Last night I was honored to speak with a class at the College of Mount St. Vincent on an alternative vision of media and left asking the students to make at least one piece of independent media part of their daily intake, since on a constant level they (and all of us) are fed messages from the corporate media.

Pero sometimes the message being sent is just so out there, such a sad attempt to maintain legitimacy in a changing world, that you have to ask. Why are you still here? That’s the question for CNN’s Lou Dobbs.

His scapegoating of immigrants (racialized as Latinos, especially Mexicans) has turned into a tired old sideshow act or worse, he’s that viejo uncle at everyone’s holiday dinner/family reunion. You know, he’s the one that everyone wonders who the hell invited him again about as they grit their teeth and listen to his ranting. His newest skipped record rant is the “birther” issue, that is that President Obama’s birth certificate isn’t legit and that he’s an…..”illegal”.

Ok that was actually a little scary.

Others are finding Lou Dobb’s new extension on an old crusade troubling as well. The Southern Poverty Law Center is calling for Dobbs to be pulled off the air.

…It’s important to note that this conspiracy theory was concocted by an anti-Semite and circulated by racist extremists who cannot accept the fact that a black man has been elected president. Among those who helped disseminate the lie was the neo-Nazi who killed a security guard at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in June.

Respectable news organizations should not be peddling propaganda that supports the agenda of radical extremists who are only interested in stirring up hate and fomenting violence. But Dobbs continues to do just that. And it’s irresponsible for CNN to let him continue trading in falsehoods.

Enough is enough. Today, I’ve written to the president of CNN urging that Dobbs be removed from the air.

I encourage you to contact CNN yourself. If enough of us speak up, the network will listen.

Thank you for standing strong against hate.

Sincerely,
Richard Cohen
J. Richard Cohen
President, Southern Poverty Law Center

There’s an entire petition/website campaign.

Honestly, I haven’t had cable news for about 7 months now and my life is better because of it. This isn’t the first time wacky Uncle Lou has gone off before and won’t be the last so long as his habit for attention is fed not just by his presence on the airwaves but by corporate dollars via advertising. Who is sponsoring Lou Dobb’s show? Are you paying for cable for access to his hate? The head of CNN is keeping his ass alive:

CNN/U.S. President Jon Klein told staffers of “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on Thursday that the controversy regarding the legitimacy of President Obama’s birth certificate — a topic Dobbs has avidly pursued on the air — is a “dead” story.

But in an interview, the cable news chief left open the possibility that Dobbs may continue to raise questions about why the president has not produced a long-form birth certificate. The absence of such a record has spawned rumors that Obama was not born in the United States, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.

“He’s got more than 30 years as a television journalist, and I trust him, as I trust all our reporters and anchors, to exercise their judgment as various stories evolve,” Klein said of Dobbs, whose daily CNN program is a mix of news and opinion.

Don’t feed the beasts.

Via / Latino Politico, Media Matters.