Lou Dobbs: Why he must be stopped

For some time now, many in the immigrant rights and anti-racist movement have been warning about the danger of Lou Dobbs, a CNN news anchor and the host of “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” who uses part or all of his show to blame immigrants—especially those without legal papers—for all the ills of U.S. capitalist society.

Is Dobbs dangerous, and if so why? Should his nightly anti-immigrant diatribes on CNN just be ignored?

Or should the movemFor some time now, many in the immigrant rights and anti-racist movement have been warning about the danger of Lou Dobbs, a CNN news anchor and the host of “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” who uses part or all of his show to blame immigrants—especially those without legal papers—for all the ills of U.S. capitalist society.

Is Dobbs dangerous, and if so why? Should his nightly anti-immigrant diatribes on CNN just be ignored?

Or should the movement that disapproves of him ratchet up its tactics and organize to stop him altogether? Let us take a close look at Dobbs and what he represents.

Who is Dobbs?

Dobbs comes from the working class, although his father for a time was a small-business owner. He was born in Childress, Texas, which is near Amarillo and on the Texas panhandle. When Dobbs was 12 years old, his family moved to Rupert, Idaho, when they lost the propane business they co-owned.

Dobbs attended Harvard with a full scholarship, graduating in 1967 with a degree in economics. Surprisingly, one of his early jobs after college graduation was in federal so-called anti-poverty programs in Boston and Washington, D.C.

In 1980, after many jobs in the news industry, Dobbs was recruited to join CNN when it was first launched. He served as its chief economics correspondent and host of “Moneyline.” Dobbs left CNN for a while because of differences but was aggressively recruited back by CNN founder Ted Turner in 2001.

In June 2003, “Moneyline” became “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” where he has been the managing editor ever since.

Dobbs also hosts several radio shows and is a regular columnist in Money Magazine, U.S. News and World Report and the New York Daily News. He is the author of several books, including, “Independents Day: Awakening the American Spirit”; “Exporting America: Why Corporate Greed is Shipping American Jobs Overseas”; and “War on the Middle Class: How the Government, Big Business, and Special Interest Groups are Waging War on the American Dream and How to Fight Back.” The last book is a New York Times best seller.

His CNN nightly show is reported to reach about 800,000 people. It does not reach nearly as many people as NBC Nightly News, which has a viewer audience of about 9 million. But according to many press accounts, not only is Dobbs’ viewer audience growing, so is his political influence.

In fact, there are rumors that Dobbs is considering running for president of the United States.

Man of the people or for the rich?

The mainstream press repeatedly characterizes Dobbs as a populist. That doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

One dictionary defines populism as “a political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against the privileged elite.”

A populist therefore should be a “supporter of the rights and power of the people.”

This characterization is based much on Dobbs’ many nightly programs on the loss of jobs as a result of “outsourcing.” Many workers who have lost their jobs or whose jobs are insecure might find this approach appealing. Mother Jones magazine, usually considered progressive, printed a friendly interview on this subject in 2005.

But make no mistake about it, Dobbs is dangerous for the workers and poor.

At a time when an ugly economic crisis is rearing its head, at a time when countless homes are being foreclosed, when Citicorp announces thousands of layoffs, Dobbs’ rants against immigrants are not only detrimental, they are exceedingly dangerous.

Populism a la Dobbs is a slippery road that has similarities to fascism. Like the classical fascist movements of the 1920s and 1930s, Dobbs mixes an appeal to workers’ suffering with a vicious scapegoating of “others”—and in Dobbs’ case the others are the mostly Latin American immigrants.

The nightly rants on his show are undeniably geared to working people. But his views absolutely do not represent their interests. Dobbs’ rants are meant to divide people, disarm the masses as well as foster divisions among the working class.

They are meant to derail the struggle of the workers against those very people he claims to harangue against: the rich and powerful.

Dobbs is in fact a demagogue in the worst sense—his appeals to the public are based on prejudice and racism. His claim to defend “America’s working people,” the unprotected “middle class,” is a lie. His harangues and views benefit one class and one class only: the ruling capitalist class, which stands to gain a great deal from Dobbs’ success.

A working class fighting among itself is a class that cannot fight its real enemy: U.S. imperialism.

Journalism or jingoism?

The Lou Dobbs show has turned from an analytical news show, if it ever was, to a platform for right-wing ideas. It broadcasts an hour-long rallying cry for nativism rather than a news hour with facts, even pro-capitalist facts.

Dobbs attacks free trade, but not by exposing it as a cover for imperialist penetration of oppressed countries that benefits only the imperialists and a few very rich collaborators. Instead his attacks are based on anti-foreigner jingoism and chauvinism, which in the long run can benefit imperialism as all the anger of workers is turned against foreigners and immigrants.

No one in the higher echelons at CNN, the government or even the Federal Communications Commission is challenging the fact that Dobbs lies on his show, and lies often.

In August 2006 The Nation magazine wrote this about Dobbs: “Night after night, under the rousing headline ‘Broken Borders,’ the distinguished looking 61-year-old instructs his growing audience that illegal immigrants [sic] import deadly diseases, rampant crime and international terrorism; they live off welfare, destroy public schools and burden hospitals; what’s more, most haven’t learned to speak English. Add that they’re foot soldiers sent by the Mexican government to re-conquer the Southwest and by the end of the hour, we have seen the enemy—and he is a Spanish speaking immigrant.”

One episode of his show resulted in quite a scandal. It should have led to major punitive action against Dobbs for its outlandish charges.

When Dobbs was interviewed on “60 Minutes” earlier this year, background research showed that on one of his shows in 2005 contagious diseases came up. According to the May 30 New York Times, one of Dobbs’ correspondents said on that show that there had been 7,000 cases of leprosy in the U.S. over the last three years. The Dobbs show led viewers to believe that this was a result of immigrants coming to the United States.

It turns out of course that this was not true. The cases arose not over three years but 30 years. According to health experts, this was not reflective of any kind of serious epidemic.

But of course business on Lou Dobbs Tonight went on as usual. Dobbs was never forced to retract this lie.

Demonizing immigrants, dividing the working class

Why is Dobbs carrying out such a hateful, repulsive and racist campaign against immigrants? Because, trained at Harvard, Dobbs sees the writing on the wall. On the horizon looms a serious economic crisis. More homes will be foreclosed, Home Depot will make less profit, more jobs will be lost.

Isn’t it more convenient to blame immigrant workers than the bosses? Isn’t it easier to point the finger at one of the most vulnerable sectors of the working class?

Also on the horizon, however, is the struggle of the workers and oppressed. Sooner rather than later, even some of those workers who are being taken in by Dobbs’ view of the world will come to realize it is not immigrant workers who are carrying out the layoffs. It is not immigrant workers who are foreclosing on their homes. It is not immigrant workers who destroyed the levees in New Orleans or hung the nooses in Jena.

It is the capitalist class and the capitalist system and all its infrastructure—the banks, the government, the military—that are to blame for all of society’s ills.

Perhaps Dobbs did learn one thing after all at his so-called anti-poverty job: Poor people ain’t gonna take it forever. They will fight back.

When they do, Dobbs wants to play the role of mobilizing one part of the working class to fight against the other. That’s what he offers to the big capitalists. And that’s why it is important for workers’ organizations to expose him and fight him tooth and nail.

The writer is a leader of the May 1 Immigrant Rights Coalition in New York City.