Every piece I've read so far about the sudden (if not unexpected) resignation of Lou Dobbs has mentioned the same fact: Lou Dobbs was one of the charter CNN anchors. Maybe this is because Mr. Dobbs himself mentioned that during his good-bye broadcast, calling himself "the last of the original anchors here on CNN." Though most pieces use this to describe how Dobbs has changed, there's a better -- sharper -- argument to be made. If Lou Dobbs helped start CNN, if Lou Dobbs has at times been crucial to its success, if Lou Dobbs was once so friendly with CNN that they trumpeted his 2001 return with ads I still remember, hailing him as a returning hero -- then did Lou Dobbs make CNN, or did CNN make Lou Dobbs?
(Hint: It's the latter).
In all of the pomp and lack of circumstance surrounding Dobbs' departure, CNN's news chief, Jonathan Klein, seems at pains to suggest that the split is because CNN is too objective for Dobbs' tastes. In both his official statement and his e-mail to staff, Klein said, "Lou has now decided to carry the banner of advocacy journalism elsewhere," presumably implying that banner wasn't welcome at CNN.
Maybe it isn't. But it has been for at least eight years during the Dobbs reign, and for CNN to now play-act like this is an amiable break-up of two entities who've changed independent of each other's influences is, well, crap.
CNN has been relentlessly ratings-focused for years. Check out any of their prime-time news shows on any given night, and you'll see programming that isn't primarily focused on reporting on the important stories of the day -- you'll see a newscast designed to get the most popular news to the most people. Don't believe me? Just count the gimmicks. If it's not John King and his magic wall -- which you'll now be seeing during the former Dobbs hour -- it's the supremely lame "Girl Reads Blogs" segment that keeps popping up, or their much-touted partnership with Facebook. CNN also devoted hours of coverage to the Caylee Anthony story, not just on Nancy Grace's hour but on its flagship AC360 show.
In fact, AC360 and its host, Anderson Cooper, pretty much completely encapsulate the CNN Popularity Game Plan. Cooper has been touted as "a reporter who's got that magical something" by no less than Jon Klein, and the show is promoted probably more on the strength of Cooper's personality than on his access to sources. Post-Katrina, when Cooper was standing in New Orleans and screaming for help, he was getting not only high ratings but also a ton of attention for the network, behavior that's been rewarded with continued anchorship of a two-hour flagship prime-time newscast.Dobbs must have learned this lesson over years at CNN. Bringing more eyes to the screen meant getting more network attention. When he published his book, Independents Day, Dobbs managed to snag interviews on all of CNN's major shows, including with Anderson Cooper -- some nice cross-marketing that must have benefitted both CNN and Dobbs himself.
For CNN to now act like Lou Dobbs magically decided to get radical and start yelling denies that CNN encourages its anchors and commentators to yell, to scream, to draw attention as much to themselves as to the news they're reporting. CNN: The Most Trusted Name in News is also, after all, CNN: The Creator of Crossfire.
I'm glad to see Lou Dobbs gone (though I do worry about where he'll land), but I'm sorry that his departure has encouraged CNN to brag about its own objectivity and hard-news focus. Far from being the network too objective to contain him, CNN birthed Lou Dobbs by encouraging him to seek higher ratings and more viewers, to use more gimmicks, to create himself as a character delivering finely-tuned reports to an eager audience. That he's now an uncomfortable fit for the network is a mark of its success at beating the news-drive out of its stars, and one that, really, they should be addressing in his absence, unless they want to see a John King book, Royally Pissed, hitting shelves by 2012.
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Catherine Forsythe
Writer to the Stars
Emily Holleman
Iron Skillet
Leslie Harpole
old new lefty
Salon.com
Comments
And yo, why does the Anderson Cooper wheel not talk about his "hotness" factor? Just his eyes? I don't think so.
As the country descends into fascism, the people have become more faithful to ideology—not intellectually adherent, but faithful, as in blood oaths, loyalty tests, and patriotic songs-- and more polarized. Can anyone even remember the days when, say, Ted Kennedy and Bob Dole could get together and, despite their ideological differences, work together in good faith on drafting a piece of legislation? Those days are now long gone, as we’ve seen in the health care reform pantomime.
In this ideologically polarized time, people are also seeking out news that reinforces their ideological bent. That’s right: they no longer want objective news of any sort, and they are actively seeking out propaganda. By far the best purveyor is Fox, and their ratings show it. Remember that FOX has viewership twice that of its nearest competitor, MSNBC, the liberal player in the game, and CNN is slipping even farther behind, as neither fish nor fowl. CNN is that anachronism, an actual relatively objective news outlet. Remember when that was a token of esteem? Talk to a regular Fox viewer; they have literally no idea what is actually going on in the world, and talking to them is like talking to the living embodiment of the Two-Minute Hate from Orwell.
Dobbs will go his way, and CNN will go theirs. I’m betting that Dobbs will end up on Fox after a decent interval of transition. I certainly can’t see him actually in politics; I don’t think he has the attention span, and I don’t think he can raise money effectively enough. CNN will be fine; they still have a stable roster of advertisers that rely on them to reach rational and influential decision makers in a prime demographic.
Lots of insight in this piece. Unlike many others I believe CNN was not happy about Dobbs departure. I felt that Lou Dobbs was to CNN what Miramax is to Disney. He drew viewers, controversy, and ratings that CNN would not have otherwise attracted.
Rated and appreciated.
I will miss that bit of comedy.
Thanks for the comments, folks. OLN, you've named my worst fear, but also perhaps a cherished dream: Dobbs/Palin? Palin/Dobbs?
He is indeed an uncomfortable fit for his network, because his profitability is waning. Time for CNN to promote the next cash cow and milk it for all it is worth.
Seems a better investment in money-where-mouth-is than a 300-acre horse farm in New Jersey, or bespoke suits.
I suppose Dobbs had an agenda to a degree -- in that he chose what topics to tackle. But all shows on TV have that type of agenda. You can't talk about everything -- or nothing -- for an hour per night. It's really a shame that we've all become such spoiled babies to the point that we can't even form and push our own beliefs so we need to have our feelings delivered to us. Immigration advocacy groups didn't like Lou? Why didn't they advocate their points to people then, on their own dime and time, instead of attacking the man who presents facts that shed there points in a negative light? Whatever happened to, "I disagree with this person, so I would now like to have people hear MY point of view?" Can't some groups trust the righteousness of their causes to believe that people will see things their way, via explanation and not obliteration of the messenger delivering facts that may work against them?
The only thing about this whole departure that has me curious, is, if it was indeed not an amicable bye-bye, then who paid what to CNN to get rid of Dobbs? I'm guessing an advocacy group got the right sized sack of dough into the pockets of someone down there at CNN...
Exactly. CNN actually bothers me more than Fox in a lot of ways. With Fox, normal people realize it's agitprop, whereas CNN still has this undeserved rep from decades back of being the most trustworthy cable news outlet, so people are taken in. I can't watch them for more than 5 minutes without wanting to vomit.
he is not the slightest bit hating of immigrants
he was totally wrongly slimed
but the working people have spent all their time destroying him over false nonsense while the situation of the average American worker continued to decay to the point of no return
deeply, deeply troubling
But how can Dobbs run for office with his citizenship in question? Is his citizenship in question? What is it about Delicias, Mexico, anyway.
Rated. I hope he has a nice life, elsewhere...
As for Lou, while I certainly disagreed with MANY of his views, I was a pretty regular viewer and will miss his show. He did better work on issues like the economy and the health care debate in his one hour a night than the rest of the network does in their ongoing coverage.
And I never once had to suffer through a stupid YouTube video during his program.
For CNN to try to project itself as a "objective" news source, they'd have to get rid of James Carville, Fran Townsend, Paul Begala, Bill Bennett, Alex Castellanos, Donna Brazile, Mary Matalin, Gloria Borger.... You know what every single one of those people are going to say before they say it -- and so, what's the point of saying it?
Heather, I want to like Campbell Brown, but she drove me crazy as a substitute on AC360 before she got her own show. The times I've watched it, she's been as willing to depend on screaming headlines to draw in viewers as anyone else on the network, to the detriment of the actual topic being covered. Under her No Bias banner, she often tries to devote equal time to both sides of an issue, which sounds like a great idea on paper, until you realize that some issues don't have two equally credible sides.
You do know that Lou's wife is MEXICAN-AMERICAN?
Debi Segura was a sports anchor--and one of the few women--on CNN when they signed on in 1981. Lou hosted "Moneyline" back then and was a cracker-jack reporter. (I was laid off back then and watched a lot of TV.)
He was also married then. Later on he divorced this then-wife, then married Debi, whom he met on the job.
It would be interesting to know the documented status of Debi's family members, not to mention what she thinks of her husband's rants...