Hispanic media group wants Lou Dobbs off radio, too

Posted Nov 13, 2009 by Walt Belcher

Updated Nov 13, 2009 at 03:41 PM

Lou Dobbs’ exit from CNN has made at least three media watchdog groups happy. 

The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC), Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) and Media Matters have joined nearly a dozen other groups who celebrated his departure, including the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Hispanic Institute, America’s Voice, the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) and Presente.org, an online advocacy group that had founded its own BastaDobbs.com campaign.

The Hispanic Media Coalition accuses Dobbs of anti-Hispanic hate speech and wants him off the radio, too.

Dobbs, known for his rants against illegal aliens, was often accused of making outrageous and inaccurate statements. He also accused the president of being a socialist and a fascist, and played in the Birther conspiracy with claims Obama is ineligible to be president because he wasn’t born in the United States.

According to FAIR, “since 2003, Dobbs regularly used his CNN platform to issue misleading and alarmist warnings about the threats posed by undocumented immigrants.”

In a FAIR statement, the organization noted:

Dobbs has spoken of an “army of invaders” scheming to reannex parts of the southwestern U.S. to Mexico (3/31/06), claimed that “illegal alien smugglers and drug traffickers are on the verge of ruining some of our national treasures” (11/19/03) and declared that “the invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans” (4/14/05).

Repeated segments on Dobbs’ show were devoted to “illegal aliens” getting free medical care (10/1/03), putting their children in schools (10/2/03), committing sex crimes (10/30/03), getting breaks on college tuition (10/22/03), clogging up the federal prison system (11/4/03) and “flooding across our borders in some cases carrying dangerous diseases” (11/20/03). More recently, Dobbs (3/9/09) promoted a misleading report that suggested hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants would get jobs due to the government stimulus program.

Dobbs was challenged by CBS host Lesley Stahl (5/6/07) about his erroneous suggestion (4/14/05) that immigrants were causing an alarming increase in leprosy in the United States. Dobbs’ remarkable response—“If we reported it, it’s a fact”—was just as incorrect as his original reporting (which, it turned out, was based on inaccurate numbers peddled by a far-right anti-immigrant activist—FAIR Action Alert, 5/11/07).

Lesley takes on Dobbs