UPDATE: Lou Dobbs responds to his critics...
For a little while now, the CNN anchor Lou Dobbs has been claiming that illegal immigrants bring a host of problems into the United States, including leprosy.
Evidently, illegal immigrants were one of the main causes of the soaring leprosy rate, which went from only a hundred-odd cases a year to 7000 in the last three years. Seven thousand! That's an awful lot of lepers! The only problem is that the figure isn't true at all. A few weeks back, during a piece on 60 Minutes, Lesley Stahl questioned the statistic, pointing out that it seems to be entirely untrue, in the sense that there is absolutely no proof for it, and that the available information seems to point in the opposite direction.
Dobbs admitted that the statistic was misleading if not entirely false. Then, the very next night, he hopped back on the air at CNN to reiterate and emphasize the immigrant-related leprosy rate. As David Leonhardt of the New York Times wrote, Dobbs "has never acknowledged on the air that his program presented false information twice. Instead, he lambasted the officials from the law center for saying he had."
This kind of behavior can really make someone unpopular in the news business. It can even make a guy a leper. So what gives? How can someone have such flagrant disregard for the truth? Is it an isolated incident or part of a pattern? Should he be permitted slips now and again? Should everyone? What standard should he be held to?
Here's a good piece on Dobbs from my magazine, the New Yorker. Below are the videos addressed above.
Mo Rocca has appeared on a bunch of shows, including 'The Daily Show,' 'I Love the 80s,'...
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Posted May 30th 2007 10:29AM by Ben Greenman
Filed under: Politics, Media, Illegal Immigration
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 7)
1. This is hardly the first time that Lou Dobbs has distorted facts to pander to his audience. He frequently criticized U.S. trade policies, falsely claiming that he had "facts" to support his claims that such policies led to major job losses in the U.S..
David Foster at 12:10PM on May 30th 2007
2. I knew Dobbs was a lier, but I don't know he was that bad. These people are just keeping the hate going.
Dancerpl2 at 11:35AM on May 30th 2007
3. I would like to state that while the statistics you use in terms of leprosy, crime , and predators does not convict all illegal’s, it does bring up the concern that we have no handle on what is coming in our country. While many people have the luxury of mark potock to say anything they want with never having been negatively impacted by the very situation he foolishly attempts to defend in the name of the "poverty Law Center". Mark you are poor!! Our country's safety b/c of people like you and in the name of your cause has been and will continue to be in jeopardy....maybe your lips will fall off with leprosy and then you cannot spread such stupidity.
shannon at 11:41AM on May 30th 2007
4. Lou is a great source of information. Do not concentrate on one statement. If you want an honest look at illegal immigration, outsourcing, President Bush, our congress and senate tune into Lou.
eddie at 12:22PM on May 30th 2007
5. The real problem regarding the Dobbs report is who to believe. Would Dobbs slant his report to influence viewers ,hello. Would this administration attempt to slant news so it is favorable to them. They have already done it and our men and women are now paying for it in Iraq. If only we had a honest and objective media then we might be informed. The media has been trumped by politics.
Les Beernink at 11:46AM on May 30th 2007
6. Lou is a great source of information. Do not concentrate on one statement. If you want an honest look at illegal immigration, outsourcing, President Bush, our congress and senate tune into Lou.
eddie at 11:45AM on May 30th 2007
7. The war is a topic that is and will always be heavily debated. The idea of immigration is a topic that without wuestion needs to be addressed. Until it hits home with certain people, everyones opinions are subject to major change.
shannon at 12:00PM on May 30th 2007
8. The war is a topic that is and will always be heavily debated. The idea of immigration is a topic that without wuestion needs to be addressed. Until it hits home with certain people, everyones opinions are subject to major change.
shannon at 11:51AM on May 30th 2007
9. I listen to Lou Dobbs on a regular basis, a nd I've not heard Lou Dobbs' comments regarding leprosy. If it does indeed prove to be untrue, I'm sure Lou will openly admit it, and apologize. There are just too many good reasons to get rid of all illegal immigrants and seal our borders, for this to matter.
David Baer at 11:54AM on May 30th 2007
10. Dan Rather does it, why not Lou Dobbs? I don't see Dan Rather ostrasized for slandering George W. Bush and trying to influence an election. That is what is truly outrageous about the news business. Al Gore is a laughing stock, and yet the NYT article that actually points out the factual inaccuracies of his ridiculous movie get little play. The Financial Times exposed the 'carbon offset' scam, something that Al Gore is also involved in. Since when is CNN factual anyway? The news business is about forcing an elitest agenda on the public, and the public is SICK OF IT! GET A CLUE!
Boetica at 6:09PM on May 31st 2007
11. I listened to the dialoughe wbetween Lou Dobbs and the "Law Center" he clearly refuted all the BS you claim and the "Law Center" looked like a fools. Either you did not listen to the program in its full or you just cannot stand the truth.
Charles Berg at 12:06PM on May 30th 2007
12. The SPLC has an indirect link to the Mexican government, being part of a group whose leader has several ties to that government. Oddly enough, that news didn't make Stahl's "report".
If this site wants to do some real analysis, it should look into why 60 Minutes and the NYT are so keen on smacking down Dobbs. Considering the lies and misleading statements that both sources constantly spew, both might start closer to home.
LonewackoDotCom at 12:12PM on May 30th 2007
13. The focus of the story is on the lack of journalistic integrity. But that's hardly surprising or new, particularly, these days, when a far right-wing journalist is involved.
The most interesting part of the story to me, however, is the "getting medieval on illegal immigrants" angle. Especially since the type of medieval Dobbs and other reactionaries seem to be getting is mental rather than physical. That is, rather than regressing back to a state of brutish violence, their regressing mentally to a state of brutish concepts and morality.
You can't help but wonder if Dobb's decision to use leprosy wasn't a sign that he unconsciously realized how primitive his thoughts and statements are.
Some people love simplicity so completely that they become simple minded. Dobbs and those like him want to keep the subject of illegal immigration so simple that they've reverted to the "they're dirty, we're clean" level of xenophobic thinking. This type of primitive Us vs Them thinking wasn't just common, but the norm 700 years ago. Dobbs increases the irony by choosing leprosy, the great unclean booga-bear of medieval man.
What really completes the irony of Dobbs lying about medical statistics in an attempt to associate illegal immigrants with leprosy- to make them a primitive sort of dirty- is what we now know, 700 years after this sort've thinking was common, about lepers and leprosy.
Just like Dobbs' and other arch right-wing journalists' claims about illegal immigration, all the fears about the infectiousness of leprosy have proved to be a tempest in a teacup. The dangers were/are actually much, much smaller than other threats which those screaming "fire" the loudest hoped/ hope we'll be too distracted to look at instead. Lepers and leprosy, in actual fact, aren't really that dangerous, relatively or otherwise.
Ultimately, all lepers are and were, is frightening and repellant to have to look at and treat as people- the reason why individuals like Dobbs find them such a useful distraction from the threats posed by those they support politically. We want the new lepers, the homeless and illegal immigrants, to go away because empathizing with their condition is too painful, too guilt-inspiring. This makes them ripe targets for the simple-minded, who feed our temptation to just make them go away, who encourage us to make them villains, so that we can spare ourselves the guilt and pain of having to see them as created equal.
viarmemphis at 12:16PM on May 30th 2007
14. What is amusing is that people are just finding out Lou Dobbs slants his show to conform with his views of the world. When Lou Dobbs goes after President Bush, I don't hear any protests from liberal bloggers. Is everything he's "reporting" about the Iraq war fair and balanced. No!! His reports on the Middle Class Squeeze are so inaccurate and biased you would think America was in a depression. CNN should remove Lou Dobbs immediately !!
Ron Mexico at 12:27PM on May 30th 2007
15. Lou must be getting his point across so the politically correct croud needs to defile him. Dodds is the only newsreader that suports the middle class in this economic war.
Greg at 12:31PM on May 30th 2007