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Lou Dobbs

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Lou Dobbs
Born (1945-09-24) September 24, 1945 (age 79)
Childress, Texas, U.S.
Occupation(s)CNN News Anchor
Managing editor
WebsiteLou Dobbs Tonight

Louis Carl Dobbs (born September 24 1945), is the CNN anchor and managing editor for Lou Dobbs Tonight. He is also an editorial columnist and syndicated radio show host. Lou Dobbs Tonight attracts CNN's third-largest audience after the "CNN Election Center" and Larry King Live, with about 800,000 viewers per night.

Early life

Dobbs (né Luís Dubrowsky) was born in Childress, Texas, the son of Meir Dubrowsky, a co-owner of a propane business, and Ofelia Peira, a bookkeeper.[1] When Dobbs was 12, his father's propane business failed and the family moved to Rupert, Idaho.[2] He attended Minico High School in Minidoka County, serving as student body president in 1963.[3] He earned a bachelors degree in economics from Harvard University, graduating in 1967.[3]

After graduating, Dobbs worked for federal anti-poverty programs in Boston and Washington, D.C. and as a cash-management specialist for Union Bank in Los Angeles. He married his high school sweetheart in 1969 and in 1970 his first son was born. Dobbs moved to Yuma, Arizona and got a job as a police and fire reporter for KBLU-AM. By the mid-1970s he was a television anchor and reporter in Phoenix, and he later joined Seattle's KING-TV. In 1979, he was contacted by a recruiter for Ted Turner, who was in the process of forming CNN.[2]

Career

CNN

Dobbs joined CNN when it launched in 1980, serving as its chief economics correspondent and as host of the business news program Moneyline on CNN. Dobbs also served as a corporate executive for CNN, as its executive vice president and as a member of CNN's executive committee. He also founded CNN fn (CNN financial news), serving as its president and anchoring the program Business Unusual, which examined business creativity and leadership[4]

Departure and founding of Space.com

Dobbs repeatedly clashed with Rick Kaplan, who became president of CNN in 1997. Dobbs said Kaplan, noted friend of then president Bill Clinton, was "clearly partisan" and "was pushing Clinton stories," while Kaplan said Dobbs was "a very difficult person to work with."[2]

In May 1999, CNN was covering a speech by President Clinton in Littleton, Colorado, following the Columbine High School massacre. Dobbs ordered the producer to cut away from the speech and return to broadcast Moneyline, feeling it was a staged event and not newsworthy.[2] Dobbs was countermanded by Kaplan, who ordered CNN to return to the speech. Kaplan later said, "Tell me what journalistic reason there was not to cover the President at Columbine soon after the shootings? Everyone else was doing it." Dobbs announced on the air that "CNN President Rick Kaplan wants us to return to Littleton." A few days later, Dobbs announced that he was leaving the network to start Space.com, a website devoted to astronomical news.[2] Dobbs was subsequently replaced as host of Moneyline by Willow Bay and Stuart Varney.[5]

Return to CNN

Kaplan left CNN in August 2000, and Dobbs returned the following year at the behest of his friend and CNN founder Ted Turner, becoming host and managing editor of the new and initially more general news program Lou Dobbs Reporting, which later became CNN News Sunday Morning. He also regained the helm of the newly renamed Lou Dobbs Moneyline (which became Lou Dobbs Tonight in June 2003).[6]

Dobbs also hosts a nationally syndicated radio show, The Lou Dobbs Financial Report, and he is a regular columnist in Money magazine, U.S. News & World Report and the New York Daily News.[2]

Radio

As of 2008, Dobbs currently hosts Lou Dobbs Radio on United Stations Radio Networks. The three hour daily show has been working on lining up affiliates in major markets, including Los Angeles (KGIL) and San Francisco Bay (KNEW), as well as stations such as WGNY-AM in Newburgh, New York. The show is guest-centered and features political discussion and listener calls. It airs from noon to 3 p.m. Pacific Time (3 to 6 p.m. Eastern), directly competing with The Sean Hannity Show and Dr. Laura. Dobbs also hosts the financially themed Lou Dobbs Minute on the same network.

Dobbs was among the many hosts who tried out for the position vacated by the cancellation of Imus in the Morning on WFAN, a position that was eventually filled by Boomer and Carton in the Morning.

Political views

Originally fiscally conservative, Dobbs' views have changed over time, and he now describes himself as an "independent populist" critic of the "excesses of capitalism," which he identifies as globalization, offshore outsourcing, runaway film production (the outsourcing of Hollywood jobs),[7][8] illegal immigration, free trade deals, corporate/big business influence in government and the Bush administration's tax cuts. He describes himself as an advocate of economic populism, warning that outsourcing and the U.S. trade and budget deficits threaten the American middle class. Dobbs tends to agree with economists who oppose long-run trade deficits and outsourcing for the sake of labor arbitrage to obtain cheap labor as an example of absolute advantage which does not produce mutual gain,[citation needed] and not an example of comparative advantage which does.[9][10]

In the 2000s, Dobbs has used CNN programs and columns to express his strong personal views on several subjects. He has become particularly noted for two positions: Concerning international trade, Dobbs favors returning to balanced trade which was a U.S. policy during the 1980s. This would eliminate or reduce greatly the trade deficits which have been growing continuously since the late 1970s, and particularly since 2001. He is particularly wary of outsourcing and offshoring in light of the increasing U.S. trade deficit, particularly with China. On November 15 2006, Dobbs described himself as a populist.[2][11]

Illegal immigration and border security

Dobbs is opposed to illegal immigration, amnesty for illegal aliens, the H-1B visa program and guest worker programs.[12][13] Along with this, he has been a critic of the Mexican government's apparent lack of willingness to change its laws to help the poor and of church leaders in Mexico for not criticizing the Mexican government's policies.

Dobbs wants more Border Patrol officers and smarter strategies to more effectively seal the border from violations by illegal aliens and drug smugglers, and from criminals in general. He is in favor of groups like the Minuteman Project, who occasionally patrol remote border areas and report violations by cell phone to the government. Dobbs has said that the United States is becoming balkanized and that many immigrants are not assimilating as prior generations of immigrants did. He opposes mainstreaming illegal aliens into US society as if they were legal immigrants. He has been critical of demonstrations which fly the flags of other nations in the United States, stating, "I don't think that we should have any flag flying in this country except the flag of the United States", and "I don't think there should be a St. Patrick's Day. I don't care who you are. I think we ought to be celebrating what is common about this country, what we enjoy as similarities as people."

Lou Dobbs Tonight frequently features related issues under the themes "Exporting America," "Broken Borders," and "War on the Middle Class". The newscast often describes illegal immigration as an "invasion." Dobbs dismisses concern for language seen by many as excessive or misguided "political correctness" in the segment billboarded "P.C. Nation".

In his "Broken Borders" segments, Dobbs focuses primarily on the southern border with Mexico and the drugs and the people that cross it. As of the end of May 2006, some 829,109 illegal immigrants had been apprehended crossing from Mexico into the United States that year. Illegal immigrants apprehended crossing from Canada to the U.S. during that same time period are a tiny fraction of that amount – 4,066.[14] Dobbs also has lauded the Canadian government for cooperation in securing the border with their American counterparts.

In an interview with Lesley Stahl, Dobbs spoke about his meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus saying they implied that he was anti-Hispanic by asking him, "if I'd ever eaten a taco before, for God's sake".[15] Representative Joe Baca, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, later wrote to CBS insisting that the group did not meet with Dobbs to discuss whether he'd eaten Hispanic food, "but to respectfully recommend that he cease the negative portrayal of Hispanics...and treat the issue of immigration in a responsible manner."[16]

Dobbs has criticized local officials for taking what he considered a lax approach to border security. In October 2007 he labeled New York Governor Eliot Spitzer an "idiot" for advocating the issuance of driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.[17]

Other views

Dobbs once described himself as a "lifelong Republican,"[18] but has stated that he has switched to being an unaffiliated independent populist, as he no longer openly supports any party.[19] Though he made a donation of $1,000 to the Bush-Cheney campaign in January 2001,[20] he often has described the administration of George W. Bush and the then Republican-controlled Congress as "disgraceful." At the same time he has argued that voters have very little choice under the U.S. two-party system, as both parties are controlled by big business and corporate interests, making them almost one and the same and thus do not offer real debate or policy alternatives to ordinary Americans. Dobbs also faulted Bush's 2004 presidential election opponent, Democrat John Kerry, for first criticizing outsourcing and then backing off.[21]

Dobbs is pro-choice, anti-gun control, and supports government regulations, as revealed in a 60 Minutes interview.

Dobbs' stance on trade has earned plaudits from some trade union activists on the traditional political left, while his stance on immigration tends to appeal to the right.[2] In an interview with Larry King, Dobbs revealed that he is now "an unaffiliated independent" due to dissatisfaction with both the Republican, and Democratic Parties.

Dobbs has been generally supportive of gay civil rights. In June 2006, as the U.S. Senate debated the Federal Marriage Amendment, Dobbs was critical of the action. He asserted that traditional marriage was threatened more by financial crises perpetuated by Bush administration economic policy than by gay marriage.[22]

In July 2006, Dobbs criticized U.S. foreign policy as being disproportionately supportive of Israel, pointing out the U.S.'s rapid recognition of Israel in 1948, foreign aid to Israel, and other policy choices in the past and present.[23]

Lou Dobbs is the author of 'War on the Middle Class', which describes what he sees as failure of the two-party system, and claims that both sides are harming the middle class. In it, he comes out strongly against the Bush tax cuts, which he argues favor the wealthy, and argues for raising the U.S. minimum wage from what was then $5.15 an hour.[24]

Controversy

Dobbs' critics, including columnist James K. Glassman of the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, have accused him of inciting xenophobia.[25] Others have accused him of anti-Hispanic racism, a charge he denies[26] and one which he has said offends him deeply, as his wife, Debi, is Mexican American.[27]

Dobbs' critics have at times accused him of presenting unclear or inaccurate information on his program to buttress his reporting on illegal immigrants. One particular criticism involved a CNN report, filed by CNN correspondent Christine Romans for Dobbs's April 14 2005 program, on the carrying of diseases across the border by illegal immigrants. Romans' report cited an article in the Spring 2005 issue of the non-indexed Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, written by the late Madeleine Cosman, which made the statement that 7,000 cases of leprosy had emerged in the United States within the previous three years (2002-2005), an increase attributed mostly due to an influx of immigrants into the country.[28][29][30] Critics of the program argued that, in fact, the actual number of leprosy cases had reached 7,000 in the registry over thirty years, not the previous three years, with 137 cases reported in 2006.[31][32] In addressing the leprosy issue, Dobbs compared his critics from the left and right political spectrums to "commies" and "fascists."[33] On December 4, 2007, Dobbs rejected Cosman's claims as unsubstantiated, calling her "a wackjob".[34]

In January, 2003, Dobbs' wife Debi was arrested at Newark International Airport for carrying a loaded gun through airport security.[1]

On the May 23, 2006 edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight, Dobbs' program displayed a map of Aztlán sourced to the white nationalist Council of Conservative Citizens. CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson apologized for the graphic's use saying: "A freelance field producer in Los Angeles searched the web for Aztlan maps and grabbed the Council of Conservative Citizens map without knowing the nature of the organization. The graphic was a late inclusion in the script and, regrettably, was missed in the vetting process."[35]

On the March 28th edition of the Situation room with Wolf Blitzer, Lou, expressing sentiments following U.S. Senator Barack Obama's "A More Perfect Union" speech, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States still has trouble dealing with race because of a national “birth defect” that denied black Americans the opportunities given to whites at the country’s very founding. The video shows Lou Dobbs stating "Not a single one of these cotton...[stammering]...these just ridiculous politicians should be the moderator on the issue of race."[36]

Awards

On March 27, 2008, he was ranked number 5 in The Boston Phoenix [2]list of "The 100 unsexiest men in the world." Dobbs has won numerous major awards for his television journalism, most notably a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award and a Cable Ace Award. He received the George Foster Peabody Award for his coverage of the 1987 stock market crash. He also has received the Luminary Award of the Business Journalism Review in 1990, the Horatio Alger Association Award for Distinguished Americans in 1999 and the National Space Club Media Award in 2000. The Wall Street Journal has named Dobbs "TV's Premier Business News Anchorman". In 2004, Dobbs was awarded the Eugene Katz Award For Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration by the Center for Immigration Studies and in 2005 he received the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution's Statesmanship Award.[37][38] Dobbs was named "Father of the Year" by the National Father's Day Committee in 1993[39]

Associations

Dobbs serves or has served on the boards of the Society of Professional Journalists Foundation, the Horatio Alger Association, the National Space Foundation and the Imaginova Corporation, formerly known as Space.com, in which he owns a minority stake, as he does in Integrity Bank. He is a member of the Planetary Society, the Overseas Press Club and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Family life

Dobbs resides on a 300-acre horse farm in Sussex County, New Jersey.[40] He is married to his second wife, Debi Lee Segura de Dobbs, a one-time CNN sports anchor.

Books

  • Lou Dobbs, Independents Day: Awakening The American Spirit (2007). ISBN 978-0-670-01836-9.
  • Lou Dobbs, Exporting America: Why Corporate Greed Is Shipping American Jobs Overseas (2004). ISBN 0-446-57744-8.
  • Lou Dobbs, Space: The Next Business Frontier (2005). ISBN 0-7434-2389-5
  • Lou Dobbs, War on the Middle Class: How the Government, Big Business, and Special Interest Groups Are Waging War on the American Dream and How to Fight Back (2006). ISBN 0-670-03792-3.
  • Ron Hira and Anil Hira, with foreword by Lou Dobbs, Outsourcing America: What's behind Our National Crisis and how we can reclaim American Jobs. (AMACOM), American Management Association, (May 2005). ISBN 0-8144-0868-0.

Quotes

  • "I don't know about you, but I can't take seriously anyone who takes either the Republican Party or Democratic Party seriously — in part because neither party takes you and me seriously; in part because both are bought and paid for by corporate America and special interests.... Political, business and academic elites are waging an outright war on working men and women and their families, and there is no chance the American middle class will survive this assault if the dominant forces unleashed over the past five years continue unchecked." – CNN commentary (18 OCT 2006)
  • "Tonight, an amazing development in banking directly benefiting illegal aliens in this country. Bank of America is now issuing its credit cards to people with no Social Security number, who have broken the law, and who are in this country illegally. To Bank of America, apparently, they are simply a new market " - CNN Aired February 13, 2007

References

  1. ^ "Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997 (Ancestry.com database on-line)". Retrieved 2008-03-24.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Cite error: The named reference Madashell was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Mullins, Luke (2006-11-28). "The Secret Life of Lou Dobbs". The American. Retrieved 2007-06-03. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Business News Luminaries
  5. ^ MONEYLINE Launches Bicoastal News Format
  6. ^ Johnson, Peter (2003-06-09). "'Lou Dobbs Moneyline' gets a new moniker". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-01-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ "Lou Dobbs Tonight transcripts". CNN. 2005-06-07. Retrieved 2007-06-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ "Lou Dobbs Tonight transcripts". CNN. 2004-05-01. Retrieved 2007-06-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ Hira, Ron and Anil Hira with forward by Lou Dobbs, (May 2005). Outsourcing America: What's Behind Our National Crisis and How We Can Reclaim American Jobs. (AMACOM) American Management Association. Citing Paul Craig Roberts, Paul Samuelson, and Lou Dobbs, pp. 36-38.
  10. ^ Dobbs, Lou, (2004). Exporting America, Why Corporate Greed is Shipping Jobs Overseas. Time Warner Book Group. Dobbs critique of applications of comparative advantage theory in trade, pp. 32, 36, 107, and Dobbs opposition to long run trade deficits, pp. 29, 65, etc.
  11. ^ Dobbs, Lou (2006-11-16). "Dobbs: I'm a populist, deal with it". CNN.com. Retrieved 2007-01-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  12. ^ "Massive Earthquake Strikes Japan; A look at Recent Political Debates". CNN. 2003-09-25. Retrieved 2007-01-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ Dobbs, Lou (2005-06-30). "CAFTA's big secret". CNN.com. The American Resistance. Retrieved 2007-01-17. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  14. ^ Pomfret, John (2006-07-02). "At the Northern Border, No Talk of Fences". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
  15. ^ http://www.irnnews.com/news.asp?action=detail&article=17106
  16. ^ "Rep. Joe Baca Responds To Lou Dobbs". CBS News. 2007-05-17. Retrieved 2007-10-29.
  17. ^ McShane, Larry (2007-10-29). "Dobbs Shows No Love For Guv". courant.com. Retrieved 2007-10-29.
  18. ^ Associated Press (2004-04-09). "CNN's Lou Dobbs is a man on a mission". MSNBC. Retrieved 2007-06-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ "Lou Dobbs Tonight transcripts". CNN. 2006-10-10. Retrieved 2007-06-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ "Lou Dobbs's Federal Campaign Contribution Report". 2007-02-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ Dobbs, Lou, (2006). War on the Middle Class. The Dobbs Group, pp. 127-128
  22. ^ "Dobbs: Gay marriage amendment sheer nonsense". 2006-06-08. Retrieved 2006-01-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ Dobbs, Lou (2006-07-25). "Dobbs: Career-wise, not so smart when it comes to the Middle East". CNN. Retrieved 2007-06-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. ^ "Dobbs: Middle class needs to fight back now". 2006-10-18. Retrieved 2006-01-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ Glassman, James K (2006-02-23). "Good for America". TCS Daily. Retrieved 2007-06-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. ^ Berkowitz, Bill (2006-06-30). "Lou Dobbs' Dubious Guest List". Inter Press Service News Agency. Retrieved 2007-01-17. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  27. ^ "Lou Dobbs, "Advocacy" Journalist?". CBS News. 2007-05-06. Retrieved 2007-06-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. ^ Cosman, Madeleine Pelner. "Illegal Aliens and American Medicine" (PDF). Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. Retrieved 2007-06-03.
  29. ^ "Lou Dobbs Tonight transcripts". CNN. 2005-04-14. Retrieved 2007-06-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  30. ^ "Lou Dobbs Tonight transcripts". CNN. 2007-05-07. Retrieved 2007-06-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  31. ^ "Lou Dobbs Tonight transcripts". CNN. 2007-05-20. Retrieved 2007-06-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  32. ^ "Truth, Fiction and Lou Dobbs". David Loenhardt, The New York Times. 2007-05-30. Retrieved 2007-08-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  33. ^ "Lou Dobbs Responds to 'Scurrilous' Attack By 'NYT'". Editor & Publisher. 2007-05-31. Retrieved 2007-06-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  34. ^ Transcript of DemocracyNow! broadcast, 4 December 2007, accessed 4 December 2007
  35. ^ S.S.M (2006-05-25). "Dobbs's immigration reporting marked by misinformation, extreme rhetoric, attacks on Mexican president, and data from organization linked to white supremacists". Media Matters for America. Retrieved 2007-07-24. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  36. ^ Veracifier/You tube/ The situation room. Dobbs's Almost racist comment. Veracifier/You tube/ The situation room. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  37. ^ "2004 Eugene Katz Award For Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration". Retrieved 2007-01-16.
  38. ^ "Reporter, analyst Dobbs is AdTI Statesman". Retrieved 2007-01-16.
  39. ^ "Lou Dobbs". CNN. Retrieved 2007-06-03.
  40. ^ "Dobbs' wife didn't know she was packing heat". Media Life Magazine. 2003-01-24. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
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