DOBBS DOES HIS JOB: I've been fairly critical of Lou Dobbs recently, but to his credit he's doing some semblance of journalism today, which many of his colleagues are not. As my colleague Dana pointed out on our Campus Progress blog, most of what tv cable news has covered all day hasn't been news at all. That is, all these segments saying "Harold Ford would be the first black Senator from the South since reconstruction" isn't new, it's been the case since he got the nomination months ago. Meanwhile, there are crazy stories breaking left and right, like how Bob Ehrlich and Michael Steele, the Maryland Republican nominees for Governor and Senator respectively, paid 300 homeless people from Philadelphia to hand out misleading pamphlets in the largely Democratic Prince George's County, implying that Steele and Ehrlich are the Democratic nominees and that they have been endorsed by prominent Democrats. That is what CNN and MSNBC should be reporting all day, not prognostication without information. At least Dobbs is covering some of these issues in his broadcast, focusing on the electronic machine malfunctions in Cleveland. Oh, Ohio again!
--Ben Adler
