Lou Dobbs’ recent rant on his Fox Business News show has prompted some to argue that it’s time for him to slink off into obscurity … er, retirement.
That’s 100% wrong. It’s way past time for him to be relieved of his TV post.
Utahns may recall that in addition to being near the front of the birther parade — promoting completely discredited, racist conspiracy theories — Dobbs also has a streak of anti-Mormonism. Which he made clear more than once.
In 2006, while he was still at CNN, he made unfounded allegations that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was intentionally skirting U.S. immigration laws. Dobbs told viewers that the church was encouraging Mexican members to immigrate to Utah “irrespective of the cost to taxpayers.”
“I was just struck by the idea that The Church of Latter-day Saints, the Mormon church, seems to be looking south just as avidly and aggressively as the Catholic Church to add to a few folks to those pews,” Dobbs said.
Dobbs had a lot of facts wrong about the church and its presence in Mexico, which he seemingly never bothered to research.
In 2016, after Dobbs had jumped on the Donald Trump train, he went after independent presidential candidate Eric McMullin, fearing that he could cost Trump Utah’s electoral votes. He tweeted: “Look Deeper, He’s nothing but a Globalist, Romney and Mormon Mafia Tool #MAGA #AmericaFirst #TrumpPence16 #TrumpTrain #Dobbs.”
Yup. Dobbs warned his followers to beware of the Mormon Mafia.
And this week, he went after U.S. Attorney General William Barr. Tuesday night on his Fox Business show, Dobbs made the baseless claim that in “six key battleground states,” there has been “clear electoral fraud” that “nullified the will of the people in the November election.” And he accused Barr of betraying Trump by siding with “insidious RINOs” and “radical Dems.”
Dobbs accused Barr — a complete Trump sycophant — of being a member of the “deep state” that Dobbs believes is plotting against the current occupant of the White House. This, because Barr actually told the truth and said there’s no evidence of voter “fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”
Dobbs’ response? “For the attorney general to make that statement, he is either a liar or a fool or both. He may be, perhaps, compromised. He may be simply unprincipled. Or he may be personally distraught or ill. But in no way can he honestly stand up before the American people and say that the FBI has, with any integrity or intensity, investigated voter fraud in this country — and then say it did not amount to anything.”
As of this writing, there is no evidence that there was any sort of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. As a matter of fact, there’s no evidence of fraud, period.
The fact that Fox News gives Dobbs a platform to spout his lies tells us all we need to know about that organization. (He’s not the only one on the Fox News and Fox Business News channels — but we’re talking about Dobbs right now.)
It’s grotesque.
What to watch on Friday
• All three of CBS’ Friday night shows finally start their new seasons — Season 5 of “MacGyver” (7 p.m., Ch. 2), Season 3 of “Magnum P.I.” (8 p.m., Ch. 2), and Season 11 of “Blue Bloods” (9 p.m., Ch. 2).
• “Godmothered” (streaming on Disney+) is about a young fairy godmother-in-training (Jillian Bell) who sets out to prove that her profession is still needed in the modern world. It’s a nice movie for kids.
• “The Hardy Boys” (streaming on Hulu) is a new adaptation of the books about the brother detectives. The boys are younger (ages 13 and 16) than in some previous iterations, and this is considerably darker than the five previous TV series. (All 13 episodes stream on Friday.)
• “Mank” (streaming on Apple TV+) is a fact-based, black-and-white movie set in the 1930s that centers on Herman J. Mankiewicz’s (Gary Oldman) efforts to complete the screenplay for “Citizen Kane.” Tom Burke stars as Orson Welles, and the cast includes Charles Dance, Lily Collins and Amanda Seyfried. David Fincher (“Gone Girl”) directs.
• “Selena: The Series” (streaming on Netflix) is a bio-series about the Tejano music star — who was murdered in 1995 — and it has a couple of things going against it. First, it’s tough to walk in the footsteps of the 1997 film “Selena.” And second, you always have to take into account when something like this is produced by family members of the subject. But fans will like it.
Follow @ScottDPierce