Call on CNN to get rid of Lou Dobbs!

Lou Dobbs’ brand of journalism is dangerous to Latinos in America—and it’s time to fight back.

On September 15th, the CNN anchor broadcast his radio show from the conference of anti-immigrant hate group FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform.¹ Founded by a white nationalist, FAIR was linked earlier this year to vigilantes in Arizona who brutally murdered 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father in their home.²

The appearance at FAIR is just the latest example of Dobbs using his status as a CNN anchor to spread fear about Latinos and immigrants. It’s time we said Basta! Enough is enough. That’s why we’re joining with Presente.org and dozens of partners across the country in demanding that CNN drop Dobbs from its network. Click here to add your voice, and ask your friends and family to do the same.

Dobbs’ network, CNN, calls itself “The Most Trusted Name in News.” But Dobbs has shown that the only thing he can be trusted to do is spread dangerous, false myths about immigrants, give airtime to extremists, and use dehumanizing and disrespectful language towards our communities.³

For Dobbs, immigrants are “invaders” who threaten the health and safety of this country. He has blamed Latino immigrants for an alleged leprosy epidemic that was widely debunked⁴, and has insinuated high crime rates by falsely claiming “illegal aliens” make up a third of the prison population. Dobbs also regularly hosts extremist guests like FAIR, the Minutemen, and Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who he called “a model for the whole country.”⁵

The Dobbs threat to Latinos is real. Here is how Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center described it to us:⁶ “How dangerous is Lou Dobbs? The rise in hate crimes against Latinos coincides almost exactly with the time Dobbs has been propagating false conspiracy theories about Latinos on the air. He’s not urging people to go hurt and kill—but that is the effect of what he does.”

CNN should not provide Lou Dobbs a platform to spew hate thinly disguised as “news,” and our community has the power to stop them.

Please join us in saying “Basta!” and ask your friends and family to do the same.

References

1. “Dobbs To Rally Anti-Immigrant Fans On Capitol Hill,” Huffington Post, 9-1-09

2. “Minuteman ‘tactical’ leader/murder suspect Shawna Forde was part of the ‘respectable’ nativist Right too,” Crooks and Liars, 6-16-09

3. “Fear and Loathing in Prime Time: Immigration and Cable News,” Media Matters

4. “A Look at Lou Dobbs’ Leprosy ‘Expert,’” Migra Matters, 5-12-07

5. “Immigrants Targeted: Extremist Rhetoric Moves Into the Mainstream,” Anti-Defamation League

6. 9/5/09 Interview with Presente.org

Tags: Media Accountability, Racism

This entry was posted on Friday, October 2nd, 2009 at 4:14 pm and is filed under CMJ Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Call on CNN to get rid of Lou Dobbs!”

1. Tweets that mention Center for Media Justice : Call on CNN to get rid of Lou Dobbs! -- Topsy.com says:

   October 6, 2009 at 2:54 pm

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