Last Wednesday, Media Matters Action Network issued a report, which found that cable news commentators Lou Dobbs, Bill O’Reilly, and Glenn Beck regularly “serve up a steady diet of fear, anger, and resentment on the topic of illegal immigration.”
Last night on his CNN show, an edgy Lou Dobbs hosted Media Matters fellow Paul Waldman to discuss the report’s finding. Waldman asked Dobbs to provide evidence of the “myth” he often promotes — that there is a “secret plan” to build a “NAFTA Superhighway” from Mexico to Canada.
WALDMAN: ... Let me ask you: Do you actually believe that there is a secret plan to create a superhighway, four football fields wide, that is going to stretch from Mexico all the way to Canada?
DOBBS: No, the question is: Do you really reject the evidence that that's precisely what's going on, under the umbrella of the Security and Prosperity Partnership; and the fact that the Trans-Texas Corridor is precisely that. I mean, if you don't under[stand] ...
WALDMAN: The Trans-Texas Corridor is in Texas, Lou, though. So the question is ...
DOBBS: Yes it is. I mean, that's very insightful of you.
WALDMAN: Do you have actual evidence that there is a plan that is going to take this all the way from Mexico to Canada? I mean, what is the evidence there?
DOBBS: What is the evidence?
WALDMAN: Yes.
DOBBS: The evidence is straightforward. It is the reporting of ... You know, if you really don't … I'm not going to get into ... We haven’t enough time for this. … But even the Texas newspapers, which have resisted this idea for a number of years, now recognize what's happening. Citizen's groups are forming all over Texas to stop it. I mean, do you have any concept of what you're talking about? The Security and Prosperity Partnership, Paul, you're completely unfamiliar with it?
WALDMAN: Is there some kind of a document that they say that this is going to go from Mexico to Canada? Because we looked around, and
DOBBS: You would like documents? Why did you not ... why did you not call? How can you call research if you didn't call this broadcast and ask us for these documents and ask us for the proof of the reporting?
WALDMAN: Do you have any?
DOBBS: Of course we do! What kind of an asinine question is that?
WALDMAN: I would love to see it, because we looked around ...
DOBBS: You are a left-wing advocacy group. You’re charging nonsense, and the only way to appease both you and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus would be for me to support illegal immigration and open borders. I reject it, I reject you, and I reject your position!
Watch it:
In fact, Dobbs has a history of perpetuating myths on his show, previously linking undocumented immigrants with cases of leprosy, airing a report saying that the “invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans.” When CBS News confronted Dobbs and told him his claim was false, Dobbs simply replied, “If we reported it, its a fact.”
Last night, Dobbs similarly dismissed challenges to his fact-free claims, calling Waldman “an ideologue” and “a left-wing hack.”
cf. North American SuperCorridor Coalition
& Sen. Obama 5.23.2008
No comments:
Post a Comment