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Crusading TV Anchor Lou Dobbs Targeted by Alarmists
By John F. McManus
Published: 2007-05-15 21:50 Email this page | printer friendly version



ARTICLE SYNOPSIS:
The Southern Poverty Law Center has placed advertisements in The New York Times and other publications attacking CNN's Lou Dobbs for supposedly inaccurate reporting.

Follow this link to the source article: "Open Letter to CNN About Lou Dobbs From the Southern Poverty Law Center"
http://www.splcenter.org/images/dynamic ... bbsnew.pdf


COMMENTARY:
President J. Richard Cohen of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) wants Americans to be wary of the information given nightly on the CNN news program anchored by Lou Dobbs. In his signed ad, he also seeks to cause Dobbs problems by addressing his "Open Letter" to CNN with a demand that the newsman be required to apologize for purported inaccuracies.

SPLC's real complaint — one that its ad doesn't mention — is that Dobbs dares to draw attention to the federal government's deficiencies regarding the continuing flood of illegal immigrants pouring across our porous southern border.

The SPLC ad claims that Dobbs is guilty of airing irresponsible claims about disease brought to American by illegal immigrants. Calling him an "anti-immigration zealot," its text insists that the Dobbs broadcasts "rely on disreputable sources."

Dobbs isn't guilty of being an "anti-immigration zealot," and he doesn't have an "anti-immigration agenda," two claims made by SPLC. What Dobbs doesn't like, and what his mushrooming number of viewers also don't like, is illegal immigration and all the problems it brings. He consistently sides with those who are calling on the federal government to meet its obligation to protect this nation against what the U.S. Constitution calls "invasion."

SPLC officials would have Americans believe that their nation is awash in hatred and intolerance for Blacks, Latinos, Jews, homosexuals and others. Constantly seeking to inflame racial and ethnic passions, its hucksters raise millions from the public they alarm with claims about cross-burnings, lynchings, and bigotry throughout the land.

Richard Samp of the respected Washington Legal Foundation accuses the group of "fundraising puffery." That's pretty mild when the SPLC website claims, "Somewhere in America EVERY HOUR someone commits a hate crime. EVERY DAY at least eight blacks, four gays, two Jews, two whites and one Latino become hate crimes victims." One would think hardly anyone was safe in America.

Over the years, SPLC has targeted conservatives, libertarians and tax protesters for its brand of vilification. Now, because there are an estimated 20 million illegals in the nation, many Americans are pretty irate about being required to provide them with free education, food, medical care, and other benefits. It is hardly surprising that citizens from coast to coast applaud the stands taken by Dobbs. But SPLC assures the public that any stand taken against illegal immigration is hate-filled.

SPLC co-founder Julian Bond once likened American conservatives to Iran's Taliban. Its other co-founder, Morris Dees, raked in $297,000 in salary and benefits in a recent year. He accomplished this with such claims as, "The danger presented by the Klan is greater now than at any time in the past ten years." This is the same Klan that Nation magazine's JoAnn Wypijewski noted in 2001 had shrunk to fewer than 3,000 members from a high of over four million.

Those who accept SPLC's alarmism don't seem to realize that without its incessant cries of rampant racism and hatred, the money wouldn't be flowing into the group's coffers. And when there isn't any credible reason to scream about hatred and bigotry, attacking Lou Dobbs with claims of inaccuracy seem designed to accomplish the money-raising goal.