Recent college graduates may be surprised to learn that there was a time when CNN was not totally irrelevant. The last time CNN had any real influence was when Lou Dobbs was their dominant show between 2001 and 2009. Lou Dobbs adopted the revolutionary approach of reporting on issues that affected ordinary Americans—such as immigration. In the process he disrupted the collective mind of our corporate-controlled media.
If a company replaced Americans with imported workers on H-1B visas, the Lou Dobbs show was on it. Compare that with the total silence on that issue from the corporate-controlled media now.
I appeared on the Lou Dobbs show (and his radio show as well) many times because they covered my writings for CIS. The unique aspect of the Lou Dobbs team (notably Bill Tucker) was they checked the facts like no other news organization I have seen.
Most of the corporate media hides behind disclaimers like “According to a report by So-and-So.” If the report is total nonsense the media has the out that THEY did not say it; So-and-So said it. Whenever Lou Dobbs reported on anything I wrote about, I got a stream of telephone calls through the day as they went through the numbers and asked how I got particular results. No one else in the media has ever done that kind of checking.
In fact, I first got connected to the Lou Dobbs show when they asked me to review a study that portrayed the H-1B program in a very bad way. I (and at least one other person asked to do the same) told the producers show that the numbers in the study were inaccurate—and Lou Dobbs did not report on that study.
I have never seen a greater commitment to accuracy in the media than at the Lou Dobbs show. I am sure someone could point out some errors they made but the Dobbs team tried harder than anyone I have seen to avoid them.
The tension that Lou Dobbs created at CNN was obvious to any visitor to their New York studio. From the giant posters on the walls, it was clear that Anderson Cooper was intended to be CNN’s star. Lou Dobb’s superiority in the ratings, driven by his populist narrative that ran counter to the corporate-controlled media groupthink, was clearly a source of embarrassment to CNN’s management. Lou Dobbs was driven out of CNN while he was at the top of their ratings.
Lou Dobbs was never completely out of sight after that. He had a show on Fox Business and had a podcast. On July 18, 2024, he signed off for the last time. He will be missed.