Over the years, Lou Dobbs has consistently used his CNN platform to spread hatred and fear. He played a critical role in skewing the immigration reform debate in 2006, leading to the derailment of that effort, and his obsession with the issue of immigration and with defeating immigration reform continues unabated. Adding to his repertoire of hate and fearmongering, he has recently aligned himself with the “birther” conspiracists and their racially tinged attack on the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s presidency. From his CNN platform, he has bolstered the claims of those on the fringe by asserting repeatedly that President Obama has failed to produce adequate proof that he was born in the United States. His recent focus on the birth certificate conspiracy issue has reinforced what immigration reform proponents have long known — that Dobbs has a long history of the worst kind of pandering by promoting hate and ethnic and racial division.
Dobbs has promoted the work of hate groups, spread racially charged conspiracy theories including about Obama’s birth certificate, railed against “ethnocentric special interests,” and accused the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of being sympathetic to “Mexico’s export of drugs and illegal aliens.” It is time to highlight the damage Dobbs does and the threat he poses, and it is time to demand accountability from advertisers who, by purchasing airtime on his show, actively support his hate speech. When advertisers sponsor Lou Dobbs, this is what they are paying for:
- Dobbs advanced racially charged conspiracy theories about Obama’s birth certificate.
- Dobbs has close ties to “hate group” FAIR.
- Dobbs said Sotomayor nomination was “absolute pandering to the Hispanics.”
- Dobbs declared “Mexico has become our enemy.”
- Dobbs smeared U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as “interested in the export of American capital and production to Mexico, and Mexico’s export of drugs and illegal aliens.”
- Dobbs fearmongered about Mexican “reconquista” plot.
- Dobbs aired hate group graphic to illustrate “the Vicente Fox Aztlan tour.”
- Dobbs spread leprosy falsehood in claiming “invasion of illegal aliens” threatening Americans’ “health.”
- Dobbs asked if Obama is “pandering to ethnocentric special interests again” by accepting Richardson’s endorsement.
- Dobbs praised Philadelphia English-only sign ruling as “a defeat for ethnocentric special interests.”
This is why we have joined together to launch the DropDobbs campaign — to let companies know that their continued financial support of his show makes them complicit in the hate speech that he promotes.
Please join us. CALL on advertisers to drop their sponsorship of CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight.
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