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Lou Dobbs Finally Under Scrutiny After Years of Bigotry

4 Aug 2009

Unless you’ve had your head in the sand for the past couple of days, you’ve heard about the controversy that’s been swirling around our good friend Hispanic journalist Lou Dobbs. It seems after all these years of hate and bigotry, and after years of activist groups like Media Matters going after Dobbs for racist rhetoric, it’s only caught on now that Lou appears to be bought into the whole “birther” movement. Media Matters made the following PSA to warn weaker minds of Dobbs’ agenda:

Tons of mail to CNN demanding Dobbs get pulled from the lineup and suddenly they are nervous…amazing! Hadn’t CNN president John Klein said Dobb’s claims were “legitimate”? It appears he’s since taken that back; in fact, he never believed it, as in a private memo, Klein urged Dobbs to drop the whole thing two weeks ago.
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Sometimes You Just Have to Lose the Crazy Tio : On Lou Dobbs

29 Jul 2009

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.
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OMG SHE’S NAKED!!!!

5:58 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities · 3 Comments

22 Dec 2008

Are we supposed to be stunned by Ms. Aniston’s nakedness? Impressed? First of all, Salmita can kick Ms. Aniston’s ass at any time. Thank you. Second of all–are we as a culture so freaking denied that a *picture* of a naked woman turns us all into bumbling fools that masturbate behind big desks (Matt Lauer, get a damn grip)? It’s a naked chick, my friends. If you haven’t seen one recently, please surf some porn and calm down.

Third, is there some reason why classy pictures of near naked *women of color* are not fawned over to this extreme? I mean, the last ‘fawning’ came in the form of Jessica Alba’s “fat” body being downsized for a post-baby shoot. What kind of fawning in that? Oh, and I guess that JLo got some good press off her ass–but what happened to the rest of her body?

Will women of color ever be “known” for their whole bodies AND their work AND their complete and total sexiness?

Real Scary Stories: CNN ‘forgets’ that they broke the story on the chained-to-the-house woman

12:42 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · economy · Comments Off

31 Oct 2008

Remember how I was critical of CNN’s reporting on the woman who had chained herself to her house in an effort to prevent foreclosure? I said at the time:

Since the segment didn’t more closely examine the woman’s profession as it connected to her foreclosure status, it gives the viewer an easy way to explain her foreclosure status: she’s just a bad business woman (and a slightly comical one at that). Or, on other words, it’s not that foreclosures could happen to anybody and we all should be worried about it–it’s that people in foreclosure didn’t read their papers closely enough and somehow thought they were above making mistakes.

Well, look at what I came across on the CNN site today:

Interestingly enough, the CNN follow up offers no mention of the fact that they were the ones that *broke* this woman’s story or that hm, that simple online search of public records should have revealed the problems with this woman’s story enough to make it into their first broadcast. CNN did not present the follow up story as a follow up story or as an update–but as a brand new story about some woman they’d never heard of before!

I wonder why that is? I wonder if it links back to my original thought–that this sort of coverage makes it very easy for the viewer to blame the victims of foreclosure rather than the banks that are profiting off of the foreclosures?

As Texas Struggles, O.J. Simpson Trail Begins

12:30 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities|Justice|Media|Texas · 1 Comment

15 Sep 2008

If there’s one thing you can count on from mainstream media, it’s that it is really are incapable of covering anything remotely newsworthy or of immediate concern. Even as Mala points out that the media and public are being kept away from certain parts of Hurricane ravaged Texas and nobody seems to know what happened to the prisoners that were left to deal with the storm in prison–our trustworthy CNN is headlining O.J. Simpson’s trail. And the really sad thing is that even CNN admits Simpson’s trail may not be quite newsworthy, the headline of the story: O.J. Simpson arrives for ‘bad sequel’ robbery trial.

CNN, a question for you–if it’s a bad sequel, why are you showing it?? Most stations *cancel* those bad sequels rather than continually rebroadcasting them!

Michael Moore faces off with CNN

10:39 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Health|Media · 2 Comments

11 Jul 2007

…and wins. Sure, accuse me of being biased, but in this little exchange, Moore is triumphant, even if he does (like most liberals) lose his cool at the end. The director of the upcoming film Sicko, which compares the U.S. healthcare system to other countries — most notably Cuba — faced off with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, accusing both him and his network of being pawns for the pharmaceutical industry. Check out the video which includes an intro by Dr. Sanjay Gupta which sent Moore into a frenzy, then the face-off with Wolf. After the jump you’ll see Dr. Gupta attempt to face up to Moore on Larry King Live.

Bigotry pays on CNN

12:40 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration|Media|Politics|TV · 4 Comments

17 Oct 2006

Lou Dobbs, the CNN “journalist” whose favorite pastime is scapegoating Mexican immigrants for every problem this country has, has just been promoted by the cable news network. CNN had axed old timer Aaron Brown to make room for their new faves, Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer, and it seems now that Dobbs has been bumped up to star level as well, giving him a seat as anchor for the midterm elections right next to those guys:

Dobbs’ weeknight news show will expand to seven days a week, with the two weekend editions presenting highlights of the week’s reporting beginning Oct. 28.

The longest-running anchor on CNN’s air, Dobbs is suddenly hot again, due to his new opinionated persona as a crusader on issues like immigration reform. His hourlong “Lou Dobbs Tonight” is up 22 percent in viewers this year over last, a bigger increase than any show on CNN or Fox News Channel.

According to CNN, Dobbs won’t be on hand to interview analysts (like normal journalists do) but strictly to provide his opinion on things. Get ready to hear the words “broken borders” and “the outsourcing of America” numerous times.

Anyone remember when journalists were discouraged from offering their own opinions on the news — when they at least pretended to be objective — and when they did offer opinions it was made clear that that was the case with the word “OPINION” written in big letters across the screen?

That’s not the case anymore, since spitting hate is now better for your career than proper reporting.

Via / Yahoo! News

Lou Dobbs’ Beef with Mexico

7:02 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration|mexico|TV · 23 Comments

13 Oct 2005

This country has its fair share of xenophobes and racists, some of which have made a name for themselves on cable news networks, where every non blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus fearing individual is subject to belittlement and allegations of being responsible from everything to gas prices to terrorism.

CNN’s Lou Dobbs, however, is a different breed of bigot. Whether or not true reflections of Mr. Dobbs’ own convictions or the work of a few savvy producers with a penchant for sensationalism (remember when Bill O’Reilly was on A Current Affair and was “normal”?), Lou Dobbs is OBSESSED with Mexicans. I repeat: OBSESSED. And I actually do think the obsession is real, especially given the above photo of him with the “Minutemen”.Lou Dobbs is OBSESSED with Mexicans. I repeat: OBSESSED. And I actually do think the obsession is real, especially given the above photo of him with the “Minutemen”.

At first it was kind of a joke with my friends: “Guess what Lou Dobbs’ lead story is today…Uh, I don’t know, the outsourcing of America to MEXICO? Our unprotected borders open to evil MEXICANS?” Later I realized that the subject of illegal Mexican immigration was even more common on his show “Lou Dobbs Tonight” than I thought. I think it’s pretty safe to say that at least one of bigger stories each night is about illegal Mexican immigration to the U.S., if not more.

So, my question is: why just Mexico? Why not throw in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador or any other country every once in a while? Was Mr. Dobbs slighted by a Mexican girlfriend at one point and expressing his ire years later via cable news, or does he not know that these other countries exist? I’m stumped.

True testament to his obsession can be found in the transcripts of his show on CNN.com. On October 10th, Dobbs had two (count ‘em, two, on a one hour news program) stories about Mexican immigration; one about Mexican illegal immigrants coming in to “take away jobs” in New Orleans post-Katrina and another about the “disturbing rise in the number of Mexican consulates” in the U.S.

You can read the transcript of this show at CNN.com.

Via / HispanicTips

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