David Leonhardt writes a good review about “Truth, Fiction and Lou Dobbs” today in The New York Times.
An excellent piece that ends with these strong words against this TV xenophobe and racist:
The most common complaint about him, at least from other journalists, is that his program combines factual reporting with editorializing.
But I think this misses the point.
Americans, as a rule, are smart enough to handle a program that mixes opinion and facts.
The problem with Mr. Dobbs is that he mixes opinion and untruths.
He is the heir to the nativist tradition that has long used fiction and conspiracy theories as a weapon against the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Jews and, now, the Mexicans.
There is no denying that this country’s immigration system is broken.
But it defies belief — and a whole lot of economic research — to suggest that the problems of the middle class stem from illegal immigrants.
Those immigrants, remember, are largely non-English speakers without a high school diploma.
They have probably hurt the wages of native-born high school dropouts and made everyone else better off.
More to the point, 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?
Good point!
(Thanks to Gabriel Sama in San Antonio, Texas)
