"(Pre)Viewing the Right-Wing Playbook on Immigration"

by: Restore Fairness

Thu Apr 08, 2010 at 17:08:41 PM EDT

From the Restore Fairness blog.

As we continue to fight for immigration reform, one  thing that we can  be sure about is a right-wing attack. A preview of  this came about in  the days building up to the successful immigration march in D.C. when fringe right-wing   groups like Numbers USA, The John Tanton Network and the Tea Party Movement started pulling out all the stops to counter the building   momentum for immigration reform. Predictably, their approach mirrored   the strategies they employed a few years ago, during the last big push   for reform that took place in 2007 under former President George Bush.

A report by liberal advocacy group People for the American Way called “(Pre)Viewing the Right-Wing Playbook on Immigration”  has pulled from years of expertise on the right to lay out a list of   the key strategies that are traditionally employed to defeat immigration   reform, followed by tools to retaliate against these irrational and unsound attacks.

One of the  most common strategies employed by the right is an appeal  to racial  fear. This is carried out in a number of ways, including the  positing  of the “Brown” threat to a “White America,” and the outrageous   portrayal of immigrants and their supporters as invaders and enemies of   the United States. Inciting prejudice against Latinos, Rep. Tom  Tancredo  commented in November 2006-

Look at what  has happened to Miami. It  has become a Third World country…. You would  never know you’re in the  United States of America. You would certainly  say you’re in a Third  World country.

Not to be  left behind, former Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan  continued in  the vein of this fear-mongering around the “immigrant  invasion”. He wrote in 2007-

What is  happening to us? An immigrant  invasion of the United States from the  Third World, as America’s white  majority is no longer even reproducing  itself. Since Roe v. Wade,  America has aborted 45 million of her  children. And Asia, Africa and  Latin America have sent 45 million of  their children to inherit the  estate that aborted American children  never saw.

It goes without saying that claims that  America has been built by and  for White people are historically  incorrect and intensely racist. More  importantly, this country  continues to be shaped by immigrants and draws  immense political and  economic strength from its diversity.

Continuing in the vein of  racial divisiveness is the idea that  immigration rights advocates are  themselves racist, a notion that has  emerged in the post Obama election  days. While television personality  Glenn Beck has referred to  President Obama as someone who was opposed to  white people, he has  generated the idea from numerous accusations of  racism thrown at  pro-immigration advocates during the 2007 push for  reform. At that  time, the radio host Michael Savage attacked the National Council of La Raza by calling it “the Ku Klux Klan of the Hispanic   people.” He went on to say that it was “the most stone racist group I’ve   ever seen in this country”.

Portraying undocumented immigrants  as responsible for terrorism and   crime waves, as well as positing them  as “unclean” carriers of disease   and bio-terrorism is one of the  tactics that the far right has employed   on both local and national  levels during past debates around   immigration. Such as when  Lou Dobbs claimed immigrants were   causing an   epidemic of  leprosy in the country which was simply untrue. Or when   during the debates over immigration reform, Rep. Steve King, of the   House Republicans’ “Immigration Reform Caucus” extrapolated fictional   statistics claiming that 12 American citizens “die a violent   death at the hands of murderous illegal aliens each day”. If that’s so,   then why is it that the President’s  Council of Economic Advisers reports that immigrants have lower crime rates than   U.S. citizens and that immigrant men ages 18 to 40 are less likely  than  other U.S. residents to be incarcerated.

While we hope that  most of you would be taken by the impulse to laugh  off these  strategies as racist, rabble-rousing garbage, we must take  note that  such nativist fear-mongering has the power to garner  significant  support from many, especially within the current climate of  an unstable  economy. Work such as People For the American Way’s “Right Wing Watch: In Focus” series gives us the   best tool to fighting these attacks – truly understanding the reasoning   behind them, and countering them on their own territory.

Let’s  fight racism on our route to humane immigration reform!

Learn. Share. Act. Go to restorefainess.org

You Need to Watch Lou Dobbs: Or the Dobbsian Economy of Racism

by: samcclennen

Mon Oct 19, 2009 at 09:36:13 AM EDT

But we need to watch him, and in this instance I am using "watch" in the sense of keeping an eye on him, and here's why.  

First of all, there is growing pressure from Latino activist groups, especially BastaDobbs.com to convince CNN to drop his show.  Which would be a good thing.  But it already seems likely that he will simply move to Fox, probably to Fox Business.  So, while I recommend joining the efforts of groups like BastaDobbs.com, it is likely that Dobbs won't disappear from the media landscape anytime soon.  

Secondly, and much more importantly, Dobbs's media personality seems to offer a complicated set of contradictions as he blends so-called "populist" economics (anti-globalization, anti-outsourcing, pro-middle class, pro-union) with virulent racism.  He represents himself as an independent, referring to his radio show as "The Independent Nation", and he repeatedly claims that he is disappointed by both parties.    He makes much of the fact that his economic policy appeals to some on the "left," while his anti-immigration, pro-gun stance appeals to the right.  Referring to himself during an interview with Larry King as an "unaffiliated independent" Dobbs appeared to offer CNN a media personality "free" of typical party politics.

Don't be fooled.

CNN's Lou Dobbs to Black People: "I don't want your excuses ... quit whining."

by: AmericasVoice

Fri Oct 09, 2009 at 13:15:40 PM EDT

I was at the Washington screening of the new CNN series, “Latino in America” last night and was, well, not too happy when I left the building. I’ll get into the details about that in a minute, but what really set me over the edge was when Laura Esquivel, from Media Matters, came up to me and asked if I had heard the latest from Dobbs. I hadn’t, so she read me a transcript from his radio show earlier that day. He was talking about a black Chicago community activist who was upset about the President’s trip to Chicago the other day. And Dobbs had some advice for the black community about issues in their community:

It’s a black community problem. And part of the problem is the black community is not being responsible and I mean turning Heaven and Earth to protect our children.

CNN's Dobbs: Creating a Hostile Image of Hispanics

by: AmericasVoice

Tue Sep 29, 2009 at 15:43:30 PM EDT

Every weeknight, CNN airs one full hour of Hate TV -- it’s called, "Lou Dobbs Tonight."

For 260 hours every year, Dobbs has a bully pulpit from which to spew race-baiting, fear, and intolerance stamped with the CNN seal of approval.

Politico: 90% of Latino Leaders Believe CNN's Lou Dobbs Makes it Harder to be Hispanic

by: AmericasVoice

Fri Sep 25, 2009 at 17:43:24 PM EDT

Today Democracia Ahora released a new report on their newly-launched website TellCNNEnoughisEnough.com.

Groups To Finally Take On Dobbs

by: Duke Reed

Tue Sep 15, 2009 at 16:48:02 PM EDT

Dobbs' long history of fueling anti-immigrant and anti-Latino sentiments and using his daily news and talk-radio programs as a platform to spew hate and misinformation is well documented. From discredited claims about increased leprosy levels attributed to immigrants, to his recent embrace of the fringe "birther" movement, "Mr. Idependent," as Dobbs likes to refer to himself, has continually embraced the most preposterous claims of the some of the most extreme elements of the far right.

In response, a coalition of leading civil-rights and human-rights organizations has launched a campaign targeting Dobbs' sponsors to let them know that their companies or products are tainted by their association with his brand of racially tinged hate and fearmongering and requests that they stop enabling Dobbs' continued hate speech by withdrawing their support.

You can add your voice, and let Dobbs' sponsors know that you'll no longer tolerate his blatant racism and fearmongering by signing the petition requesting them to end their support of Dobbs.  

Lou Dobbs' Latest: Kudos to Beck for saying Obama "has a deep-seated hatred for white people"

by: AmericasVoice

Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 13:05:27 PM EDT

As Media Matters notes, Lou Dobbs took the opportunity last night to pat Glenn Beck on the back for his extreme comments on air that Obama is a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred for white people--" comments which caused dozens of advertisers to ditch their ads on Beck's program in August. (Check out Color of Change's ongoing campaign to hold Beck accountable for these statements.)

CNN's Lou Dobbs Problem Grows: Ratings Plummet after Peddling Debunked 'Birther' Conspiracy

by: AmericasVoice

Mon Aug 03, 2009 at 17:46:24 PM EDT

Recently we reported on how CNN pundit Lou Dobbs was stirring up controversy over at "The Most Trusted Name in News" with the long-debunked claim that President Obama's birth certificate is fake. Here's the latest video roundup, in case you missed it:

Many organizations acted quickly to call out the conspiratorial claims. MoveOn.org demanded a public apology, the Southern Poverty Law Center called for CNN to take Dobbs off the air, and America's Voice sent a letter to CNN's president. As Greg Sargent reports:

The letter, from executive director Frank Sharry, is hard-hitting and worth quoting in full:

As America's Most Trusted Name in News, CNN has a responsibility to its viewers to provide commentary and analysis that is substantive and accurate. However, those promoting conspiracy theories about President Obama's citizenship, the threat of leprosy from immigrants and other falsehoods should be held accountable for spreading misinformation.

New York Times columnist Frank Rich weighed in over the weekend in Small Beer, Big Hangover:

One of the loudest birther enablers is not at Fox but CNN: Lou Dobbs, who was heretofore best known for trying to link immigrants, especially Hispanics, to civic havoc. Dobbs is one-stop shopping for the excesses of this seismic period of racial transition. And he is following a traditional, if toxic, American playbook. The escalating white fear of newly empowered ethnic groups and blacks is a naked replay of more than a century ago, when large waves of immigration and the northern migration
of emancipated blacks, coupled with a tumultuous modernization of the American work force, unleashed a similar storm of racial and nativist panic.

What Part of "Legal" Don't You Understand, Lou?

by: Truth In Immigration

Thu Oct 02, 2008 at 12:18:17 PM EDT

Hold Their Feet To The Fire?: Pro-Migrant SanctuarySphere

by: symsess

Tue Sep 16, 2008 at 09:05:32 AM EDT

Check out this post and video on the "Hold Their Feet To The Fire" rally held in Washington by FAIR. The video goes in to the rhetoric of FAIR and McCain's loss of 'friends' on the anti-migrant side while solidifying the fact that anti-migrant groups love saying "we the people." I actually like that they call this the "Hold Their Feet To The Fire" rally because I see "the fire" as hell and FAIR (so obviously wrongly named) is asking us to promote Hell on Earth.

A few days ago the Washington Post reported that Dobbs was promoting the hate group FAIR and participated at its "Hold Their Feet To The Fire." Now it seems he's enamored by a Aunt Jemima type characterization of Obama affixed to a fictitious brand of Waffles called "Obama Waffles."

We know McCain just released a rather untruthful ad stating Obama was not for immigration reform. Is lying just in the Republican's DNA?

Chicago Resolution Condemning Hate Speech Introduced

by: rachelfirm

Wed Jun 25, 2008 at 16:03:27 PM EDT

Chicago- "Joined by leaders from the immigrant community, Aldermen George Cardenas of the 12th Ward and Manny Flores of the 1st Ward today introduced a resolution for the Chicago City Council that condemns the increasingly venomous tone of the national immigration debate and reaffirms the City's support for sensible solution for the immigration issue.

"Throughout our history, Chicago has welcomed immigrants from around the world, including my own family," said Alderman Cardenas at a City Hall press conference announcing the resolution.  "Our city was built by immigrants, and has respected the contributions that immigrants have made and will continue to make.  Unfortunately, the overall climate surrounding the immigration issue has turned more and more ugly, fed in particular by cable news.  It's time that our city took a stand against the hateful rhetoric."

The media watchdog group Media Matters Action Network recently released "Fear and Loathing in Prime Time: Immigration Myths and Cable News," a report documenting how Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck of CNN and Bill O'Reilly of Fox News use vitriol and myths to stoke anti-immigrant hysteria.

"The Media Matters report documents in great detail how Dobbs, O'Reilly, Beck, and others have used distortions and misrepresentations to portray immigrants in a negative light and push an anti-immigrant agenda," said Fred Tsao of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.  "We applaud Aldermen Cardenas and Flores for standing with immigrants and against hate."

While calling for an end to hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric, the resolution reaffirms the City's support for humane, practical solutions to the immigration issue.  "Our city has stood by immigrants, and has consistently supported legalization of hardworking undocumented immigrants and other reforms," said Alderman Flores.  "We hope that our federal government will hear our message and pass immigration reform soon."

Lou Dobbs vs. Lou Dobbs

by: Truth In Immigration

Fri May 30, 2008 at 15:38:25 PM EDT

Time Blog Calls Out Dobbs

by: kyledeb

Tue May 27, 2008 at 03:47:31 AM EDT

I've got to wonder why the network allows Lou Dobbs to continue spewing false, inflammatory nonsense under the guise of objective journalism...I know that Dobbs brings in some serious ratings. And he is certainly entitled to his own opinion. But he is not entitled to his own facts.

Joe Klein - Swampland (25 May 2008)

When the Extreme becomes Mainstream

by: Duke Reed

Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 23:51:04 PM EST

There are probably no two people in the media who are more associated with the immigration issue than CNN's Lou Dobbs and NBC's Pat Buchanan. Both have revitalized their careers by becoming self-proclaimed experts, and have probably logged more media face-time discussing the issue than any two people in American.  Recently, they met on Dobbs' show to discuss their common concerns:

Yet if one were to compare some of the rhetoric used in the segment:

Lou Dobbs full of horse poop

by: Duke Reed

Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 23:00:00 PM EST

Keith O exposes yet another example of Lou's colossal hypocrisy

Of course some in the blogosphere have known this for quite some time...go check em out and show a little comment love for once again doing the work the MSM (except Keith) refuse to do.

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