Lou Dobbs Goes Loco

CNN Host Claims Hispanic Business Group Interested in “Mexico’s Export of Drugs and Illegal Aliens to the United States” Is anti-immigrant rabble-rouser and CNN loudmouth Lou Dobbs losing his marbles?  At a minimum, he is losing whatever last shreds of credibility he used to possess.  In response to  President Obama’s major address on education in front of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Dobbs criticized the President in his Tuesday night broadcast for “making a decision to talk about a national initiative on education from the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which is effectively an organization that is interested in the export of American capital and production to Mexico and Mexico’s export of drugs and illegal aliens to the United States. This is crazy stuff.”

The following is a response by Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice.

“Lou Dobbs is right about one thing.  This is crazy stuff.  Apparently when Lou saw the word ‘Hispanic’ in the name of the organization hosting the event, he went loco.”

“The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is hardly a controversial group.  It represents over 2.5 million Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States, including many small enterprises that are the backbone of our economy.  I have worked with them over the years.  It is a mainstream organization whose members are patriotic Americans – some born here, some born in Latin America – who love this nation.  Linking these hardworking business owners, who are Americans of Hispanic descent, to the Mexican drug trade and illegal immigration is both ridiculous and deplorable.”

“The comments seem to betray a disturbing insight into the Dobbs view of the world.  He seems to think it inconceivable that any organization with the word ‘Hispanic’ in it could care about education, or be anything more than a front group for illegal activity.”

“Tuesday’s remarks are just the latest in a series of incendiary and anti-Hispanic statements made by Dobbs.  A 2008 report from Media Matters catalogued the long history Dobbs has in advancing virulently anti-immigrant and anti-Latino sentiments.  In 2007 the New York Times wrote a scathing piece taking Dobbs to task for his blatantly inaccurate claim that illegal immigration led to an increase of 7,000 cases of leprosy over the previous three years (only a handful of new cases had indeed been reported for that period).  The medical doctor cited by Dobbs turned out to be a doctor of education, a Renaissance studies scholar, whose claim to fame was not her expertise on leprosy but her ties to the white supremacy movement.  Despite clear evidence of the inaccuracy of the claim and the background of the source Dobbs, to this day, has refused to make an on-air correction.”

“The most remarkable aspect of this is that CNN, which calls itself ‘the most trusted name in news,’ gives this leader of the anti-immigrant movement an hour a night to promote racial hostility and front for an extremist agenda.”

America’s Voice — Harnessing the power of American voices and American values to win common sense immigration reform.

http://www.americasvoiceonline.org/ 

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