Examining Lou Dobbs…
The Daily Beast’s Lloyd Grove writes about Lou Dobbs. This is that part that some are going to be kibitzing about…
“I never talk about Lou Dobbs,” said Kaplan, now executive producer of The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. But Tom Johnson, CEO of CNN between 1990 and 2001, was more forthcoming in a revealing email he sent to me this week:
There always have been the “Good Lou” and the “Bad Lou.”
I experienced both Lou’s during the 11 years I was CEO of CNN.
The good Lou is and always has been a favorite of Ted Turner.
They pioneered CNN together.
Lou’s shows have been major revenue producers. Big advertisers wanted to be in Lou’s shows.
Ted often protected Lou when I and other CNN executives were ready to fire him. Ted saw Lou’s immense talent, and they were (and still are) good friends.
[...]
It almost is impossible NOT to really like the Good Lou. He’s warm, funny, well informed on issues, and a charming bear of a guy. I like that Lou very much.
The Bad Lou is stubborn, wants his way or the highway, shows signs of being an only child—as I am. Spoiled rotten.
Lou is both very loyal to his people and can intimidate the hell out of them. He can be overpowering. He wants the very best production values in every show.Having Lou Dobbs and Rick Kaplan reporting to me at the same time was like holding a canister of nitroglycerin in each hand.
I never knew which was going to explode first. Each has explosive personalities.
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August 6, 2009 at 12:45 pm
To inject politics in this, I find it amusing that when Dobbs was (mostly correctly) going after the incompetence of the Bush Administration (on trade, deficits, dollar, borders, Iraq – I’ll stop at five) that he was largely praised and saluted by many of the same quarters now criticizing him (yes, his immigration stance was the exception).
Now that’s he shooting at a liberal Administration – fairly and unfairly – he’s being targetted in return. His “speaking truth to power” is now pompous rabble-rousing.
Yeah, it’s not all or even mainly politics; but let’s not kid ourselves.
August 6, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Well I get points for being consistent. I’ve always thought Dobbs was a pompous gasbag, not only when I agreed with him, but before he even had an opinion as a business reporter. He’s got that “I’m the smartest guy in the room” pretentiousness that gets under my skin.
BOR and KO have their own brands of pompous righteousness, but it’s borne more of a sense of being right. “You’re wrong” is one thing; “I’m smart, you’re not” is another.
August 6, 2009 at 5:32 pm
When Lou Dobbs was criticising the Bush administration, conservatives either agreed with him or they disputed his facts or interpretation of facts. Few went after him personally – there’s always a few.
Hard core liberals have been mean and nasty for a long time and their tactics are now becoming acceptable to the mainstream. So it’s no surprise they’re now attacking him personally – make him an irrelevant joke…the politics of destruction.
Similarly, I saw nasty “jokes” about President Clinton’s N. Korea mission even within the comments of this blog yesterday. On Leno’s show they might be funny, but such tactics used in debate are not helpful.