Lou Dobbs is under siege, taking to news shows ranging from Good Morning America to MSNBC’s new The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell to defend himself against a cover story in the current issue of The Nation that alleges he has hired illegal immigrants.
Briefly stated, the charges are summarized by The Nation’s headline: “American Hypocrite.” Reporter Isabel McDonald contends that the man who has inveighed against “illegals” and called for federal prosecution of those who hire them, has undocumented workers to care for the animals on his Sussex, New Jersey horse farm and to care for the landscaping of his West Palm Beach estate. The article contends that Dobbs’ contractor made the hires.
It’s a long, interesting piece — you can read it here — with many allegations including poor housing conditions for the illegal immigrants under Dobbs’ employ.
On GMA this morning, Dobbs dubbed The Nation story a “smear piece” and that if he’d asked about the workers, he’d have been guilty of “racial profiling.”
Dobbs asserted on GMA that the “mainstream media” has accepted The Nation story at face-value and that only CBS news had called him for a response before now. I’ve often said that the crucial failure of network news in particular is that it doesn’t break news, doesn’t expend the time and money to do nearly original investigative reporting.
That’s not really the job of Good Morning America, of course — it may be produced by ABC’s news division, but its mix of news, entertainment, and lifestyle stories is not, by any realistic standard, the place where hard-news reporting gets done: GMA‘s unstated mission is to summarize and react, and the Robin Roberts interview, by giving The Nation and Dobbs a platform to confront each other, was a solid segment. I wouldn’t let ABC’s nighttime newscasts (World News and Nightline) off the same hook, however.
Meanwhile, over on MSNBC, Dobbs made an appearance in a lively segment on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, splitting hairs about whether or not he’s responsible for whether or not his contractor hired illegal immigrants. Here’s the first segment:
Reporter McDonald ends up saying that Dobbs is “a victim of his own unrealistic rhetoric” about crackdowns on Americans who hire undocumented workers.
Once again, TV news shows may fail to do the grunt-work, but it provides the stage and the drama for the debate.
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I don’t agree that this was smear journalism, but rather reporting the facts. while the headline does make it seem like he hired the illeglas the article, (and on MSNBC last night) showe that he hired the contractor that hired the illegals.
However, with all of his cries against illegal immigrants he should have known, he should have specified to the contractor that he would not tolerate illegal immigrants doing the work.
He certainly reaped the financial rewards of it, I am sure that contractor was a lot cheaper then a contractor that only used legal citizens.
So is Lou Dobbs a hyprocrite? I don’t think so, but now his rhetoric has met reality….much like if we get rid of all the illegals in CA, grocery prices would rise so much people would be beg to have them back.
You make a good point. If he was sincere, he should have stipulated in the contract (we assume there was a written contract?) that no illegals were to be hired. Just like the govt specifies that 10-20% of the contract goes to Americans or women or minorities, or whatever.
Lou Dobbs has been smearing people for years now and has been screaming about how terrible the “illegals” are.
I totally agree with Mark as most of the non documented workers in California work in the San Joaquin Valley and the food industry and if they left, then who would do the back breaking work of harvesting the vegetables on the cheap. That fancy salad would cost a small fortune, then all of those “send them back” types would change their minds in a hurry. And please don’t check the papers of the nannies on the upper East and West sides of NYC pushing those over priced strollers through Central Park as that would be a real eye opener. Dobss just got caught.
Of oourse he is a hypocrite. He wants his cake and to eat it also. “Deport all of the illegals immediately, but also don’t charge me what legal Americans want to get paid.” The employment of illegals is the biggest reason there are so many here, penalize the employers. And, Lous, you are an employer, even if you chose to look the other way.
Okay thats the game? Lets play then. Lets start snooping into every employment agency hire, caterer, cleaning service, landscaper, home remodeler all of the pols, and the elites have hired. Which is is – do you say to your lawn guy ‘Make sure you dont bring any illegals on your crew when you do the lawn’ – is that profiling? Or do you believe its his responsibility to check out his own employees?
Personally i think the person who runs the business has to check the paperwork – every time i hire a paint contractor or a roofer or a carpet cleaner
is it then all on me to make sure the people THEY hire have their papers?
first off the point of contention is focused on the hypocrisy of the strong and closed position Lou Dobbs evangelizes against “illegal” immigrants. second, no, it should not be on you “to make sure the people THEY hire have their papers”. It should be on you to be aware and care and scrutinize the integrity of who you hire, i.e. why am I getting such a better price
It is if you are going to make your very well paid living pontificating about how horrible these people are. Throwing stones much, Lou?
Exactly.
The problem Elie, is that if you are going to hold yourself up as a paragon of virtue- and pontificate about these things “destroying America” then you better be sure allllll your t’s are crossed before you open your big, fat bigoted mouth- and Dobbs, like the TeaBaggers and the majority of the GOP never do that. They just pontificate.
Its never what they do, its the hypocrisy.
go f#@$ yourself Shane!!!!
I have never agreed with Lou Dobbs on this issue, but I watched the confrontation this morning on GMA and frankly I believe him. And when it genuinely looked like he’d scored points on this reporter, she took the last chunk of the interview to introduce a brand new allegation over ‘working conditions’ that wasn’t even part of the original allegations she was making, she made sure Dobbs wasn’t even given the time to give a response. And she did it the whole time with a very smug, self-aware expression on her face. Sorry, that was extremely dirty pool and she knew it. And it completely ruins her credibility.
I saw it on GMA this morning & Dobbs talked over everyone trying to get a word in…even Robin. the reporter was supposed to get the last word (pretty much her only chance to talk) and Lou cut her off and wouldn’t stop talking until Robin had to remind Lou that they had to go to break…the computer will cut us off. He came off as an arrogant jerk to me.
But he benefited from the low wages paid the subcontractors (illegals). He probably did like a lot of us and priced around to see who had the lowest prices. In order to get those low prices you hire cheap (illegal) workers.
This is nothing more than a try to smear campaign. She can put her little glasses on and try to look intelegent but when she opens he mouth she just fizzles like a balloon letting the air out. I am really shocked that anyone would give her air time. (Wonder what’s in her closet???)
Inside every loudmouth is a hypocrite. This would be a much bigger story if Lou Dobbs was still relevant.
Anyone who knows they hire illegals needs to be put out of business. I don’t blame immigrants who want to get away from their own country, which cares nothing about them, to come to America where some politicians care more about the illegals than the the actual Americans. As long as America lets them come and go as they please why would they stop but if employers knew they would be shut down maybe there wouldn’t be so many people taking advantage of cheap labor and they would come to this country legally(like most Americans have done for many years).
The hypocrisy of MSNBC and everyone else criticizing Dobbs is hilarious…you’re condemning him for not doing (checking on worker documents)the same thing that a few months ago you were condeming the state or Arizona for wanting to do…you can’t have it both ways…do you want to check “likely looking” suspects for citizenship or not??? Now let’s hear you defend profiling!
GMA should have given Lou a say after the break because Macdonald did, indeed, make it sound like Dobbs was making the workers live in terrible conditions when, per her article, the conditions existed elsewhere (not on Dobbs property, but where horse shows were held). I don’t care for Dobbs, but regarding The Nation’s article, I agree with with him 100%. It was a personal attack with no substance. I’d also like to know why Macdonald resents Lou’s wealth so much. I have no idea what The Nation hoped to accomplish with this article, but I consider it a major fail.
After watching/listening to Lou Dobbs and the investigative reporter, I have to say Mr. Dobbs wins the argument hands down. I consider myself a liberal progressive with a bent towards fair dealings and objectivity. Essentially, the reporter had no proof, other than testimony from the witnesses whose own credibilty we cannot accurately weigh- she was called out on this by Dobbs and she admitted there was no direct proof, none whatsoever, that he or his companies had hired illegal aliens in any way, shape, or form. Dobbs also had a credible answer to the allegation that illegals had worked on his properties (landscaping). If a contractor illegally hires an illegal alien to work on Lou’s grounds, it is the contractor who should be held liable, not Dobbs. It’s the kind of thing that could happen to anyone.
Whatever anyone thinks about Dobbs, you have to give him credit for standing up to the reporter in front of a national audience and present his side with calm clarity and reasonableness. There’s a maxim that goes “The truth is never afraid of questions.” Guess what, I’m satisfied with Dobbs’ answers to her questions, and totally disagree with the reporter’s assertion that Dobbs does not apply his standards of behavior concerning illegals to himself.
T.S.
I do not support the hiring of illegals. Suppose I suddenly find out that the contractor I hired to paint my house hired illegals, does that mean Iam a hypocrite? No it does not. I am not a fan of Mr Dobbs but he did nothing wrong.
The point that Lou did not respond to was that he has stated that American companies have to hold their contractors responsible for assuring that their employees are legal. The reported provided the date that Dobbs made that assertion. How is it that he does not have to be responsible for his contractors?????
The illegals trade drugs for social security cards. They trap young mothers into drugs for their childrens SSI cards. These cards I assume are sold and used to establish a job and drivers license. Many workers change their names to the names on the SSI cards and bang you are working! Why can’t the people at social security inform an employer that a 2 year old child is not allowed to pick apples, clean hotel rooms or brush and excerise horses.
I like Lou Dobbs. I trust Lou Dobbs. Isabel what’s her face hid behind her black-rimmed glasses and slight smear of lipstick, trying to look so competent and professional but she failed. She and the host often double-teamed Dobbs and it was a complete “hit job.” Now I remember why I don’t watch MSNBC.
ONE MORE POINT
If you listened real hard you could hear La Raza, MALDEF, Luis Gutierrez and Menendez laughing so hard their guts were about to burst.