Adios Amigo

When I posted a notice on my Twitter page on Wednesday that Lou Dobbs had resigned from CNN, the first response I got was typical: "Good riddance," wrote one commentator.

In fact, for liberals, progressives, African Americans, Latinos and many others, Dobbs has been a persistent nuisance in the media. For CNN, he's been a constant thorn in the side of the network that claims to provide objective news while its competitors -- MSNBC and Fox News -- have moved in opposite directions.

CNN President Jonathan Klein reportedly had enough with Dobbs months ago. Klein told Dobbs he could continue to vent his opinions on his radio show and anchor an objective newscast on television, or he could leave CNN, the New York Times reported today.

On Wednesday, Dobbs finally made his decision. And for some, it was a decision that CNN itself should have made. Despite months of protests and boycotts, CNN never publicly buckled and repudiated Dobbs. But internally, there must have been some tension between Dobbs and the network executives.

I've worked with CNN over the years and I've been on the air with Dobbs in the past. In person, I found Dobbs to be likable, in much the same way I find ultra conservative MSNBC commentator Pat Buchanan to be likable. Right-wingers don't usually attack their liberal adversaries in the green room.

But Dobbs slowly became increasingly influenced by crazy right-wing extremists. If there was a conspiracy theorist questioning the president's birth certificate, a gun-toting protester at an Obama event, or a white firefighter alleging "reverse discrimination," Dobbs was there to defend them. Or if there was an "illegal immigrant" anywhere in America who didn't belong here, Dobbs was personally ready to deport them.

To his defenders, he has been a patriot standing up to the powerful "left-wing media" and the "liberal elite" who, they believe, secretly run this country. To his critics, he has been a racist, xenophobe with a dangerously powerful platform on national television. I don't know if he's a racist or a xenophobe, or if he even believes in much of what he says on television, but I side more with the critics.

Dobbs, along with Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, has been a leader of the angry white men movement for some time now. Those are the guys riding in their chauffeured Town Cars from their multi-million dollar mansions to their media empires where they pretend to be aligned with the common man.

When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last year that the issue of race was an original "birth defect" of the United States, Dobbs protested live on CNN, almost calling Rice a "cotton picker," a most unfortunate reference given the nation's history with slavery. "I think it's really unfortunate that Secretary of State Rice believes as she does,"  Dobbs told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "Not a single one of these cotton-, ah, these just ridiculous politicians should be the moderator on the issue of race," he added. 

When Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested for being in his own home, Dobbs predictably took the side of the police. When CNN contributor Roland Martin appeared on his show to discuss Gates and the birthers, Dobbs told Martin to calm down. "You're yelling and you're getting awful excited about something that doesn't require this level of remarks," Dobbs said.

Dobbs had just finished expressing his doubts about Professor Gates in a segment with CNN's Soledad O'Brien when he turned around and sympathized with those who questioned the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate. So by Dobbs logic, we were supposed to believe a lone white police officer in Massachusetts but not believe the entire state of Hawaii about Obama's birth.

Afterwards, I wrote an op-ed in The Huffington Post questioning the running commentary by white men about appropriate decorum for black men. "Crotchety old white guys like Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs can foam at the mouth on radio and television all day about immigrants and blacks, but a black male public figure can't complain too loudly," I wrote.

Dobbs wasted no time in responding to me. "You've never heard me foam at the mouth or in any way complain about immigrants," Dobbs responded. "Don't play your little left wing games," he said. 

I don't think it's a left wing game to point out that Dobbs and his elite right-wing media colleagues have made millions of dollars by stoking the fears of middle-class white guys against blacks, Latinos and others. Yes, those anti-American socialists are out to destroy the middle class white guys by giving them health care and unemployment benefits and access to education and home loans.

The vocal, gun-toting, flag-waving birthers, deathers, teabaggers and town brawlers who "want their country back" didn't get that way by accident. Led by Dobbs and other rich white guys on TV, this mob minority has gotten disproprotionate media attention for its size. Now, with Dobbs's abrupt departure, and recommendations for an African American replacement, they have one more reason to believe the media are out to get them.