DOBBS. David Leonhardt's article documenting Lou Dobbs' "somewhat flexible relationship with reality" is an important piece of work. It aptly proves the central, and deeply discomfiting, dynamic of the show, which is that it is governed by a nativist, vaguely supremacist, narrative, and facts, fears, and storylines are twisted and reworked until they fit neatly into Dobbs' ginned-up, anti-immigrant hysteria. Leonhardt uses, as his example, a recent Dobbs report on the public health crisis that is leprosy. Dobbs suggested there had been 3,000 cases in the last three years. That's wrong: There were 3,000 in the last 30, and under 200 last year. Dobbs offered no correction. The story wasn't really about leprosy, of course. It was about Latin-American immigrants, who are more likely to contract the disease, and who Dobbs wanted to paint as a threat to our precious extremities. He's said that a third of criminals in our prisons are illegal immigrants, when the real number is six percent (lower than their total share of the population). He's brought on racists who explained that "Mexican immigrants had a habit of molesting children [because back] in their home villages...rape was not as serious a crime as cow stealing." As Leonhardt asks, "if Mr. Dobbs's arguments were really so good, don't you think he would be able to stick to the facts? And if CNN were serious about being "the most trusted name in news," as it claims to be, don't you think it would be big enough to issue an actual correction?" What naivete. CNN has found a splash of fear-mongering nativism helps their ratings. The most trusted name in news will happily sacrifice their honor to become the most watched news on cable. --Ezra Klein
