Katrina vanden Heuvel: Lou Dobbs and Leprosy (The Nation)

[marmar]

BLOG | Posted 06/05/2007 @ 5:19pm
Lou Dobbs and Leprosy


Last week, New York Times columnist David Leonhardt wrote of Lou Dobbs' tenuous relationship with the truth – "a somewhat flexible relationship with reality"– and his refusal to own up to an erroneous, fear-inducing report in violation of a basic journalistic creed.

It seems Dobbs wants to stick to a completely false assertion – first aired on his CNN program in 2005 and repeated again this May – that "there had been 7,000 cases of leprosy in this country over the previous three years, far more than in the past." Dobbs attributed this increase to "unscreened illegal immigrants."

Leonhardt reported that there have indeed been approximately 7,000 diagnosed cases – but not over the past three years as Dobbs would have viewers believe. Rather, these incidents occurred over a thirty-year period and have "dropped steadily" since a peak of 456 cases in 1983. "Mr. Dobbs was flat-out wrong," Leonhardt writes. But facts be damned, Dobbs is sticking by his numbers ("If we reported it, it's a fact," Dobbs said.)

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) – a civil rights organization that fights discrimination and monitors hate groups – ran an ad in the New York Times and USA Today calling for CNN to issue a correction on Dobbs' show. In its Open Letter to CNN the SPLC wrote: "The source for Dobbs' leprosy claim is the late Madeleine Cosman – an anti-immigration zealot who once publicly stated that 'most' Latino immigrant men ‘molest girls under 12, although some specialize in boys, and some in nuns'….Given that Mr. Dobbs refuses to retract his leprosy claim, we believe it is CNN's responsibility to do so. We suggest that the appropriate place for the correction is the same place where the falsehood was told: on Mr. Dobbs' show."

...(snip)...

But there are no signs that CNN is doing anything to set the record straight or address Dobbs' relationship to factual accuracy. Even CBS – which initially caught what Frank Rich described as "Lou Dobbs's hoax blaming immigrants for a nonexistent rise in leprosy"– has now hired him as a commentator for The Early Show. How far will Dobbs go in pushing his fact-challenged immigration agenda on this new outlet? And if he truly wants to serve his viewers by reporting on what he calls a "nonpartisan independent reality" then isn't it time he stop pulling the wool over folks' eyes? ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=202453

[hvn_nbr_2]

1. Somebody expects CNN to deal in truth and not propaganda?

Dream on.

[athebea]

2. What so many on the left refuse to understand...

... is that the issues of illegal immigration, trade, and globalization are linked. Lou Dobbs understands that. Katrina vanden Heuvel, Ted Kennedy and the SPLC do not. You can't be willing to glut the labor market and depress the wages of working class Americans to demonstrate your 'compassion' and at the same time have anything the least bit credible to say about trade and globalization issues. Or are the jobs and livelihoods of white collar professionals the only ones worth protecting ? Or is it a coincidence that the same Wall Street Journal editorial page, Cato Institute types who want 'comprehensive immigration reform' also want 'free trade', outsourcing, and unlimited H1b's ?

To the extent that the left is too politically correct to be 'anti-immigrant' it is being played for fools by cheap labor business interests. A viable left must stand for more than the manners and mores of the overclass or the posturings of academic multiculturalists. It must primarily identify with the needs and class interests of nickel and dimed, working Americans.

That is why the criticism of Dobbs from the politically correct is water off a duck.

[marmar]

3. ... and what does that have to do with lies about leprosy?

Think what you want about the immigration issue, but when Lou Dobbs crosses the line into misinformation then he is not contributing to an enlightened debate, but feeding prejudices, fear and paranoia.

[Demeter]

4. Just Doing His Job, Then

It is in the GOP Handbook: When called upon to support a proposed policy, anything goes.

[athebea]

5. Fear, Prejudices, Paranoia ?

Factual misinformation about leprosy is one thing. But as to the impact of illegal immigration upon working and taxpaying Americans Dobbs is 100% correct. That is something the American people understand and his critics on the left do not. That the information may not have been accurate is true. But that vastly more Americans see Lou Dobbs as on their side and looking out for their interests while the cheap labor right and the multiculturalist left are not is the truth.

Working class Americans are perfectly well aware that their standard of living is not what their parents had and the reason is the globalization labor glut. Illegals are a very big factor in that glut. So trying to dismiss their very valid concerns as 'fear, prejudices, and paranoia' is as foolishly futile as the left back in the 70's and 80's saying that people afraid of crime were 'racists'.

[marmar]

6. No. Making up some B.S. about immigrants spreading leprosy stokes racist paranoia....

Being concerned about immigration for economic reasons is something entirely different. I think you're missing my point.

[athebea]

8. The agenda of people using this...

... is not in the least truthfulness or accuracy.

It is to advance an agenda that is destructive of working class Americans either for reasons of white liberal guilt or cheap labor greed. They want to silence the strongest voice in the MSM that is fighting for working Americans.

[Mark D.]

7. Picking Up Crumbs

When the kitchen is on fire. I don't disagree with the 
basis of this topic. Yes...if he was using bad info by
accident he should have apologized, as soon as he found
out. If by intent, then it's flat out wrong. Really, no
disrespect to the person who'd posted this, but this is
one of a few occasional errors or twists he may do. The
other 99 % of what he says...the war against the middle
class, exporting jobs & the fact the true beneficiaries
 of the current 'program' or proposed amnesty are NOT 
the illegals...but the corporate 'johns' hiring these
prostitutes. The left has disappointed many on this.

In an attempt to be compassionate to them they forget 
about us. I love a public forum I saw with Dobbs, and
the head of Bush's immigration team, a Hispanic token,
saying we've got 'full employment' and then a veteran
got up, yelling from the audience how he'd moved from
NJ to the state they were in, because there were not 
enough jobs there for his son-in-law to find. 'They
do the jobs we won't do'. That nonsense has to stop
& we who'd be best to care about hard working folks
need to speak up too. I don't do a janitors job for
example. Why? Afraid of hard work? No. The computer
work I do will pay enough for my bills. I'd not get
enough at typical labor jobs, or I'd do one of them. 

No stress, exercises, and it isn't complicated. If a
company will pay Americans enough they'd will do any
job they need. But sadly...these business folk won't
do it. They rally against every minimum wage hike and
then they complain when their sales go down as prices
go up, and nobody can afford to buy goods they offer.
We all go to good ol WalMart because it's all we can
afford to. The Democratic House / Senate slept while
Regan/Bush busted up unions. We saw those who were a
Democrat labor reasons go. We could loose more here.

The same way I found the Democrats who debated high 
gas prices no more responsive to the real cause than
Republicans in their debate. It's the big energy folk
& they KNOW. But they too must have quiet money coming
from them. OPEC does not touch its per - barrel prices.
So we see a spike in gas prices for no other reason but
that it's not a major election year and it's summer and
we drive more, so that is easier to get away with. Last
year, when we set the new highest record for gas prices,
Exxon/Mobil had the biggest yearly profit for a company
in US history. I saw little talk about the 'coincidence'
- even in these left web sources. Until we really fight
for the American little guy, ones who vote & who's here
legally, we risk loosing the folks who just want to be
able to pay bills. That is the 'elephant' in the room.

[athebea]

9. You are absolutely right.

A left that cares more about overclass manners and mores than fighting for the American little guy has no valid reason to exist.