Campaign to Oust Dobbs From CNN Heats Up

Even though CNN refused to run the “Drop Dobbs” ad created by America’s Voice and Media Matters, another coalition of Latino advocacy organizations, undeterred, has started its own anti-Lou Dobbs campaign.

“Basta Dobbs” [translation: "Enough Dobbs"] is sending around this video about CNN anchor Lou Dobbs and his connection to anti-Latino hate crime. Dobbs, of course, has long been a target of criticism from Latino organizations and those who monitor hate groups, because for years he’s obsessively focused on the subject of illegal immigrants in the United States, and regularly refers to “criminal illegal aliens” as the source of many of the country’s worst problems, from rape and murder to failing schools and communicable diseases.

The effort to oust Dobbs from CNN is heating up now because the network has decided, in an effort to cater to the growing Latino population in the United States, to run a new two-part special program called “Latino in America”. Yet “Latino in America,” which premieres tonight and tomorrow, curiously neglects to mention that Dobbs spreads “fear and hatred in our communities,” as Basta Dobbs puts it on the group’s Website.

BastaDobbs.com is organized by Presente.org — a coalition of about 40 Latino organizations in 25 cities across the United States.

Update: Asked for CNN’s response to the “Drop Dobbs” and “Basta Dobbs” campaigns, a CNN spokesperson (who asked not to be named) said “we do not have a comment.” She also would not discuss whether the network is considering canceling or not renewing Dobbs’s contract. “We do not discuss contract negotiations with anyone,” she said.