With the heat of the presidential primaries at a record level, one TV network covering the campaign is emerging a winner: CNN. The thoughtful team of specialists isn’t eclipsing the candidates’ words, which is a welcome respite to viewers often bombarded with inimical commentary by know-it-alls. Indeed, the political symmetry within the team allows for [...]
In a time when the national temper calls for reason in the solution of problems facing the American people, a powerful media venue like CNN mixes jingoism with (advocacy) journalism, not just with Lou Dobbs but with Nancy Grace and others. Fox News is not any better. Networks like ABC, CBS, and NBC have pretty [...]
In the eyes of his supporters, Lou Dobbs is a populist, the rare broadcast journalist standing up to big business, self-serving politicians, and what he likes to call “ethnosociocentric” special-interest groups.
Dobbs, a former Peabody Award-winner, has characterized himself as a political independent, an adherent of “advocacy journalism.” His advocacy comes most notably – frequently [...]
The title of this discussion, “Lou Dobbs: Populist or Prejudiced,” presupposes that these are mutually exclusive terms. In fact, this country has a long history of prejudiced populism, from Theodore Roosevelt to George Wallace and beyond. Lou Dobbs is a prejudiced populist. His reaction to immigration is so obsessive, so overwrought, so irrational that it can [...]
Much of what comes out of Lou Dobbs’s mouth is sensationalistic and unsophisticated. He is clearly not, as he claims, a reporter “on the nonpartisan independent reality” of this country; he is a political advocate with a political agenda – which is no less calculated just because he does not belong to a political party. Nevertheless, although [...]
In psychology, we define prejudice as a negative attitude towards a specific group, usually based on some stereotypical beliefs. Prejudices are troubling because our animosity is not the result of a realistic conflict, but of the misconceptions and myths surrounding our assessment of this group. In my opinion, Mr. Lou Dobbs is not only a [...]
Welcome to "En mi opinión," a blog hosted by Ilan Stavans, Advisory Editor of The Latino American Experience, a full-text reference tool exploring the history and culture of U.S. Latinos.
About Ilan Stavans »
