Dobbs Gets Daily Radio Show Despite Fact-Twisting and Hate

There's been a flurry of activity surrounding Lou Dobbs since our protest...

If you haven't read it yet, check out the seminal NYTimes article attacking Dobbs' journalistic integrity by David Leonhard: “Truth, Fiction, and Lou Dobbs". In this article Leonhard exposes a few of the most salient examples of Dobbs' demagoguery: his misrepresentation of the number of leprosy and tuberculosis cases in the U.S. which he then attributed to undocumented immigrants without any scientific evidence; his gross misrepresentation of the numbers of undocumented immigrants in federal and state prisons; and his insinuations of a Mexican conspiracy to invade the U.S. and retake certain territories.

Numerous journalists have attacked Lou Dobbs for his inaccuracies and lack of journalistic integrity; even more immigrant rights groups have been vocal in their outrage over his hateful messages. However, mainstream media venues like CNN continue to feature Dobbs as a credible journalist, and now he has signed a contract for a 3 hour, daily radio show.

Also check out last week's NYTimes article by David Brooks, “Follow the Fundamentals”. Brooks perceptively breaks down Dobbs’ rhetoric, pointing out that it “rests on fears that the America we once knew is bleeding away. And that’s just not true.”

Also last week: Journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez interviewed Dobbs and confronted him about these lies on their show, Democracy Now. They then went on to highlight his multiple connections to the white nationalist hate group, Council of Conservative Citizens. If you don’t have the patience to watch the entire interview with Dobbs, take a look at Amy Goodman’s weekly column summarizing their findings: http://www.alternet.org/rights/69769/.

Congressman Gutierrez was also featured as a guest on Dobbs' show last week. It was an excellent interview. Check out blogger Kyle Debs' video here. They spent a good amount of time debating the merits of his proposal for immigration reform, the STRIVE Act. It was an excellent debate that showed just how people like Cong. Gutierrez are working hard to find solutions to our broken immigration system, while Lou Dobbs does nothing but demagogue and manipulate the American public with his inflammatory rhetoric and false statistics.