Associated Press Attacks Lou Dobbs Along With Media Matters & SPLC!
Posted on Tuesday, August 04 @ 09:18:20 EDT
Topic: Lou Dobbs CNN Anchor
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 ALIPAC NOTE: And the Associated Press dares to attack Lou Dobbs for his tough stances against illegal immigration and request that Obama produce his birth certificate like all Americans do? The Associated Press shows their bias in this political hit piece on Dobbs and ALIPAC has documented vast bias and censorship by the Associated Press in favor of illegal immigration many times!
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Lou Dobbs and CNN network: Can this marriage be saved?
David Bauder
August 3rd, 2009
Associated Press
NEW YORK — He’s become a publicity nightmare for CNN, embarrassed his
boss and hosted a show that seemed to contradict the network’s “no
bias” brand. And on top of all that, his ratings are slipping.
How does Lou Dobbs keep his job?
It’s not a simple answer. CNN insists it is standing behind Dobbs,
despite calls for his head from critics of his reporting on “birthers”
— those who believe President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United
States despite convincing evidence to the contrary. The “birthers”
believe Obama was born in Kenya, and thus not eligible to be president.
Dobbs’ work has been so unpopular that even Ann Coulter has criticized him.
Dobbs has
acknowledged that he believes Obama was born in Hawaii. But he gives
airtime to disbelievers, and has said the president should try to put
questions fully to rest by releasing a long version of his birth
certificate. He’s twice done stories on his show after the public leak
of a memo from CNN U.S. President Jon Klein saying that “it seems this
story is dead.”
Klein said those stories were OK because they were about the
controversy and weren’t actually questioning the facts. But critics
suggest Klein is parsing words, that even raising the issue lends it
credence.
Joked The Washington Post’s Lisa de Moraes: it “explains their upcoming documentary: ‘The World: Flat. We Report — You Decide.’”
Dobbs hasn’t made
it any easier by using his radio show to fight back at critics, who he
called “limp-minded, lily-livered lefty lemmings.” He considered going
on CNN tormentor Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News show to thank him (O’Reilly
says the birthers are wrong, but he defended Dobbs’ right to talk about it).
“He’s embarrassed himself and he’s embarrassed CNN,” said Brooks
Jackson, a former CNN correspondent. “And that’s not a good thing for
any network that wants to be seen as a reputable, nonpartisan news
organization.”
So who needs the headache?
Klein said Dobbs
does a smart newscast that explores issues that get little in-depth
attention elsewhere, such as trade with China, health care funding and
the stimulus plan. He suggested Dobbs’
CNN work is unfairly lumped in with his unrelated radio show, and that
he’s judged on the show he did a couple of years ago, when Dobbs became a political target for his campaigning against illegal immigration.
The two men sat down after last year’s election to make changes, aware that the anti-immigrant Dobbs’
image ran counter to the brand CNN was trying to create. CNN calls
itself the network of unbiased reporting compared to conservative
commentators on Fox and liberal ones at MSNBC.
Since then, Dobbs has been doing a relatively straight newscast, Klein said.
“He brings more than three decades of experience reporting and
broadcasting the news,” Klein said, “and that’s very valuable to a news
network.”
Through a spokeswoman, Dobbs
said he would not comment for this story. But he is a CNN original.
Except for a two-year break a decade ago, he’s been with CNN virtually
from the network’s beginning. Much of that time was spent anchoring a
business newscast that made him hugely influential in the business
community and immensely valuable to CNN. Old-timers say the desire of
advertisers to be connected with Dobbs and Larry King essentially funded the network for years.
Dobbs is
considered among the smartest people at CNN, and also the most
personally intimidating. For whatever reason — the rise of CNBC as a
competitor or a sense that opinionated hosts were the future for cable
news — Dobbs morphed from a business anchor to a polarizing populist.
That version of Dobbs
seemed better suited for HLN, formerly CNN Headline News, which has an
opinionated prime-time lineup led by Nancy Grace. But reruns of Dobbs’ show didn’t do well on HLN, which is more female oriented. Klein said he and Dobbs determined Dobbs was more valuable as a reporter than as a commentator.
The 861,000 people who tune into his 7 p.m. ET newscast on a typical
night are down 20 percent from last year, according to Nielsen Media
Research. He’s still ahead of MSNBC’s Chris Matthews in that hour.
“It’s very cutthroat,” said Janet Keefer, a Drake University
journalism professor and former CNN producer. “As long as he isn’t
doing anything that’s driving viewers away, they’ll keep him.”
Fear could be another factor keeping Dobbs and CNN together.
Dobbs has never
been shy about fighting for his point of view. His feud with former CNN
chief Rick Kaplan spilled out on the air in 1999 when he objected to
having his “Moneyline” show pre-empted for a speech by President
Clinton about the Columbine school shootings. “CNN President Rick
Kaplan wants us to return to Littleton,” he said. Dobbs soon left CNN and returned after Kaplan left.
With Dobbs hosting his own weekday radio show, the thought of him launching anti-CNN missiles every day has to be disconcerting.
It’s also not hard to imagine Fox News chief Roger Ailes coveting Dobbs as a prize for his struggling business news network, offering reports to the main news channel as well.
Organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and Media Matters for America have called for CNN to take Dobbs
off the air; he’s proven a galvanizing and attention-getting force for
his critics. At CNN, they’re hoping the controversy dies down with the
heat of August.
For that, they’ll need Lou Dobbs’ help.
DISCUSS THIS BIASED ASSOCIATED PRESS HIT PIECE ON DOBBS WITH OUR ONLINE SUPPORTERS AT...
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-165396-dobbs.html
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