Lou Dobbs is Leaving CNN

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11 November 2009 :: staff

Lou Dobbs’ last broadcast on CNN aired tonight. His resignation, which he announced on the air, was effective immediately. He blamed “partisanship and ideology” in the public sphere for undermining public discourse and said the “winds of change” were blowing across the nation and that he would like to pursue “other opportunities” in order to speak as honestly about the problems the nation faces as he can.

Dobbs reminded viewers he is “the last of the original anchors” on CNN and said it had been an honor spending “most of the last thirty years” working to build the first 24-hour all-news cable network. Dobbs had come under intensifying criticism over the last year or so, as his on-air rhetoric was seen to go beyond the pale in anti-immigrant innuendo and what many called flagrant misrepresentations of the facts.

After a coalition of Latino groups began to organize a grass-roots movement to oppose Dobbs’ remaining on CNN, calling him a racist and accusing him of knowingly spreading lies that led to anti-Latino hatred and violence, he was interviewed on 60 Minutes and was caught in a series of misrepresentations of fact which he attempted to avoid acknowledging. CNN was under increasing pressure to remove Dobbs and saw its ratings drop dramatically as it was assailed for condoning what many began to view as hate speech.

For his part, Mr. Dobbs sought to strike a more conciliatory tone, and did not single out any individual political persuasion or group that had opposed him, and in the announcement had nothing but kind words for his colleagues at CNN. But the feeling that this parting of ways was not going to be put off any longer immediately spread across the net, and it is considered likely CNN will want to make clear it could not countenance some of the more radical and distorted language Dobbs had used, both on the network and on his radio program.

Earlier this year, for instance, Dobbs told his radio audience it was necessary to “drive a stake through his heart in order to stop him”, referring to former DNC chair and former Vermont governor, Howard Dean, a comment many took as a violent threat, which may have crossed over into criminal incitement. He also infamously spread the FALSE rumor that Mexican immigrants were causing a plague of leprosy to spread in the US.

BastaDobbs.com, the online presence of a coalition of Latino groups that sought to expose Dobbs’ radical agenda and campaign of intolerance, announced it viewed its campaign to remove Dobbs from CNN as a success. A statement from the organization read:

“Our contention all along was that Lou Dobbs – who has a long record of spreading lies and conspiracy theories about immigrants and Latinos – does not belong on the ‘Most Trusted Name in News,’” said Roberto Lovato, co-founder of Presente.org, a national online advocacy organization coordinating the BastaDobbs.com campaign in conjunction with more than 40 local and regional Latino organizations from across the country. “We are thrilled that Dobbs no longer has this legitimate platform from which to incite fear and hate.”

The BastaDobbs.com campaign launched in mid-September, and included online petitions, a viral YouTube video, text-message campaign, radio PSAs and a series of events in 18 cities – organized in conjunction with the CNN special Latino in America. The message to CNN was that courting Latino viewers while keeping Dobbs on the network would not with them favor with the fastest-growing demographic in the country. Since then, more than 100,000 people have joined the effort. The events and the campaign garnered significant press coverage in both Spanish-language and mainstream media.

There has recently been speculation that Dobbs was gearing up for a transfer to Fox Business or Fox News, but as of this evening, the New York Times is reporting a spokesperson for Fox says there have been no discussions with Dobbs about him hosting a show on either network.

Fox News’ parent NewsCorp is itself wrestling with a series of revelations alleging both a coordinated smear campaign against the president and a culture of racist and sexist hostility in at least one tabloid’s editorial office, so some suggest the company may be wary of hiring Dobbs who is now widely known for his anti-immigrant views.

The New York Times MediaDecoder blog reported this evening:

Jonathan Klein, the president of CNN/U.S. said in a statement that “Lou has now decided to carry the banner of advocacy journalism elsewhere.”

“All of us will miss his appetite for big ideas, the megawatt smile and larger than life presence he brought to our newsroom,” Mr. Klein said.

Wednesday’s program will be Mr. Dobbs’ last on CNN. His contract was not set to expire until the end of 2011. He told viewers that CNN had agreed to release him from his contract early.

CNN has not announced what programming will fill the Lou Dobbs time slot, but the hasty announcement and immediate effect of his resignation suggests there was no way the network would keep him on while it prepared a new production to fill that time. It is expected straight news programming may fill that time slot, as CNN tries to find its footing in a new age of intensely opinionated news programming.