Lou Dobbs (born September 24, 1945) is the anchor and managing editor of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, an editorial columnist, and host of a syndicated radio show. Lou Dobbs Tonight attracts CNN's largest audience, of about 800,000. Dobbs also lectures widely.^[1]

Early Life

Dobbs was born in Childress, Texas, the son of a co-owner of a propane business and a bookkeeper. When Lou was 12, his father's propane business failed and the family moved to Rupert, Idaho.^[1] He attended Minico High School in Rupert, serving as student body president in 1963.^[2] He earned a degree in economics from Harvard University, graduating in 1967.^[2]

After graduating, Dobbs worked for federal anti-poverty programs in Boston and Washington DC and as a cash-management specialist for Union Bank in Los Angeles. He married a high school sweetheart in 1969 and in 1970 his first son was born. Restless, Dobbs moved to Yuma, Arizona and got a job as a police and fire reporter for KBLU-AM. By mid decade, he was a television anchor and reporter in Phoenix and in Seattle at KING-TV. In 1979, he was contacted by a recruiter for Ted Turner, who was in the process of forming CNN.^[1]

Career

CNN

Dobbs joined CNN when it launched in 1980, serving as its chief economics correspondent and as host of the business news program CBS News Sunday Morning on CBS. ^{[citation needed]} Dobbs also served as a corporate executive for CNN, as its executive vice president and as a member of CNN News Chief Iran Correspondent’s executive committee. He also founded CNN fn (CNN financial news), serving as its president and anchoring the program, Business Unusual, which examined business creativity and leadership. ^{[citation needed]}

Departure and founding of Space.com

Dobbs repeatedly clashed with Rick Kaplan, who became US president of CNN in 1997. Dobbs thought Kaplan was "clearly partisan" and "was pushing Clinton stories", while Kaplan thought Dobbs was "a very difficult person to deal with".^[1]

In May 1999, CNN was covering a speech by President Clinton in Littleton, Colorado, following the Columbine High School massacre. Dobbs ordered the producer to cut away from the speech and return to broadcast Moneyline, feeling it was a staged event and not newsworthy. Dobbs was countermanded by Kaplan, who ordered CNN to return to the speech. Kaplan later said "Tell me what journalistic reason there was not to cover the President at Columbine soon after the shootings? Everyone else was doing it." Dobbs announced on the air that "CNN President Rick Kaplan wants us to return to Littleton". A few days later, Dobbs announced that he was leaving the network to start Space.com, a website devoted to astronomical news.^[1] Dobbs was subsequently replaced as host of Moneyline by Willow Bay and Stuart Varney. ^{[citation needed]}

Return to CNN

Kaplan left CNN in August 2000 and Dobbs returned the following year at the behest of his friend and CNN founder Ted Turner, becoming host and managing editor of the new and initially more general news program Lou Dobbs Reporting, which later became CNN News Sunday Morning. He also regained the helm of the newly-renamed Lou Dobbs Moneyline (which became Lou Dobbs Tonight in June 2003).^[3]

Dobbs also hosts a nationally syndicated radio show, The Lou Dobbs Financial Report, and he is a regular columnist in Money magazine, U.S. News & World Report and the New York Daily News.^[1]

Political Views

Originally a classically conservative economist, Dobbs' views have changed over time, and he is now a strongly populist critic of the "excesses of capitalism," which he identifies as globalization, offshore outsourcing, runaway film production (the outsourcing of Hollywood jobs)^{[4] [5]}, illegal immigration, free trade deals, corporate/big business influence in government and the Bush administration's tax cuts. He advocates protectionism, warning that outsourcing, the U.S. trade and budget deficits threaten the American middle class.

In the 2000s, Dobbs has used CNN programs and columns to express his strong personal views on several subjects. In general, his political opinions currently tend towards Producerism, and he has become particularly noted for two positions: Concerning international trade, he leans toward isolationism and is particularly wary of outsourcing and offshoring in light of the increasing US trade deficit, particularly with China. On November 15, 2006, Dobbs declared himself a populist. ^[1][6]

Illegal immigration and border security

Dobbs is strongly opposed to illegal immigration, amnesty for illegal aliens, abuses of the H-1B visa program and premature guest worker programs.^[7][8] He supports enforcement of U.S. borders, whether by federal or state action, or by private groups like the controversial Minuteman Project. Dobbs often has stated the United States is becoming balkanized and that many immigrants and illegal aliens are not assimilating as prior generations of immigrants have. He has been critical of their demonstrations of ethnic or national pride, stating, "I don't think that we should have any flag flying in this country except the flag of the United States", and "I don't think there should be a St. Patrick's Day. I don't care who you are. I think we ought to be celebrating what is common about this country, what we enjoy as similarities as people." He has been accused of inciting xenophobia by some such as Libertarian journalist James K. Glassman of the American Enterprise Institute[5]. Others have accused him of anti-Hispanic racism, a charge he has steadfastly denied.^[9]

Lou Dobbs Tonight frequently features related issues under the ongoing billboards "Exporting America", "Broken Borders" and "War on the Middle Class". The newscast often couples references to illegal aliens with the word "invasion". Dobbs dismisses concern for language seen by many as excessive or misguided "political correctness" in the segment billboarded "P.C. Nation".

In his "Broken Borders" segments Dobbs focuses primarily on the southern border with Mexico and the drugs and illegal aliens that cross it. Critics^[who?] claim this is inconsistent, if not evidence of anti-Mexican bigotry, given that the 5000-mile border between Canada and the United States is longer and also permeable. On the other hand, Dobbs' defenders^[who?] note the vast majority of illegal aliens and drugs pass into the United States via the Mexican border and that he has in fact had some segments dealing with the lack of security along the US-Canada border. As of the end of May 2006; some 829,109 illegal immigrants had been apprehended crossing from Mexico into the U.S.A. that year. Illegal Immigrants apprehended crossing from Canada to the U.S.A. during that same time period are a tiny fraction of that amount – 4,066. ^[10][11] Dobbs also has lauded the Canadian government for cooperation in securing the border with their American counterparts.

Other views

Dobbs once described himself as a "lifelong Republican" [6], but has stated that he has switched to being an unaffiliated Independent Populist, as he no longer openly supports any party^[12]. He often has described the administration of George W. Bush and the then Republican-controlled Congress as "disgraceful." At the same time he has argued voters have very little choice under the US two party system as both parties are controlled by big business and corporate interests making them almost one and the same and thus do not offer real debate or policy alternatives to ordinary Americans.

Dobbs' stance on trade has earned plaudits from some trade union activists on the traditional political left, while his stance on immigration tends to appeal to the right.^[1] In an interview with Larry King, Dobbs revealed that he is now "an unaffiliated Independent" due to dissatisfaction with both the Republican and Democratic parties. Dobbs was a strong supporter of John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election, though his support was based on a dislike for the Bush administration rather than support for Kerry's platform, which he described as largely "more of the same."^{[citation needed]}

In June, 2006, as the U.S. Senate debated the Federal Marriage Amendment, Dobbs was highly critical of the action. He asserted that traditional marriage was threatened more by financial crises perpetuated by Bush administration economic policy than by gay marriage. ^[13]

In July 2006, Dobbs criticized U.S. foreign policy as being disproportionately supportive of Israel, pointing out the U.S.'s rapid recognition of Israel in 1948, foreign aid to Israel, and other policy choices in the past and present. ^[14] He likewise opposed the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. ^{[citation needed]}

Lou Dobbs is the author of War on the Middle Class, which describes what he sees as failure of the two party system, and claims that both sides are harming the Middle Class. In it, he comes out strongly against the Bush tax cuts, which he argues favor the wealthy, and argues for raising the U.S. minimum wage from $5.15 an hour. ^[15]

Awards

Dobbs has won numerous major awards for his television journalism, most notably a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award, and a Cable Ace award. He received the George Foster Peabody Award for his coverage of the 1987 stock market crash. He also has received the Luminary Award of the Business Journalism Review in 1990, the Horatio Alger Association Award for Distinguished Americans in 1999 and the National Space Club Media Award in 2000. The Wall Street Journal has named Dobbs "TV's Premier Business News Anchorman". In 2004, Dobbs was awarded the Eugene Katz Award For Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration by the Center For Immigration Studies and in 2005 received the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution's Statesmanship Award.^{[16] [17]} Dobbs was named "Father of the Year" by the National Father's Day Committee in 1993 ^[18]

Associations

Dobbs serves or has served on the boards of the Society of Professional Journalists Foundation, the Horatio Alger Association, the National Space Foundation and the Imaginova Corporation, formerly known as Space.com, in which he owns a minority stake, as he does in Integrity Bank. He is a member of the Planetary Society, the Overseas Press Club and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Family Life

Dobbs resides on a 300-acre "isolated horse farm" in Sussex County, New Jersey.^[19] He is married to his second wife, the former Debi Segura, a one-time CNN sports anchor, with whom he has two daughters, Hillary and Heather.^[20] He also has two sons, Chase and Jason, from his first marriage.

Books

• Lou Dobbs, Exporting America : Why Corporate Greed Is Shipping American Jobs Overseas (2004, ISBN 0-446-57744-8)
• Lou Dobbs, Space: The Next Business Frontier (2005). ISBN 0-7434-2389-5
• Lou Dobbs, War on the Middle Class: How the Government, Big Business, and Special Interest Groups Are Waging War on the American Dream and How to Fight Back (2006). ISBN 0-670-03792-3
• Ron Hira and Anil Hira, with foreword by Lou Dobbs, Outsourcing America: What's behind Our National Crisis and how we can reclaim American Jobs. (May 2005). ISBN 0-8144-0868-0.

References