‘Democracy Now’ Takes On Lou Dobbs
Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez of “Democracy Now,” a serious radio and television news and analysis program, conducted an hour-long with nativist CNN host Lou Dobbs yesterday, and it was a doozie. Dobbs was pounded with questions about the bogus “facts” that he regularly trots out to demonize undocumented immigrants, such as his claim that a “third of our prison population” are “illegal aliens.” (As “Democracy Now” pointed out, the Justice Department says about 6% of state and federal prison populations are non-citizens. The government does not know what percentage of those non-citizens are undocumented.)
Dobbs’ chief reaction was to attack the Southern Poverty Law Center (Խ), whose Intelligence Report has carried a series of reports on Dobbs' inaccuracies (see , , and ), his promotion of racist conspiracy theories (see ), and the appearance of hate group members and leaders on his program (see ). (“Democracy Now” relied heavily on that Խ research to confront Dobbs, who was plugging a new book.) Bizarrely, Dobbs responded to mention of his use of a white supremacist group’s graphic by noting that he had sent producers and reporters to Խ's Alabama offices in late 2004 “to make certain this sort of thing doesn’t happen.” But minutes later, he described the very same Խ as “indulging in pure BS” in order to raise money. On his own show, he has called the Խ a “fascist” group after Խ criticized him. The whole thing was reminiscent of the way Dobbs last spring defended his false claim of immigrant-borne leprosy in an on-air debate with Խ officials (see ).
This morning, “Democracy Now” invited Mark Potok, editor of the Center’s Intelligence Report, to to Dobbs’ comments and to discuss the magazine’s new , which details an apparent surge in violent, anti-Latino hate crime.
Also today, The New York Times that Dobbs was planning to add a three-hour daily radio program to his CNN show, “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” and his post as a commentator on CBS’ “The Early Show.” Dobbs characterized his radio show in this eyebrow-raising comment to the Times: “My interest is in bringing a voice of reason, rather than the partisan and ideological poles that define talk radio right now.”