The Lou Dobbs fear factor

[rodeodance]

fear of everything


------- Original Message --------
Subject: Berkowitz-WFC-Immigration: Lou Dobbs' Fear Factor
Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 11:12:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: [e-mail]
To: xxxx


http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=20893

The Lou Dobbs fear factor
CNN talk show host latches onto immigration
Bill Berkowitz
WorkingForChange
06.01.06
On the May 23rd edition of Lou Dobbs' nightly CNN program "Lou Dobbs Tonight," the generally affable talk-show host, who has become the network's go-to-guy on immigration issues, repeated a racist conspiracy theory and ran a graphic provided by the white nationalist Council of Conservative Citizens to illustrate his point.

For quite some time, Dobbs has made immigration issues an integral -- some might say dominant -- part of his nightly program.

During a piece about "illegal immigrants" in Utah, reporter Casey Wian said, "Utah is also part of the territory some militant Latino activists refer to as Aztlan, the portion of the southwest United States they claim rightfully belongs to Mexico." At that point, the network ran a map of the United States with the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas browned out and labeled AZTLAN.

"For more than two years... Dobbs has served up a populist approach to immigration on... segments of his newscast entitled 'Broken Borders,'" the Southern Poverty Law Center's Heidi Beirich and Mark Potok reported in the Winter 2005 issue of the Intelligence Report. Dobbs, "has relentlessly covered the issue, although hardly from a traditional news perspective -- Dobbs favors clamping down on illegal immigration, and his 'reporting' never fails to make that clear. He has covered the same issues, and the same anti-immigration leaders, time after time after time."

Over the past several months -- perhaps in response to the massive pro-immigrant demonstrations held in dozens of cities across the country -- Dobbs seems to have gotten more emotional and has repeatedly crossed the line between fair-minded debate and outright fear-mongering.

MORE @http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=20893

[theoldman]

1. The fact is that we stole some of the Southwest from Mexica.

To the best of my knowledge this includes part of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Of course the Spanish stole it from the natives first.

[Miss Chybil]

2. The fact is the winner wins.

But, this has nothing to do with Dobbs fear-mongering. I have gotten quite turned off by it, lately. Nobody is going to take back, or give back, the southwestern US to Mexico. The idea is ludicrous, in that it will likely NEVER HAPPEN and does nothing more than get people riled up in their own ignorance and fosters a racist fervor amongst the populace of both nations... and drives up Dobb's ratings.