Angry White Man
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"I never dreamed that we would see the major corporations committing that kind of fraud," Dobbs told me as we sat in his office in the Time Warner Center overlooking Columbus Circle and, beyond that, Central Park. "President Bush would call them evildoers. That's what they were, and it was rampant."
"You have to understand," Dobbs continued. "I'm a guy who believed in the system. I truly believed that if a person was running a Fortune 500 company, that he was playing by the rules. That disappointment, that failure to live up to standards, is something I think we all share. It drove me ballistic."
Daily he pressed for indictments in the Enron investigation, then, in 2003, he changed the name of his show from Lou Dobbs Moneyline to Lou Dobbs Tonight. Dobbs claims the change occurred to mark the larger focus the show had taken. Conveniently, it also wiped away any connection to the CEOs and CFOs the program had had in the past.
"Once again he didn't fight the tide," says Dobbs' college classmate and New York businessman Michael Holland. "The tide went out on the stock market shows and CNBC shows. It was a clearheaded business judgment."
"He transformed himself from a guy known primarily for business news to one known as a generalist," CNN's Klein told me. "That's an impressive transformation to make that deeply into one's career. It would be like Roger Clemens becoming a shortstop."
This new Dobbs chafed both on air and in print — in columns for U.S. News & World Report and the Daily News — at the politically correct who failed to recognize terrorism as a logical outgrowth of radical Islam. When outsourcing became part of our everyday language, Dobbs was there again on air and later in his 2004 best-seller, Exporting America: Why Corporate Greed Is Shipping American Jobs Overseas. In it, Dobbs not only ticks off countless towns where factories have been closed due to outsourcing, but also rants about cartoons sent to Korea to be animated and Cold Mountain being filmed in Romania. He followed up two years later with 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. Writing from an "American perspective," Dobbs defends groups like the Minutemen and applauds politicians such as former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney who've called for tougher standards for teachers. But like its predecessor, the book is thin on solutions; Dobbs urges more voters to register as independents, calls for having a "cooling off" period before politicians can become lobbyists, and agitates for eliminating the presidential authority to fast-track trade deals.
"We're told by the faith-based free traders that all is well," Dobbs told me. "It's mindlessness. We're not exporting. We're told it's free trade. It's an absurdity. There are 25 percent tariffs on our automobiles going to China and 2 percent here. What are we exporting? We're exporting scrap metal, waste products, and soybeans. They're exporting to us electronics, computers—and we're supposed to be the technology country."
This past summer, Dobbs attended a luncheon panel on immigration on enemy turf, the annual meeting of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), held in a white-hot Fort Lauderdale. He sat in a darkened room with 1,600 people, most of them Hispanic and, well, journalists, and defended his views on illegal immigration on a panel narrated by PBS's Ray Suarez; the other panelists were New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, reverend and professional do-gooder David Beckmann, and former Mexican secretary of foreign affairs Jorge Castañeda.
But before, during, and after, it was Dobbs who drew the most attention. He posed for pictures with pretty young women straight out of journalism school who were heading (if they were lucky) to weekend anchor jobs in Topeka and Des Moines, shook hands with a San Diego columnist who called Dobbs' audience (and by extension, him) "certifiable" and "racist," and sat onstage shielding both his ideology and his methods, saying: "I don't really believe in something called 'fair and balanced.' That's another news network. I'm not too interested in what some call, with a wink and a nod, objective journalism.... I don't put my thumb on the scale. I stop the damn thing. I want people to know exactly where I'm coming from."
"I happen to have an interest in independent, nonpartisan reality," Dobbs told Suarez. "You may not agree with it."
"Whether I agree or not," Suarez replied, "is completely immaterial."
After the other panelists had dispersed, Dobbs found himself defending his views for 45 more minutes. Before he could leave, three Hispanic journalists cornered him, demanding a change in his vocabulary. They weren't asking for much. They had long ago conceded that Dobbs wouldn't reverse his stance on the issue itself. What they wanted was simply for Dobbs to no longer use the term "illegal alien" on the air. Couldn't Dobbs use "undocumented worker"? Or, at the very least, "illegal immigrant"?
Photos by: Ben Baker/Redux
You're IQ must be in the single digit range. The person said the link does not work you frick'n troll and it doesn't you KNOB. Learn to post in a message board you f'n tool.
Not the brightest bulb on the tree thats for sure.
I'm a democrat and liberal which is why I want immigration reform. Only a retard thinks that the "right wing", wants border security. hahahahaha
Man, you are not the sharpest knife in the drawer, are you? The "right wing" as you call it WANTS OPEN BORDERS LIKE YOU MORON! Yea, that's right, you're the ONLY ONE on the board that isn't even smart enough to figure that out. They agree with you, you PUTZ. Read a little, and watch them on fox news. The ultra conservatives, I know that's a big word for you, they're the "right wing" you keep calling everyone, you and them both think alike.
I know that's a shocker for you and you'll feel so dumb that you will have to carry on your little masquerade to the end. Look it up, you're making yourself look silly.
Your comprehension skills are matched by your equally bad spelling and grammar. Here is how you responded:
Why would the neo-conservatives want OPEN BORDERS?
Duh, maybe because they are part of big business and want access to all the cheap labor forcing wages even further down. Get it? I know, you can't.
And the Libertarians, you ever hear of them? I know, to big a word for you. They also want Open borders dummy because that is a part of their creed and they are on the RIGHT!
Ron Paul ring a bell?
In extremely limited knowledge you can only think of one part of the Republican right but you are unaware of a major part that has open borders as part of policy. Ever hear of our president GW Bush? He has advocated open borders and what party does he belong to? WOuld you say he is part of the right? ROFLMAO
Open a book or two and learn you're embarrassing yourself.
It is a shameful sham that Mexico's one and only successful program for their citizenry is the edict of how much you can get from the country just north of you.
I say give them everything! The entire system and when they F*k it up like every thing they got their hands on then everyone will see.
Good man LD, accept the awful truth and come over to the dark side. Liberal left radical policy has pre-determined our fate. We have already lost cuz much of their base is exactly who we need to fight.
Why are there so d*m many mexicans? I mean they're FN everywhere.
And he's editorializing on Dobb's stand on illegal immigration!
Only in America!
We have the right, but moreover, an obligation to protect our sovereignty.
In truth, we need a compassionate and protective change to immigration. This is the land of the free and of the immigrant but that doesn't mean open borders. It NEVER has meant that. That is, essentially, what Dobbs is saying.
He recently called the Pope's visit to America "repugnant."
The Pope has way more moral authority than constipated Lou Dobbs will ever have, and if he wants to critize America, he can and will.
Americans are so sick of this fat pig trashing immigrants all the time.
Get over yourself,Lou Dobbs.
I love when they march_go back to Mexico and march for more rights there.
Good luck!