Ronda Racha Penrice sums up much of the controversy we posted on earlier this evening in “Will movement to remove Lou Dobbs overshadow Soledad O’Brien’s Latino in America at CNN?”
For many Latinos, CNN’s Latino in America is not their primary concern; Lou Dobbs is. Immigration has long dominated the topics on The Lou Dobbs Show. Many within the Latino community, in particular, feel that Dobbs has used his show to fuel anti-Latino sentiments, contributing to hate crimes against Latinos, as well as ongoing rejection of Latinos within this nation.
At a special preview screening of Latino in America, held at the Woodruff Arts Center, Jerry Gonzalez, who heads GALEO, the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, didn’t keep his mouth shut during the post-screening discussion. Sitting only a few seats away from both O’Brien and Mark Nelson, a vice president and senior executive at CNN, Gonzalez, a selected panelist, represented many Latinos when he emphasized that CNN must dump Dobbs.
The sentiment is so popular that there’s even an anti-Dobbs website, bastadobbs.com. In fact, Latino in America is shaping up to be the battle cry to get Dobbs removed from CNN. Many Latinos are further enraged by reports such as that by Michael Colderone at Politico.com that CNN refused to air “Dump Dobbs” during the series.
That “Dump Dobbs TV ad” is our very own, by the way.
AOL Latino has a blog up with many of these concerns, by our Executive Director, Frank Sharry. Yes, it’s in Spanish– just to make Dobbs’ head spin. And yes, there are “Latino in America” ads displaying above and beside it. Here’s a snippet:
CNN nunca ha provisto cobertura del dañino papel que Dobbs ha jugado en generar un ambiente hostil y nocivo contra los inmigrantes que ha atentado a su vez contra la reforma migratoria integral.
Más aún, esta noche CNN presenta la primera parte de su serie “Latino in America”, un especial de cuatro horas sobre los logros de los latinos y los retos que enfrenta a diario la principal minoría étnica de este país. No obstante, la serie no menciona a Dobbs ni los insultos que por buena parte de las 260 horas de programación anual el presentador lanza contra los latinos al centro del publicitado especial.
