The WORD Blog

On Eve of CNN’s ‘Latino in America’ Series, Demands Grow for CNN to Dump Lou Dobbs

Events planned in more than 20 cities represent growing backlash to the network’s October 21-22 special in light of CNN’s continued support of Lou Dobbs. New Yorkers to gather in front of Time Warner/CNN Headquarter, 4 p.m. tomorrow.

www.bastadobbs.com

October 20, 2009 — New York, NY – Calling CNN hypocritical for airing an advertising-driven special on Latinos while at the same time hosting the anti-immigrant rhetoric of Lou Dobbs, community leaders, politicians and faith groups in more than 20 of the top U.S. Hispanic media markets will gather in local events to increase the pressure on CNN to remove Lou Dobbs from its programming.

To be held on the eve of the much-publicized “Latino in America” series, the events are part of the BastaDobbs.com campaign, a coalition of Latino organizations from across the country that is led by online advocacy group Presente.org

“Our message to CNN is clear: You cannot have it both ways. It’s either promotion of hatred by Lou Dobbs or real news regarding the Latino community,” said Isabel Garcia, a prominent civil and human rights attorney in Arizona who is highlighted in the “Latino in America” series and who is also participating in the BastaDobbs.com effort.

The campaign and its partners have collected more than 65,000 signatures on a petition to CNN President Jon Klein. They’ve also produced a video mixing scenes from “Latino in America” with clips of Dobbs’ anti-immigrant rhetoric that has received over 60,000 views in one week. As it has gained steam, the campaign has garnered significant attention from the Spanish-speaking press including La Opinion, El Diario, Univision, and Mexico’s El Universal.

“Latinos in this country and throughout Latin America are recognizing the two faces of CNN,” said Roberto Lovato, a founding member of Presente.org. “We won’t allow the network to court us as viewers while, at the same time, they allow Dobbs to spread lies and misinformation about us each night.”

“Lou Dobbs abuses the CNN platform to dehumanize and spread fear about Latinos and immigrants. It is no surprise that hard-working Latinos in this country are increasingly victims of hate-motivated violence,” added Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). “CNN must be accountable to one of the largest minority groups in the United States if it seeks to gain their following and respect.”
On Wednesday, press conferences and local forums on the threat of Lou Dobbs on CNN are planned in the following cities. For general inquires, please contact 301.442.8459 media@presente.org.

New York NYC Basta Dobbs Coalition robvato@gmail.com 213-820-8424 4 p.m. CNN building downtown.

Tags: Basta Dobbs, CNN, Lou Dobbs, Roberto Lavato

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 7:16 pm and is filed under Ethnic News, I Didn't See This on the Evening News (A Work in Progress), Journalism, News/Commentary/Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.