Lou Dobbs Abruptly Quits CNN

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Registered: 03-18-2000
Lou Dobbs Abruptly Quits CNN
10
Thu, 11-12-2009 - 9:12am

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/business/media/12dobbs.html?_r=1&hp


Months ago the president of CNN/U.S., Jonathan Klein, offered a choice to Lou Dobbs, the channel’s most outspoken anchor. Mr. Dobbs could vent his opinions on radio and anchor an objective newscast on television, or he could leave CNN.


For a time, Mr. Dobbs did tone down his TV rhetoric, but on Wednesday he made a more drastic decision: He chose opinion.


Mr. Dobbs told viewers that he was resigning from his CNN job immediately. Sitting before an image of an American flag on his studio set, he said “some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem solving as well as to contribute positively to the great understanding of the issues of our day.”


He remained vague about how he would contribute “to the national conversation,” saying that he was considering “a number of options and directions.”


The abrupt announcement caught even some of his closest staff members by surprise. They were told about the decision only hours before Mr. Dobbs’s 7 p.m. program. CNN, a unit of Time Warner, said it would name a replacement for Mr. Dobbs on Thursday morning.


Mr. Klein said in a statement that “Lou has now decided to carry the banner of advocacy journalism elsewhere.”


“All of us will miss his appetite for big ideas, the megawatt smile and larger than life presence he brought to our newsroom,” he said.


Mr. Klein and Mr. Dobbs declined interview requests.


Well known for his opposition to illegal immigration, Mr. Dobbs was an outlier at CNN, which has sought to be seen as the neutral turf of cable news.


“If CNN wants to be seen as the thoughtful, unbiased, middle of the road alternative to Fox News on the right and MSNBC on the left, this decision goes along with that,” said Geneva Overholser, the director of the School of Journalism at the University of Southern California.


She said the anchor’s decision also makes sense “if he really wants to be Lou Dobbs, man of opinion.”


Mr. Dobbs’s show drew an average of 631,000 viewers in October, putting him in third place behind Fox News and MSNBC. Like those for other CNN programs, his ratings have declined in recent months.


His contract was not to expire until the end of 2011, people with knowledge of his deal said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because contract information is typically treated confidentially. Mr. Dobbs told viewers that Mr. Klein had agreed to release him from his contract early.


People inside CNN have speculated for months that Mr. Dobbs could pick up and move to another network, a possibility that gained momentum in September when he met with Roger Ailes, the chairman of the Fox News Channel.


At the time Mr. Dobbs was characterized by people close to him as a potential hire for the Fox Business Network. But a Fox representative said Wednesday, “We have not had any discussions with Lou Dobbs for Fox News or Fox Business.”


Mr. Dobbs quit CNN once before, in 1999, after disputes with the network’s president at the time, Rick Kaplan. That time, he also exited midweek, on a Tuesday. He became the chief executive of Space.com, an astronomy news source, but returned to the network two years later.


“I’m grateful for the many opportunities that CNN has given me over these many years,” Mr. Dobbs said, noting that he is “the last of the original anchors here on CNN.”


Over the years Mr. Dobbs evolved from being a sober business anchor to a commentator who labeled himself “Mr. Independent.” The issues at the top of his agenda — ones that he mentioned again on Wednesday in explaining his departure — include immigration policy, the growth of the country’s middle class, climate change, and the military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. He had saved his most ideological remarks for his afternoon radio show, which made its debut in March 2008. It is on the radio show that he talked repeatedly about the conspiracy theory claims that President Obama is not a United States citizen. When he mentioned the citizenship issue on CNN over the summer, he raised the ire of his bosses and provoked criticism from progressive groups.


More recently, his coverage of immigration provoked protests by Hispanic groups. On Wednesday one of the groups, Presente.org, which had called on CNN to fire the anchor, declared a “victory.”


Roberto Lovato, a co-founder of the group, said, “We are thrilled that Dobbs no longer has this legitimate platform from which to incite fear and hate.”


Speaking on CNN Wednesday, Mr. Dobbs said he would strive to strengthen the public discourse from an as-yet-unnamed podium.


“As for the important work of restoring inspiration to our great free society and our market economy, I will strive as well to be a leader in that national conversation,” he said.


He concluded his last CNN broadcast by saying, “I’ll see you next on the radio.”


Then he crossed 58th Street in Midtown Manhattan, walked into an Irish pub frequented by colleagues and was greeted with a round of applause.


Dobbs Explains Decision to Leave CNN


http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/dobbs-explains-decision-to-leave-cnn/

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Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 11-13-2009 - 7:53am
I'm sorry to see him leave. Of all the mouthpieces on TV and radio I found him to be the least objectionable.
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Registered: 03-18-2000
Fri, 11-13-2009 - 9:57am

I listened to him for awhile but his continued

 


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Registered: 05-23-2008
Fri, 11-13-2009 - 11:20am

If Dobbs wants to say what he thinks, he should go to a place where they tolerate that.


CNN has the right to be neutral.

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Registered: 02-20-2007
Fri, 11-13-2009 - 11:38am
I personally can't stomach watching him, so it doesn't affect me in the least that he's leaving CNN. I would try tuning in to his program maybe once a month, and each and every time I would, it was like watching a scene from "Groundhog Day". Illegal immigrants this, doom and gloom for our country if we don't put the clamps on the illegals.....blah, blah, blah. I honestly don't know how he had regular viewers.
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Registered: 03-18-2000
Fri, 11-13-2009 - 11:45am

"Dobbs has a great smile and presence.

 


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Registered: 03-18-2000
Fri, 11-13-2009 - 11:47am

"Illegal immigrants this, doom and gloom for our country if we don't put the clamps on the illegals.....blah, blah, blah."


That's why I stopped watching him.

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Registered: 03-18-2000
Sun, 11-15-2009 - 11:39am

Lou Dobbs is a special case


By Edward Schumacher-Matos


http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/11/latino_groups_should_limit_the.html#more


A coalition of Hispanic and progressive groups crowed today about the success of their Drop Dobbs campaign against CNN and its advertisers. They deserved to beat their chests. Their latest effort showed that the fragmented Latino movement could find allies and maintain a sustained campaign. Immigrant demonizers have an increasingly formidable opponent.


But Lou Dobbs is a special case. His resignation from CNN had as much or more to do with an internal struggle there as with the outside Latino pressure. And Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck and their ilk needn’t quake over being the next target.


Dobbs is special to Latinos because, since glomming onto the immigration issue in 2004, he hammered it almost nightly. He promoted misinformation linking illegal and low-skilled immigrants to crime, jobs, diseases and practically every social malady imaginable. And he did it with a sneer. As Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center said today, “Dobbs has done more to disdain Latino immigrants in this country than probably any other person.” Even President Obama has singled out Dobbs by name as an obstruction to immigration reform.


But Dobbs was also special inside CNN. He was the only surviving anchor from Ted Turner’s founding CNN team. He is physically big, vocally imposing, intellectually smart (he graduated from Harvard, where I teach) and prodigiously hard working, all of which contributed to an arrogant and abrasive self-righteousness loathed by many inside CNN. Several of his bosses over the years have wanted to fire him, but he was protected, first by Turner and then, for a long time, by his ratings.

 


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Registered: 10-22-2009
Mon, 11-16-2009 - 10:32am
Sounds to me like he is jumping off a sinking ship.
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Registered: 02-19-2008
Mon, 11-16-2009 - 9:59pm

To the best of my understanding Mr. Dobbs wife was born in Mexico and is a Mexican immigrant. He has two Mexican-American children who speak fluent Spanish. I'd hardly call him anti-immigrant or anti-Mexican.

He appeared tonight on the Bill O'Reilly program. My impression of the interview is that when Mr. Dobbs was blasting away at President Bush and the Republican Congress CNN was behind him 100%. When he blasted away at the Democrat Congress and President Obama largely on the same issues, suddenly Lou was doing the wrong thing and CNN was 0% behind him.

It has been reported that Mr. Dobbs had $12 million to go on his contract. There are reports that he was bought out for $8 million.

On the interview with Mr. O'Reilly he indicated his home was shot at. He was questioned about it, and claimed that his home was shot at was an absolute certainty after months of intensifying threats.

It may be ironic that to protect his Mexican American wife and children from attacks by supporters of illegal immigration that he felt it necessary to step down. As a husband and father he has a responsibility to protect his family. How sad that bullets fired at his home and family were a factor in his decision to leave.

Is this something liberals are to be proud of? Is this the change we are to expect?

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Registered: 03-18-2000
Tue, 11-17-2009 - 10:36am

I know his wife is Mexica-American.


>"Dobbs is special to Latinos because, since glomming onto the immigration issue in 2004, he hammered it almost nightly. He promoted misinformation linking illegal and low-skilled immigrants to crime, jobs, diseases and practically every social malady imaginable. And he did it with a sneer. As Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center said today, “Dobbs has done more to disdain Latino immigrants in this country than probably any other person.” Even President Obama has singled out Dobbs by name as an obstruction to immigration reform."<


>"Eventually, the Dobbs magic stopped working. His absurd insistence on pursuing the “birther” conspiracy embarrassed the network and fueled the movement by Latinos and progressives to force him out. And with his ratings down, Dobbs was no longer worth the pain for CNN to put up with him. CNN/U.S. president Jon Klein reportedly gave Dobbs an ultimatum: tone down the harsh opinions and tune up the hard news, or get out. Dobbs decided to get out."<


I posted this article in post #5. It's accurate IMO.


Here's the link to the original article.......


http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/11/latino_groups_should_limit_the.html#more

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