Advocacy Groups Call Lou Dobbs' Exit a Win

Groups Say CNN Host was Incendiary and Even Racist, Particularly Regarding Illegal Immigration

(AP)  CNN moved swiftly to replace Lou Dobbs in its nightly lineup with John King, who said Thursday that all views would be welcome on his politically oriented talk show when it debuts early next year.

Dobbs' abrupt exit prompted a victory lap by advocacy groups that had sought his ouster for outspokenness, particularly on illegal immigration. But CNN President Jon Klein said their pressure had nothing to do with the decision.

Klein said veteran political reporter King was the perfect choice for the passionate, nonpartisan reporting that CNN wants for its image. King will be leaving the Sunday political talk show he has been presiding over, creating another opening.

King will compete directly with another political hour, Chris Matthews' "Hardball" on MSNBC. The CNN personality said he hoped to establish a show offering more meaty fare than his competitors.

"Anybody who has a major stake in a major topic will be invited to be on the show," said King, whose Washington-based program has no name yet.

Dobbs was a CNN original who was one of the TV business' leading financial journalists before taking on many other topics post-9/11, and increasingly offering his own opinion. Latino groups charged that Dobbs' emphasis on illegal immigration promoted an atmosphere of intolerance.

"We had hundreds of thousands of people who said `enough is enough,"' said Alex Nogales, president and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition. "That he is gone from CNN is a great blessing and a great victory for our community."

CNN supported Dobbs, particularly as the opinionated fare boosted his ratings. But his show increasingly became inconsistent with CNN's effort to present itself as the down-the-middle alternative to Fox and MSNBC, and Klein pressured Dobbs to do a straight newscast. Complicating things was Dobbs' new role as a radio commentator, and the personas were often confused.

"To his credit, he tried (a straight newscast) and I think eventually he found that his interests lay elsewhere," Klein said.

The men had been discussing an exit strategy for several months. Klein characterized it as "a mutual decision," and released Dobbs from his contract.

Beyond his radio show, Dobbs wouldn't say what else he would be doing. He promised he would be active in advocacy journalism.

On a conference call involving 11 groups that had actively sought Dobbs' ouster through petitions, pressure on advertisers and distribution of attack videos, Eric Burns of the liberal media watchdogs Media Matters claimed Dobbs left because of the campaign.

"I don't think there is any doubt that it was a result - a direct result - of pressure from these groups here today," Burns said.

But Klein said there were as many people expressing support for Dobbs' work than opposition.

"They may be pleased by the outcome," he said, "but they are not responsible for, or played any part in the decision whatsoever."

[Sloughfoot]

Speak out against the influx of criminals enterring this country and the criminal advocate groups call you a racist. Then racist I be!

[BBDenver]

Bye bye Lou, don't let the door hit you out.

[P0STING_AWAY]

I welcome his stance against Illegal mexicans.
They take away from this country far more than they contribute.
Reply to this comment

by dolansprings November 12, 2009 7:08 PM EST
You must live in Arizona. I've never heard so much ranting about the negatives of any race as I hear here in AZ
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
No. I live in good old Dallas Tx.

[skyk-2009]

Some people who talk about this issue, regardless of where they live, automatically brand themselves as uneducated Southerners. MOST American's learn in GRADE SCHOOL that this issue has been around for over 200 years and if you were to remove EVERY citizen who is the off spring of an Illegal alien there would be a LOT less faces to meet in the morning. Be it Irish, Polish, German, Italian... on and on the attacks are always the same and always from the same VERY ignorant Right Wing People. Without division and a Wedge Issue they have NOTHING and History clearly shows that to be the fact regardless of Generation.

[chevyhotrod]

skyk,
There is a big difference between legal immigration and illegal immigration.

Most educated people understand the difference, evidently you do not.

[jxknowles]

Lou is a pretentious bore with nothing relevant to say. I can watch John King. Cheers to CNN for getting it right.

[bajajohn1]

Dobbs would do well in Klan rally. He should ask for the job of Grand Wizard.

[AndyMaxo]

I always liked watching Lou Dobbs' show. I suppose I never watched his show in a fit of anger as some did - I just watched it like normal.
In other words it's almost as if some devil was in the room with them forcing their finger to change to CNN on the remote while they were screaming "No, Please, don't make me watch Lou Dobbs!".

The activist organizations such as the ones who worked hard to get Lou off the air, are getting better and better at doing what they do.
For example, I'm sitting down here in Florida sometimes watching Lou Dobbs just to see what's got him upset today. Sometimes he confused me as to which side of an issue he was on, but at least he put it out there. And then suddenly, he's gone. Who made him leave? Some miniscule activist groups bombarding CNN management with coordinated endless incoming fire until they get what they want. These people seem invisible to me.
Maybe I'll study up on them and then at the right time, try the same tactics on them. If they can perform "censorship" on my far-away TV set, by removing from my TV something that they don't think I should be viewing, then they become my enemy.
The good news is that it works both ways - in their zeal, they haven't even thought about that possibility yet.

[JoeInBama]

That makes two of us...

[JoeInBama]

I believe that Lou would have agreed with this and so do I...

The End of Democracy in America

Author Unknown

At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in the year 1787, Alexander Tyler (a Scottish history professor at The University of Edinburgh) had this to say about "The Fall of The Athenian Republic" some 2,000 years prior. "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.

A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From Bondage to spiritual faith;

From spiritual faith to great courage;

From courage to liberty;

From liberty to abundance;

From abundance to complacency;

From complacency to apathy;

From apathy to dependence;

From dependence back into bondage."

The U.S. is now somewhere between the "apathy" and "complacency" phase; with some 46 percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

This healthcare monster will push the number of people who are the dependancy phase to over 50%. It will do nothing to encourage those who are already in dependency to provide for themselves, and it will create an entirely new class of dependent voters for Democrats to exploit for decades to come.

Those decades may see the end of our "American Experiment" as it was called by Alexander Tyler in 1787. Nothing less is at stake here.

[AndyMaxo]

Joe, Roll Tide!
The End of Democracy doc you posted is interesting. It tells us where we have been and where we are headed in simple outline form. I wonder what other insights Tyler had along these lines. I'm going to check out more of his works. Thanks for the posting.

[chevyhotrod]

great post joe, amen.........

[averjane]

People don't want to hear the truth so get rid of the guy.

[jaydee102]

"Do not try to define my intensions. Enemy of the State, like Al Quida, radical muslim terrosist. You know the ones you liberials like to protect all the time that want to kill us, you and me?"

Ah - but you should be free to define my intentions? You're suggesting I want to "protect" terrorists (whether muslim or Christian, as in Tim McVeigh)? Geez - that's both silly and juvenile. Wanting to enforce true American ldeals and laws about fair trial, fair jurisprudence (again, that danged Liberalism of the FFs!) is NOT the same as "protecting terrorists". It's protecting America and its Constitution. Sorry of that gets in your way.

"I am not apposed to all taxes, that was Thomas Jefferson. I believe in a FairTax, just not taxes on small portion of it's citizens."

Me too, according to the current needs of the country, as defined by its citizens through fair and free elections. SO - if you're not opposed to taxation, why were you trying to use that in your argument?
" Why would you point out that your not gay? Does that concern you that some might think you are?? Silly...."

Because it's a common tactic of conservatives on these boards to try to undermine a person's defense of, for example, legal immigrants (who often are lumped in with illegals and collectively bashed by conservatives) by saying such things as "you must be a *******, Jose!!" My point is that the only "dog in the hunt" I have with that issue is the same one every liberal has - equal treatment of all citizens under the law.

"Show me where Thomas Jefferson supported a Inheritance Tax? He believe in the right and the freedom to keep what you have earned. Just like the quote I posted. I can post it again if you like?"

No, thanks. It's not my job to post quotes for you - for God's sake, the campaign for the Inheritence Tax was one of Jefferson's most important and most sincere. He felt VERY strongly about protecting the country from monopoly ownership by a small wealthy class. Please, do look it up and read about it. Jefferson explains very well his reasons (better than I could, and much too important for one out-of-context quote), and you will see that worrying about "who are the haves and have nots" in the country did NOT make him a "Marxist" or "Socialist". It made him the best American we had.

""A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government."

Thomas Jefferson

YES - and the METHOD of that regulation of commerce and industry by We The People was set-up by Jefferseon et al ... through the actions of Congress, which was charged in the Constitution with "the regulation of commerce" - another thing the modern conservative revisionists want you to think governement has "no business" doing. Certainly you can't argue that the conservative supporters of Monopoly, opposition to fair labor practices and fair wages, etc are protecting the "mouth of labor". Perhaps if you actually read these things in books, rather than from selected, edited, out-of-context quotes from dishonest propagandists, you may learn that your true heart is more classically American Liberal than you've been led to believe! Understand, Hilary Clinton does not define liberalism - but Thomas Jefferson most certainly does.

You really should stop the name calling, it's not productive.

[chevyhotrod]

Maybe you are upset that the liberal label has been hijacked by left wing radical socialist, that is not my fault.

I find it funny you cannot quote Jefferson's support of high taxes, you would prefer to have someone else do it for you.

I have quoted Thomas Jefferson in plain English, I will no longer attempt for you see what his intensions were, the American people will have to decide for themselves what he meant.

If anyone would care to read the Federalist Papers they are easy enough to find and spells out what the United State Constitution was meant to represent.

http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/

You can rap yourself around our socialist government all you wish, I am done with you and your propaganda. You are right, Hilary Clinton and Obama do not define liberalism, that I can agree with you, and they are much more associated with the new socialism than liberalism.

Government is the new monopoly that you support good luck with that.

I just pointed out quotes from a great leader and you say I take them out of context??

You should practice what Jefferson preached and read them as they were, instead of trying to define them to your ideology.

You call me a dishonest propaganidist by quoating Thomas Jefferson. Funny how you put it. You sound like the King of England.

I do have many classical liberal beliefs, just not the liberials of today, just like I said in my first post. Key word being "classical", obviously that is not you.

If we had any Classical American Liberals, I would be more than happy to vote for them. Just don't turn Jefferson into a socialist, because he is not.

[chevyhotrod]

jadee,
I found this for you, your quote

"the campaign for the Inheritence Tax was one of Jefferson's most important and most sincere."

Reality;

As defined by the IRS, the Death Tax is a tax on your right to transfer property. The Death Tax mocks the idea of fundamental property rights. By its intrinsic operation, the Death Tax confiscates life-earnings and prevents families from passing a legacy of hard-work and delayed gratification down to the next generation.

Thomas Jefferson wrote that the ?The laws of civil society?.give the property of the parent to his family on his death, and in most civilized countries permit him even to give it, by testament, to whom he pleases.?[i] Jefferson understood that government must protect ? not inhibit ? the right to acquire and dispose of property as one chooses. One of Jefferson?s acts as President was to repeal America?s first Death Tax.[ii]

As it turns out, the idea behind the Death Tax was first proposed by the Communist theorist Karl Marx. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx recommended that the government ?abolish all rights of inheritance.?[iii]

Marx did not believe in property rights, and he advocated that government should forcibly break apart family property. It should come as no surprise that Marx is the ideological predecessor to the Death Tax.

The modern American Death Tax was born out of the ?progressive? political ideology which held that government should use tax policy to redistribute property. The Death Tax was intended to ?equalize? wealth by confiscating the life-earnings of ?property owners.?[iv]

The Death Tax stands in stark contrast to the promise of America?s founding that government exists to secure the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.?

[she4bikes]

At times Dobbs made me feel uncomfortable. His political right wing
advocacy should have been left behind in order to not confuse his important points. Remaining politically neutral, I have learned, is always a good policy for advocates.
Dobbs opened my eyes on key issues such as US outsourcing and the need for immigration reform.
I feel he is definitely a 'keeper' and hope he finds a welcoming forum that will allow him to continue pressing his important messages.
I agree that he is truly a hero and hopefully will evolve as an nonpartisan key figure in our country.