Clinton administration, and he had only 10 czars." However, according to The Washington Post, former President Bush "had 36 czar positions filled by 46 people during his eight years as president."
Dobbs repeatedly promoted false claim that Obama has not released a valid birth certificate. Dobbs has repeatedly made and stood by the false claim that Obama has not released a valid birth certificate. Indeed, on September 30, Dobbs said he "still feel[s] the same exact way," that Obama should produce a "doggone birth certificate" and "shut all the nonsense down." [9/30/09]
By promoting birth certificate claims, Dobbs mainstreamed people with radical views. Dobbs has argued that "birthers" are "regular Americans who don't have any representation." Media Matters for America has documented some of the leading figures within the birther community and the views they've espoused, including Andy Martin, who has made anti-Semitic and racially charged comments; 9-11 "Truther" Philip Berg; perennial candidate for public office Alan Keyes, who has reportedly accused Obama of taking the "slaveholder's position" on abortion; a pastor who has prayed for Obama's death; and the discredited right-wing website WorldNetDaily.
Dobbs: Dems using Fort Hood shooting as "cover" to pass health reform in House. On November 6, responding to a caller who said that the House vote on the health care reform bill should be postponed because of the attack at Fort Hood, Dobbs responded: "[Y]ou know what? They are using it just as they would the cover of night. This just gives them more cover to pull this stunt." (Discussing the Fort Hood case on another occasion, Dobbs said that a caller made a "good point" in suggesting American Muslim soldiers must be "thoroughly screened.") [The Lou Dobbs Show, 11/6/09]
Echoing right-wing falsehood, Dobbs asked of "end-of-life" counseling: "What's next? Euthanasia?" Dobbs has suggested that health care reform efforts could ultimately lead to "euthanasia," echoing a discredited right-wing myth that a provision in the House health care reform bill would require that seniors receive "mandatory" end-of-life counseling sessions that would, in Betsy McCaughey's words, "tell them how to end their life sooner." Versions of this myth have been repeated by Hannity, Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and The Washington Times. Like Dobbs, Fox News' Dick Morris said of health care reform efforts that senior citizens are "getting that this is creeping euthanasia" and Fox News' Peter Johnson Jr. suggested that the House legislation is "a subtle form of euthanasia."
Dobbs echoed Drudge and Limbaugh in faulting Obama for lack of familiarity with nonexistent provision. After Obama said he was "not familiar" with health care reform opponents' false talking point that the House bill would ban individual private health insurance, the Drudge Report, a Heritage Foundation blog, and Limbaugh all falsely claimed on July 21 that Obama, in Limbaugh's words, "admit[ted] he doesn't know" what's in the House health care bill. Dobbs echoed that argument on his radio show later that day, saying that "this legislation that President Obama says the time for talk is over, it has to be passed by the first of August, and he doesn't even know what's in it."
Dobbs helped McCaughey advance falsehood that stimulus allows government to eliminate care it "deems unnecessary." Dobbs introduced serial health care misinformer Betsy McCaughey on his CNN show by asserting that "hidden deep within the stimulus package are provisions that could greatly limit the health care that we all receive. My next guest says those provisions, in fact, could give the federal government unprecedented control over our medical treatment." Dobbs then let McCaughey falsely claim that the health information technology provision in the economic recovery legislation would allow the federal government to eliminate "[w]hatever [it] deems unnecessary care." [Lou Dobbs Tonight, 2/10/09]
Dobbs suggested health care reform would deny liver transplants to alcoholics. On his July 21 radio show, Dobbs said: "By the way, there was an incredible story about a young man, 22 years old, who was an alcoholic, who was denied a liver transplant by the British Health Service, and he died because the British Health Service decided that he was not a fit risk for a liver transplant. I mean, we're talking about turning over life-and-death decisions to a government. And that should, it seems to me, trouble the most -- I don't know -- the most ardent supporter of health care at any cost in this country." However, according to a National Institutes of Health publication, similar criteria are currently in use in the U.S. for transplant candidates with alcoholic liver disease [ALD]: "Some transplant programs and insurance companies insist on an absolute 6-month period of abstinence before a patient with ALD can be listed for liver transplantation."
Dobbs praised caller who canceled AARP membership over health reform. On his radio show, Dobbs took a caller who said he had canceled his AARP membership. Dobbs said "that's the only influence you would have over what AARP decides to do," then proceeded to attack the "2,032-page" health care bill. Dobbs' comments about AARP echoed several conservative media figures who attacked the group for supporting the health reform bill.
Dobbs pushed claim that "most Americans don't want health care reform." Echoing assertions by Republican pollster Frank Luntz and others, Dobbs said to Fox News host Mike Huckabee that "most Americans don't want health care reform." Dobbs has also falsely suggested that the public option will be costly.
Dobbs played up anti-health care reform protests. On November 4, Dobbs hyped a Capitol Hill protest against health care reform promoted by Fox News personalities. The next day, Dobbs asserted that the "town hall meetings were for nothing," and said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) are "telling the American people to go straight to hell."
Dobbs echoed GOP talking point about length of bill. Dobbs has repeatedly highlighted the length of various versions of health care reform legislation, echoing a Republican talking point.
Dobbs: Rep. Wilson "did a public service." Speaking of Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) yelling, "You lie," during Obama's address to a joint session of Congress, Dobbs called it an "absolute breach of protocol," but later added that Wilson "did a public service." [The Lou Dobbs Show, 9/15/09]
Dobbs has repeatedly praised conservative media figures and defended them from progressives' criticisms. Dobbs has repeatedly defended his compatriots in the conservative media, including his defense of Beck for "standing up to" the Obama administration. Examples include:
Dobbs attacks on Obama in lockstep with right-wing media. Dobbs has echoed conservative media attacks on Obama and his administration numerous times:
Dobbs has also repeatedly attacked other Democrats and progressives. Dobbs' attacks on other Democrats and progressives have included:
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