Lou Dobbs fact-checked
_r=3D2&pagewanted=3Dall&oref=3Dslogin&oref=3Dslogin> New York Times - May 30, 2007 Economix
Truth, Fiction and Lou Dobbs By DAVID LEONHARDT The whole controversy involving Lou Dobbs and leprosy started with a = =9360 Minutes=94 segment a few weeks ago. The segment was a profile of Mr. Dobbs, and while doing background = research for it, a =9360 Minutes=94 producer came across a 2005 news = report from Mr. Dobbs=92s CNN program on contagious diseases. In the = report, one of Mr. Dobbs=92s correspondents said there had been 7,000 = cases of leprosy in this country over the previous three years, far = more than in the past. When Lesley Stahl of =9360 Minutes=94 sat down to interview Mr. Dobbs on = camera, she mentioned the report and told him that there didn=92t seem = to be much evidence for it. =93Well, I can tell you this,=94 he replied. =93If we reported it, it=92s a=
= fact.=94 With that Orwellian chestnut, Mr. Dobbs escalated the leprosy dispute = into a full-scale media brouhaha. The next night, back on his own = program, the same CNN correspondent who had done the earlier report, = Christine Romans, repeated the 7,000 number, and Mr. Dobbs added = that, if anything, it was probably an underestimate. A week later, = the Southern Poverty Law Center =97 the civil rights group that has = long been critical of Mr. Dobbs =97 took out advertisements in The New = York Times and USA Today demanding that CNN run a correction. Finally, Mr. Dobbs played host to two top officials from the law = center on his program, =93Lou Dobbs Tonight,=94 where he called their = accusations outrageous and they called him wrong, unfair and =93one of = the most popular people on the white supremacist Web sites.=94 We=92ll get to the merits of the charges and countercharges shortly, = but first it=92s worth considering why, beyond entertainment value, all = this matters. Over the last few years, Lou Dobbs has transformed = himself into arguably this country=92s foremost populist. It=92s an odd = role, given that he spent the 1980s and =9290s buttering up chief = executives on CNN, but he=92s now playing it very successfully. He has = become a voice for the real economic anxiety felt by many Americans. The audience for his program has grown 72 percent since 2003, and CBS = =97 yes, the same network that broadcasts =9360 Minutes=94 =97 just hired h=
im = as a commentator on =93The Early Show.=94 Many elites, as Mr. Dobbs likes = to call them, despise him, but others see him as a hero. His latest = book, =93War on the Middle Class,=94 was a best seller and received a = sympathetic review in this newspaper. Mario Cuomo has said Mr. Dobbs = is =93addicted to economic truth.=94 Mr. Dobbs argues that the middle class has many enemies: corporate = lobbyists, greedy executives, wimpy journalists, corrupt politicians. = But none play a bigger role than illegal immigrants. As he sees it, = they are stealing our jobs, depressing our wages and even endangering = our lives. That=92s where leprosy comes in. =93The invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many = Americans,=94 Mr. Dobbs said on his April 14, 2005, program. From = there, he introduced his original report that mentioned leprosy, the = flesh-destroying disease =97 technically known as Hansen=92s disease =97 = that has inspired fear for centuries. According to a woman CNN identified as a medical lawyer named Dr. = Madeleine Cosman, leprosy was on the march. As Ms. Romans, the CNN = correspondent, relayed: =93There were about 900 cases of leprosy for 40 = years. There have been 7,000 in the past three years.=94 =93Incredible,=94 Mr. Dobbs replied. Mr. Dobbs and Ms. Romans engaged in a nearly identical conversation a = few weeks ago, when he was defending himself the night after the =9360 = Minutes=94 segment. =93Suddenly, in the past three years, America has = more than 7,000 cases of leprosy,=94 she said, again attributing the = number to Ms. Cosman. To sort through all this, I called James L. Krahenbuhl, the director = of the National Hansen=92s Disease Program, an arm of the federal = government. Leprosy in the United States is indeed largely a disease = of immigrants who have come from Asia and Latin America. And the = official leprosy statistics do show about 7,000 diagnosed cases =97 but = that=92s over the last 30 years, not the last three. The peak year was 1983, when there were 456 cases. After that, = reported cases dropped steadily, falling to just 76 in 2000. Last = year, there were 137. =93It is not a public health problem =97 that=92s the bottom line,=94 Mr. = Krahenbuhl told me. =93You=92ve got a country of 300 million people. This = is not something for the public to get alarmed about.=94 Much about the = disease remains unknown, but researchers think people get it through = prolonged close contact with someone who already has it. What about the increase over the last six years, to 137 cases from = 76? Is that significant? =93No,=94 Mr. Krahenbuhl said. It could be a statistical fluctuation, or = it could be a result of better data collection in recent years. In = any event, the 137 reported cases last year were fewer than in any = year from 1975 to 1996. So Mr. Dobbs was flat-out wrong. And when I spoke to him yesterday, = he admitted as much, sort of. I read him Ms. Romans=92s comment =97 the = one with the word =93suddenly=94 in it =97 and he replied, =93I think that =
is = wrong.=94 He then went on to say that as far as he was concerned, he = had corrected the mistake by later broadcasting another report, on = the same night as his on-air confrontation with the Southern Poverty = Law Center officials. This report mentioned that leprosy had peaked = in 1983. Of course, he has never acknowledged on the air that his program = presented false information twice. Instead, he lambasted the = officials from the law center for saying he had. Even yesterday, he = spent much of our conversation emphasizing that there really were = 7,000 cases in the leprosy registry, the government=92s 30-year = database. Mr. Dobbs is trying to have it both ways. I have been somewhat taken aback about how shameless he has been = during the whole dispute, so I spent some time reading transcripts = from old episodes of =93Lou Dobbs Tonight.=94 The way he handled leprosy, = it turns out, is not all that unusual. For one thing, Mr. Dobbs has a somewhat flexible relationship with = reality. He has said, for example, that one-third of the inmates in = the federal prison system are illegal immigrants. That=92s wrong, too. = According to the Justice Department, 6 percent of prisoners in this = country are noncitizens (compared with 7 percent of the population). = For a variety of reasons, the crime rate is actually lower among = immigrants than natives. Second, Mr. Dobbs really does give airtime to white supremacy = sympathizers. Ms. Cosman, who is now deceased, was a lawyer and = Renaissance studies scholar, never a medical doctor or a leprosy = expert. She gave speeches in which she said that Mexican immigrants = had a habit of molesting children. Back in their home villages, she = would explain, rape was not as serious a crime as cow stealing. The = Southern Poverty Law Center keeps a list of other such guests from = =93Lou Dobbs Tonight.=94 Finally, Mr. Dobbs is fond of darkly hinting that this country is = under attack. He suggested last week that the new immigration bill in = Congress could be the first step toward a new nation =97 a =93North = American union=94 =97 that combines the United States, Canada and Mexico. = On other occasions, his program has described a supposed Mexican plot = to reclaim the Southwest. In one such report, one of his = correspondents referred to a Utah visit by Vicente Fox, then Mexico=92s = president, as a =93Mexican military incursion.=94 When I asked Mr. Dobbs about this yesterday, he said, =93You=92ve raised = this to a level that frankly I find offensive.=94 The most common complaint about him, at least from other journalists, = is that his program combines factual reporting with editorializing. = But I think this misses the point. Americans, as a rule, are smart = enough to handle a program that mixes opinion and facts. The problem = with Mr. Dobbs is that he mixes opinion and untruths. He is the heir = to the nativist tradition that has long used fiction and conspiracy = theories as a weapon against the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, = the Jews and, now, the Mexicans. There is no denying that this country=92s immigration system is broken. = But it defies belief =97 and a whole lot of economic research =97 to = suggest that the problems of the middle class stem from illegal = immigrants. Those immigrants, remember, are largely non-English = speakers without a high school diploma. They have probably hurt the = wages of native-born high school dropouts and made everyone else = better off. More to the point, if Mr. Dobbs=92s arguments were really so good, = don=92t you think he would be able to stick to the facts? And if CNN = were serious about being =93the most trusted name in news,=94 as it = claims to be, don=92t you think it would be big enough to issue an = actual correction?