Reluctantly, Lou Dobbs Offers a Rare Apology for Nativist Rhetoric
Question: Whatâs the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce?
A)Â Â Â An organization that seeks âto foster Hispanic economic development and to create a sustainable prosperity for the benefit of American society.â
B)   An organization that âis interested in ⌠Mexicoâs export of drugs and illegal aliens to the United States.â
If you chose a), chances are youâre a perfectly sensible person with a reasonable familiarity with the issues and organizations of the day. After all, the Hispanic Chamber is well known as a relatively conservative, pro-business organization that represents the interests of more than 2.5 million Hispanic-owned businesses.
If you chose b), youâre almost certainly Lou Dobbs, the insult-spewing Latino-basher who hosts CNNâs âLou Dobbs Tonightâ five times a week.
Dobbs, of course, is known for regularly about undocumented immigrants â they fill one third of American prison and jail cells, theyâre part of a secret Mexican plan to âreconquerâ the American Southwest, they are largely responsible for a spate of 7,000 recent leprosy cases⌠Even when Dobbs isnât hosting his own show, his fill-in hosts spew such racist propaganda as the lie about subprime housing loans going to 5 million âillegal aliens.â
But Dobbs may have outdone himself on March 10, when he launched into a furious tirade against President Barack Obama, who earlier that day gave a major speech on education reform from the Hispanic Chamberâs Washington, D.C., offices.
âI donât know whatâs happened to this White House, but the wheels appear to have come completely off here over the last several days,â Dobbs fulminated. âMaking a decision to talk about a national initiative on education from the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which is effectively an organization that is interested in the export of American capital and production to Mexico and Mexicoâs export of drugs and illegal aliens to the United States. This is crazy stuff.â
And how. So much so, in fact, that this Tuesday the man who has in the past utterly refused to retract false allegations, actually offered up a âcorrection.â
It wasnât known if that was prompted by his CNN overlords, the angry demands for a retraction from the Hispanic Chamber, or his own guilty conscience â but weâre betting it wasnât the latter. Even after "60 Minutes," The New York Times, the Columbia Journalism Review and many other serious media outlets pointed out Dobbsâ pushing of spurious allegations infamously linking immigrants to a resurgence of leprosy â effectively mocking his claim to be a âjournalistâ â the CNN host refused to retract or correct his falsehoods.
The idea that the Hispanic Chamber wanted to aid the smuggling of drugs and undocumented workers into the United States left dropped jaws around the nation. The Washington Independent referred to the talk show host as âCNNâs immigrant attack dog Lou Dobbs.â The Houston Chronicle noted soberly that many Americans view Lou Dobbs as âjust an anti-immigrant blowhard.â Frank Sharry, executive director of the pro-immigrant Americaâs Voice group, said he knew the chamber well as an organization of âhardworking business ownersâ who are âpatriotic Americans.â âApparently,â Sharry added, âwhen Lou saw the word âHispanicâ in the name of the organization hosting the event, he went loco.â
This Tuesday, with his teeth metaphorically gritted, Dobbs spat out an apology of sorts â although only after a furious attack on Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who had suggested that gun control in America could help Mexico disarm its own drug cartels. âWhat in the world,â Dobbs fumed, was Durbin doing âspeaking so irresponsibly? ⌠I find it astonishing.â
Then he got to the âapologyâ:
âI want to make a correction to something I said last week. I made a mistake,â he said. âI believe any open-borders policy does facilitate not only illegal immigration but also the trafficking of massive amounts of illicit drugs. I, of course, do not believe that the chamber supports or condones either drug or human trafficking. My apologies to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. And I hope that they will forgive me for misspeaking.â
And with that it was back to the Lou Dobbs show weâve all come to appreciate. Next up on the show: Dobbsâ take on a blog that has âmany left-leaning reporters as membersâ and âoperates in secrecy.â
Donât worry, folks. Louâs on the case.