CNN Tries to Copy Fox With Lou Dobbs

[annofark]

Just read a NY Times article on Lou Dobbs and I agree with the articles basic idea that CNN is trying to copy Fox News recipe for good ratings by making Lou Dobbs into some hard nosed Anti-Immigration freak.

Why can't CNN just be original. We already have one Fox and we do not need another.

[Jane Austin]

1. Whether you agree with him or not, I'm convinced Lou Dobbs is his

own man.

For good or ill, I believe his views on illegal immigration are his own.

[MrSlayer]

2. Dobbs is a real conservative.

And they aren't making him into anything, he's always been that way and has been on CNN from the beginning. He's not a neo-con idiot or a Bush cheerleader like the propagandists at Faux.

[Renew Deal]

3. I don't think CNN is giving him orders.

And I agree with Dobbs to a degree.

[KittyWampus]

4. Been listening to Dobbs for years and he's always spoken about Immigration

and had his own views about it.

Frankly, I'm glad the issue is out there and here on DU the discussion has progressed slowly past the ususal kneejerk opinions.

[napi21]

5. Lou Dobbs is NOT anti-immigration!!!!!!

ow, either the Times reporter doesn't ever watch Lou's show, or just didn't care about what he reported!

Lou's solution to ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION is to punish those who employ & exploit them!!! It IS a felony to knowingly hire an illegal!!!! He constantly says there wouldn't be a problem if the greedy employers weren't seeking cheap labor!

[BR_Parkway]

23. Thank you for pointing that out, I see it alot on DU that Dobbs is

just another RW shill, but I watch him almost every night and can tell that they have no clue what he is saying - most of what he says would hit the greatest page nightly if posted here on DU.

[jbnow]

6. link to the article?

Based on what you say it's stupid. Lou has been Lou before Faux had viewers.

[leftstreet]

7. Being against illegal immigration makes one a "freak?"

:shrug:

You should read through his transcripts at cnn.com. Dobbs is VERY opposed to corporations exploiting labor. That doesn't seem freakish.

[xultar]

20. He doesn't care who comes to the USA they just better come LEGALLY.

I think we should all feel that way.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

8. Then it seems that the author of the article hasn't heard Lou Dobbs

for years now. He is staunchly "guard our borders" and anti-outsourcing. Lou is a real Conservative who has not swallowed the neocon kool-aid.

[gatorboy]

9. So now there are those that despise Lou?

It wasn't that long ago that there were quite a few Pro-Dobbs threads during the port's deal.

The man has always spoken his mind. And has never been a kiss up to the politicians. A rarity these days.

[RB TexLa]

12. I disagreed with him on that too

But easy to know what side Dobbs is on, if there are non-WASPs involved Dobbs is against them.

[bluedog]

24. yea noticed that................I agree with Lou....n/t

[Mike Nelson]

10. Dobbs has some integrity

rare to see these days

[Neil Lisst]

11. Lou Dobbs is Lou Dobbs. What you see is what you get.

CNN is definitely trying to reinvent itself with younger people, more trivial human interest stories, and chatty Cathies and Ken dolls for smoozing with the home viewer.

In the daytime, they're all going more for the female stay-at-home in the day viewership, hence all the infotainment stories, and stories about missing women and women in general. That's primarily the 9AM to 3PM shows on Fox, MSNBC, and CNN.

The only news worth watching from 9-3 is CNBC, which gives good business news, or CSPAN.

[annofark]

13. Let me take the Freak thing back

I know that Dobbs has been a huge immigration person for a long time and I also agree with a lot that he says, but in the past week he has traveled all around the country, appeared on every show possible ranting and raving about it.

But lets face it...CNN has clearly had him up that ante recently and he is being very much like a Fox Personality.

ADMIT IT PEOPLE

[Neil Lisst]

17. it's the hot issue right now, so it's natural they would promote him

I have no problem with it. He's a TV personality, and this is his bag. He's not late to game, and he does have a book out about outsourcing.

I'm basically in favor of everyone getting their story out.

[Elwood P Dowd]

14. I like Lou Dobbs

Don't always agree with him, but he genuinely cares about the middle class and working poor. He's the only corporate media pundit out there constantly exposing corporate greed and outsourcing.

[Neil Lisst]

18. Amen. He's the number one voice in America speaking out against

American jobs being outsourced and dealing with the problem of illegal immigration.

Boy, I sure miss the days when protecting American jobs was a progressive value in the Democratic party. What happened?

[HughBeaumont]

30. Neo-libs actually buying into the Bush-shite stance that

offshoring jobs creates jobs. Like Thomas Friedman, for instance.

Man, anyone who takes that stance here gets instantly red-x'd with me. I know too much from personal experience and talking to others who have had the same thing happen to them to even take a theoretically based and quite Republican position like that seriously.

[pecwae]

15. I don't think so

Lou seems very much in the corner of the average middle class working person whether native or immigrant. He may seem hard nosed, but I feel he has the best interests of the country and the little guy at heart. I've never watched Fox so can't make a comparison there, but think Lou is a rare breed and genuine.

[Atman]

16. I think you're off the mark, anno

Watch Lou. It isn't just immigration. The guy is pretty much against everything Bush stands for.

[CottonBear]

19. I agree with Dobb's view on the immigration debacle .

I agree with his analysis and possible solutions. Actually, Lou Dobbs and Thom Hartmann (sp?) have similar views. Hartman subbed for Randi Rhodes the other day and he did an excellent segment on immigration, labor history in the US and how the RW and the corporation are exploiting working people and destroying the middle class.

[High Plains]

21. Dobbs' schtick is nativism

It's convenient to blame all our problems on those damned foreigners. Or those damned unamerican companies that go off-shore. Then you don't have to ask inconvenient questions about corporate capitalism.

Dobbs is a shill for the true blue, All-American corporate class.

If you think Dobbs is pro-worker, ask yourself how many stories he devotes to union-busting.

[Elwood P Dowd]

27. He has done segments on unions

Don't remember if they were about union busting. Here is one of his articles about unions from US News & World Report.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/articles/050307/7dobbs.htm

| Money
Disorganized labor

By Lou Dobbs

3/7/05
Related Links

* Browse through an archive of columns by Lou Dobbs.

The state of our unions is weak. Organized labor has never been less influential, at a time when corporate America possesses unprecedented political power and overwhelming influence in both parties and the White House. After fighting for decades to improve the quality of lives of our nation's working men and women, organized labor is no longer the countervailing influence to the dominant power of corporate America.

Unions have undoubtedly improved the lives of all working Americans, and we often take for granted the changes they've helped implement in the workplace. Labor has been successful in establishing the 40-hour workweek, creating minimum-wage standards and unemployment insurance, and developing overtime pay regulations, child labor laws, and worker safety and health codes. But today's unions are virtually impotent in the face of corporate America's political supremacy.

There are about 15.5 million union members in the United States, a decline of more than 5 percent in the four years since President Bush first took office. Only 12.5 percent of wage and salary workers were union members in 2004, marking a steady decline from more than 20 percent two decades ago. Despite the institutional labor safeguards of civil service, government workers make up almost half of all union employees. Today, 36 percent of government workers are unionized, while only 8 percent of private-sector employees belong to a union, the lowest level in more than a century.

<more>

[Minnesota Libra]

22. Lou Dobbs done the illegal alien issue for a long time, it's Faux.........

....news that is stealing from others. Those idiots at Fax news need to get a clue.:wtf:

[stray cat]

25. Lou Dobbs at least speaks up for working Americans

More on our side than most politicians.

[NoAmericanTaliban]

26. Article is wrong about Dobbs , right about CNN however

Lou is a progressive conservative - aka Teddy Roosevelt. His one of the biggest critic of Bush & has been for years. If he had been labeled a liberal he would have been off the air long ago. CNN is trying to become Faux lite - to increase their rating, but it is backfiring on them.

[KharmaTrain]

28. Doobs Was On This Issue Before Anyone

He started the "Broken Border" series over two years ago and has been constantly ramping up his criticism of this regime and their economic policies.

Lou is "Wall Street's Boy" on TV...he speaks for "the street"...what's good for them is what is good for him. He's a stocks and bonds guy that likes certainty. He's an economist and looks at the real bottom line on things and can see how it will affect his beloved Wall Street and reports accordingly.

While outsourcing helps the largest corporates, it's destroying the middle class and work force in this country. The huge debts by this regime will surely mean Lou and his fatcat buddies will evenutally pay the piper with not only higher tax rates, but a certain return in 2011 of the old tax rates...he sees that day coming.

Lou is NOT anti-hispanic or a racist in the same way of a Tancredo or those who are using this issue strictly for political gain. He's more on the unfair competition a lot of these laborers (and their employers) create that have messed up the marketplace. Unfortunately for Doobies, you are the company you keep. His message that he's against illegal immigration holds little weight when he features the Minutemen and other goons...and that he doesn't shine the same light on other illegals in this country (especially the white slave trade) as he does on the Mexican situation.

[Reciprocity]

29. When I read threads like this.......

I wonder how many of the respondents have ever watched his show. Like Neil Lisst said. What you see is what you get with Lou. Some days I cheer him some days I boo him. I remember when he got fed up with all the crap that was going on at CNN and he left. And when he did he didn't go to FAUX. So lets give him the benefit of a doubt. Lou is one of the few left who actually says what he believes. It's refreshing to hear someone talk from his convections and is not regurgitating GOP talking points.

[SuperWonk]

31. ----->

Funny how when Dobbs goes out on a limb, no one at CNN backs him up.

How would you like to work for someone like that?

[Reciprocity]

34. Does anyone here remember Stuart Varney?

He used to be on Moneyline on CNN. What a POS! Well the grass was greener for him over at FAUX .

Lou is heads and shoulders better than he is and was. I'm sure more lucrative job opportunities were offered to him when he left. That said I get the feeling after watching him low these many years that Lou says what he means and means what he says. And no one, not his bosses or public opinion can make him say something he doesn't want to, ergo no way he could work for FAUX.

[mondo joe]

32. Lou Dobbs is the original Lou Dobbs. And he's not anti-immigration.

He is anti illegal-immigration.

[Little Star]

33. Lou is 100%

for legal immigration. I agree with Lou on this issue.