by Erick Galindo
Twice now, Lou Dobbs has mentioned: Roberto Lovato on his “Lou Dobbs Tonight” program carried by CNN. Lovato is an investigative reporter and former community organizer. On the aig Dobbs labeled him a ‘’flea” and a “bozo.”
Dobbs annoyance stems from the fact that Lovato is part of a national movement to get the controversial commentator dropped from CNN. Lovato’s group, Basta Dobbs, is conducting one of three major campaigns tar geting the conservative anchor.
Drop Dobbs Now and Democracia Ahora’s campargn entitled “Enough is Enough!” are the others.
“At some point the :Latino community had to do something to push back against the tide of hatred that seals the cup and pocketbook of Lou Dobbs and CNN’” Lovato told Weekly Report.
The majority of Dobbs’ shows deal with immigration, a problem Lovato says, “has the potential to change the course of American history.” In 140 broadcast hours this year from Jan. 1 through July 23, “Lou Dobbs Tonight” devoted 77—more than half—to the topic of immigration.
Dobbs has claimed that immigrants carry diseases across the border, are criminals and steal jobs from U.S. workers as pan of a major Mexican conspiracy to re-conquer the Southwest as part of the fabled Aztlan. In 2007 he falsely related a substantial rise in leprosy cases to immigrant flow across the border.
Lovato gives the CNN show credit for one positive advance in the Hispanic community: Dobbs’ attacks have brought the community to its feet, he says. They have facilitated the movement, seriously damaged his credibility with the public, and put in question CNN’s impartial image as “the most trusted name in news.~
This year Dobbs aired a piece questioning the citizenship of President Barack Obama even as CNN itself had already discredited the so-called “birthers” movement.
In August, he affiliated himself with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an anti-immigrant special interest group, prompting Media Matters President Eric Burns to issue an open letter to CNN Vice President Jonathan Klein.
“Mr. Dobbs represents an ongoing threat to CNN’s credibility as a serious news organization’ in no small part because of his polemical coverage of immigration issues and his continued Use of his CNN show to lend prominence to groups such as FAIR,” wrote Burns.
But according to Lovato, Dobbs threatens more than his reputation. “I know the kind of dangerous threat represented by CNN and Lou Dobbs.” Lavato said. “He is willing to draw on some of the famed gutters of imagery and language that perpetuate racism and hate and somehow call it news.”
CNN has defended Dobbs opinions and he has repeatedly defended his right to be on the air and state his partiality. Yet, his diatribes have contributed to a rise in hate crimes in the community~ according to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“This kind of really vile propaganda begins in hate groups’ makes its way out into the larger anti-immigration movement’ and’ before you know it, winds up in places like ‘Lou Dobbs Tonightt on CNN,” said Mark Potok’ director of the Intelligence Project. “This country needs a robust debate on immigration, but it does not need a debate based on racist allegations and bogus conspiracy theories.”
Lovato said the movement is making great strides and has grown by the tens of thousands in the past few weeks alone, giving him optimism to complete the mission.
“What is happening now is a national and multi-prong, multi-focused effort and that’s something they have never had to face,” he said. “It’s something bigger they didn’t think the community capable of ever really taking on. It’s actually really exciting that way.”
Lovato said the movement has also made progress at CNN and some inside the network have privately admitted that there is pressure. The fact that extreme caricature zealots, like FOX’s Glenn Beck, continue to lose sponsors is also something that concerns the network.
Dobbs has begun to drop in the ratings which could be why he chose to acknowledge Lovato on the air and invite him to come on “Lou Dobbs Tonight” to debate immigration: a move that could re-energize Dobbs’ ratings. But Lovato and other leaders of the movement say they are past the stage of trying to debate Dobbs.
“At this point we are going over his head,” Lovato said. “We’re talking to his bosses. CNN tells us that it is feeling the massive attack, I mean, executives are seeing the national growing pressure from Latinos throughout the United States. Hispanic Link.
