Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more immigrants

By John Byrne
Friday, October 23rd, 2009 -- 12:18 pm
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Lou Dobbs Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter self important ass, claims he wants more immigrantsThe war on Fox doesn't stop at the fence of the White House anymore, nor does it stop at the gates of liberal-heavy television networks like MSNBC. Now it includes Lou Dobbs, the most conservative nighttime voice on CNN.

On his radio program Thursday, the 64-year-old libertarian pundit rebuked a Fox Business correspondent for what he considered as mischaracterizing his comments on immigration.

"Fox Business News — their new hire John Stossel — weighing in with his own brand of myopic idiocy and by the way no information whatsoever, he sat down with self-described rodeo clown Glenn Beck and listen to what he had to say," Dobbs begins.

"If it means the Lou Dobbs kind of rants about immigrants wrecking America, I don't subscribe to that. I think immigrants, by and large, do good things," Stossel says.

"What a self-important ass," Dobbs quipped. "He doesn’t understand basic economics. He doesn't understand my point of view, nor does he care to. He’s just a silly little trick waiting to do some sort of Libertarian flip. He's just unbelievable."

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"Immigrants wrecking America -- I've never said anything close to that," Dobbs said. "I welcome them. I want more."

"As a matter of public policy, we need them," he continued. "In no way am I restrictionist, and to hear this ass continue his act over at Fox News. I just can’t wait until he starts blowing bubbles in the air — that’s about all he’s equipped to do."

Dobbs -- and his network, CNN -- have recently taken fire over their "Latinos in America" program, conducted by CNN's Soledad O'Brien. Critics say the program fails to take into account Dobbs' vehement anti-illegal immigrant jeremiads.

Dobbs' characterization of his record doesn't include the fact he once accused immigrants of carrying leprosy to the United States, or conspiracy theory about Mexicans trying to take over part of the country.

In fact, a New York Times columnist noted that Dobbs once said there were 7,000 cases of leprosy in the United States, a statistic that appears to have been purely fictional. Questioned about the claim by 60 Minutes, Dobbs said: “Well, I can tell you this. If we reported it, it’s a fact.”

(Hat tip: ThinkProgress)

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Story comments are below...

  • John Stossel is nothing but a paid spokeshole for big business. He uses vaccine profiteer Paul Offit (ggogle this guy) to assure us that vaccines are safe and parents or scientist with concerns are "scaring people stupid". Take about stupid, his report claims: "These diseases are coming back because pockets of frightened parents won't vaccinate their kids". Let's see if vaccines really worked the way they're supposed to how can an unvaccinated kid give a kid who's been vaccinated the disease? Of course, if vaccines actually provided life-time immunity they couldn't. We've seen chicken pox, measles, and other outbreaks because vaccines don't work as advertised! However, the do make lots of money for big phara, totally free of risk as the government indemnifies them for being sued. I've read they've made $1.4 billion on the swine flu vax already!

    You can count on John "porn mustache" Stossel to pimp for whatever big business wants. More vaccines, more poor people from other countries driving wages down for US citizens, or anything else. He's just another "opportunistic hustler" preying on the carcass of America.
  • pluky
    Stossel is as Stossel does. Your vaccine rant cannot be left unchallenged. People's lives are at stake.

    -- One does not get diseases from the vaccinated. If the percentage vaccinated drops below a critical level, then 'herd immunity' protection fails. It becomes increasingly likely that an infected person in a contagious phase will encounter an someone unvaccinated, for whom the vaccine was ineffective, or has a compromised immune system.

    -- Lifetime immunity depends on the vaccine. For things that mutate rapidly and widely (e.g. influenza)

    -- Vaccines do work. Check the mortality rates for measles, small pox, rabies, pertussis, polio, etc. before vaccines were developed. More importantly, the mechanism by which vaccines work (antigenic imprinting) has been explicated in excruciating detail.

    -- The profitability of Big Pharma has nothing to do with pushing low-margin one-offs like vaccines. If this is one of yours betes-noir worry about the mark-up on treatments for hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic conditions.
  • donofcali
    How much thimerisal is in the multidose version? Why won't they list that?

    Thimerisal is an organic mercury compound. Elemental mercury is broken down from the molecule inside the body. Mercury is one of the most toxic neurotoxins known. No asshole getting paid by big Pharma is going to convince me to inject this compound into my child's bloodstream.
  • klaatuu
    Vaccines are so important to our collective health that Thimerisal has been taken out of all vaccines, not because it has been shown to be harmful, but because too many people believe it is harmful.

    Anyone keeping their children from being vaccinated is endangering not only their own children, but ours as well.
  • This is clearly false, read the label, reject any injection containing Thimerisol, there certainly are ones without for most things.
  • klaatuu
    Sorry, the picture is more compicated than I thought. Thanks for the correction.
  • Some vaccines have been thoroughly tested, as have many drugs over time... Some are indeed amazingly effective, and a huge boon to humanity at large. Yet our corporations, well... the corporations who pump millions of dollars per year into advertising and lobbying, aren't spending even a measurable fraction of their earnings on research and testing. Thimerisol is simply mercury, I dont care how it is harvested or processed, it is deadly poison, and we'd do well to avoid it. there are around 6 billion people on the planet, multinational corporations have plenty of resources to exploit. never doubt the inhumanity of greed
  • shane_b1968
    I agree with your arguments, but I must say that the absence of liability for pharmaceutical companies does give me great reluctance to take a chance on them. This is also the problem with liability/medical malpractice reform.

    When these companies come out with a new drug there is an analysis of the profit potential weighed against the potential liability of dangerous drugs being brought to market.

    If there is no liability, as he stated there is none, with vaccinations then what is to stop them from taking unwarranted chances or selling uneffective drugs?

    I can promise you, without a doubt in my mind, that if losses from Vioxx were capped at $250,000 as the Bush administration wanted and republicans and some conservative democrats argued for...Vioxx would be the tip of the iceberg.

    There are untold thousands of dangerous drugs which provide little if any benefit above what is already on the market. And they are ready to go on the shelves today...the minute such liability reform comes out. And when drug companies factor in settling the lawsuits from the deaths caused by releasing these drugs, the limited liability will be a major factor in deciding how many deaths it is acceptable for a drug to cause, and still be profitable.

    This is why you can't just blow off people who are skeptical of pharmaceutical companies. Any corporation that does a cost benefit analysis to see how many deaths it can cause and remain profitable has earned our skepticism.
  • jimbo92107
    As soon as the H1N1 vaccine becomes available, I'm gonna get me a big, honkin' dose of that good stuff. That's because I don't want to get a really nasty case of flu. The H1N1 vaccine is being prepared exactly the same way as the seasonal flu vaccine was, and the only reason H1N1 wasn't included in the seasonal blend was because it arrived on scene a few months too late.

    However, there are some people that definitely should NOT get this vaccine. Specifically, dumb people, and people that think the world is flat should avoid it. People that think the sun orbits around the earth should avoid it. People that think global warming isn't an air pollution problem should avoid the H1N1 vaccine. Republicans should definitely turn that baby down. In fact, I've heard that the vaccine has a secret ingredient that KILLS Republicans. Libertarians, it just renders their Fox News channel inoperative. Very painful.
  • Canadian guest
    Lou Dobbs is right here. In all my years of viewing him, I have never heard him say he is against immigration. He is against illegal immigration and your open borders and the fact that illegals are robbing the jobs from legal Hispanics by lowering the wages for everyone. Those from the Hispanic community have constantly mischaracterized his stance.
  • Truthandaction
    I believe Lou Dobbs is married to someone of Spanish or hispanic background. I missed the segment on it. I think it was a 60 minutes report or something. Lou Dobbs always blames the companies that hire illegal aliens. All Lou wants, and all I want and what is best for this country, is for people to come in through the FRONT door. They also had a story on Lou Dobbs following the story about leprosy on his show, and he showed where he got all of his facts from, and Lou Dobbs did NOT link it to illegal alients the way it is being reported here. More in-depth reporting needed, folks. Don't get carried away without the facts.
  • Smithy
    Lou Dobbs is a self-important ass.
  • rhetoricus
    The problem with Dobbs is that he foments ethnic hate without shining the spotlight on the true criminals as regards illegal immigration--the employers. If he were serious about controlling the insourcing and onshoring of jobs (which greedy corporations do to bust unions and skirt labor laws), then he'd show more compassion for the workers and go after the employers.

    Because the truth is, the employers want a crackdown on immigrants not because they don't want to employ (exploit) them, but because they don't, God forbid, want them to organize, vote, or get social services.

    Our immigration and work system hurts everyone at the bottom, migrant workers (who are exploited and fearful) and citizen workers (who are cut out of jobs or have to compete with people willing to work under unacceptable conditions and at unlivable wages) alike. It works well for the richest corporations.

    Lou Dobbs represents the rich. That's why he tries to get people to blame migrant workers without getting at the heart of the problem.
  • Spiffarino
    I was going to comment, and then you went and said it all. Damn.
  • cameramandavid
    Welcome to another episode of "Repuke-licans eating their own!"
  • Mr. Byrne, calling Lou Dobbs a "libertarian" is misinformed, at best; an insult to libertarians, at worst. There's nothing libertarian about Dobbs' views on the drug war, immigration and protectionism.

    It's borderline ignorant to call a crotchety, old white guy who hates Democrats and Progressives that doesn't identify as a Republican a "libertarian". Your deductive reasoning is deceitful and baseless.
  • Spiffarino
    I believe Dobbs identifies himself as a libertarian.
  • Rolf T. Bemuzed
    Apparently this is a case of a putz calling the Stossel a hack.

    Libertarianism is an infantile disorder. I love it when they get into these playground spats.
  • Rodrandom
    Apparently this is a case of a putz calling the Stossel a hack.

    Libertarianism is an infantile disorder. Wonderful to see them get caught in these playground spats.
  • dennycrane
    The pot calling the kettle black.
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