Reaction to Lou Dobbs Critique Laced with Racist Bias
Related subjects: Immigration Policy, In the Loop, Media, Transparency Yield, U.S. Politics Comments (0)
After we published an article detailing the history of Lou Dobbs’ incendiary and distorted rhetoric against immigrants, along with allegations that Dobbs’ angry persecution of Hispanic Americans is inflaming racist sentiment, we received several responses from commenters seeking to defend Dobbs by repeating racist stereotypes in some cases too radical to publish here. Some suggested a violent struggle or referred to Latin American societies as inherently inferior, warning of an “invasion” more aggressive than any in history.
There was clear harmony between some of Dobbs’ more radical false claims and the rhetoric of fear, hate and violence expressed in these responses from a handful of readers. The responses seem to be anecdotal first-hand evidence that Lou Dobbs’ perverse and irresponsible rumor mill —falsely accusing Hispanics of a plot to raise an army to “reconquer” the American southwest or alleging (also falsely) an immigrant-induced epidemic of leprosy— is part of a sinister whisper campaign driving people to hate and even to violent anti-immigrant urges.
One response echoed Lou Dobbs’ crazed insinuation that the president of the United States is actually an “illegal alien”. That Lou Dobbs cares nothing for the facts that should underly his reporting seems increasingly evident. Now, it appears he has tapped into a dangerous and even seditious element of the hate-politics fringe, and is either actively condoning and promoting such views, with malicious intent, or is seeking to use that dangerous reflexive vitriol to build into his audience a reflexive and regular dittohead following.
And he’s doing just that. A significant amount of the emotional response to the news that Dobbs is being called out for distorting the facts is rooted in commenters’ seeking to defend Dobbs for “telling it like it is” and warning that “illegal aliens are taking over”. That Dobbs distorts the statistical basis of some his more inflammatory claims to mold his arguments to a radical emotionally anti-immigrant view seems all the more demonstrable when we can see how those most impressed by his rhetoric base their judgment of Lou Dobbs on their own prejudice against a perceived “invasion” of immigrants.
While we will not post the comments we have received that use the language of hate to defend and to elevate Lou Dobbs, we feel it is necessary to add this information to our reporting on the subject. It is gravely concerning that any member of the national media should be so flagrantly enabled to use a major media platform to sow not only lies, but hate and suggestions of violence.
There are rumors that a deal might be in the works for Dobbs to move over to Fox Business. Responsible journalists should urge Mr. Dobbs, as well as anyone who employs him, to immediately and unconditionally cease, apologize for and reject all use of language that spreads hate and insinuated a violent clash of races. We cannot, as a democratic society of free people believing in basic human rights, condone such inhumane propagandizing of the public with lies and prejudice.
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