Inquiring Cable Gamers would truly like to know what's up with Lou Dobbs. This Cable Gamer has always admired Dobbs, because he has picked up on important populist issues, in the same way as, say, Mike Huckabee or John Edwards. I am not saying that any of those three are right on all the issues, but I am saying that they have voices that should be heard. (But of course, I don't have to work with Dobbs--if I did, I might have a different opinion, from what I hear!)
So last Friday, when I read this item, from TV Newser, detailing how Dobbs and CNN prexy Jon Klein had the proverbial "frank discussion" over whether or not Dobbs was getting enough airtime at CNN's coverage of the Iowa caucus--I wasn't surprised. But at the same time, I didn't think that the TVN story was a big deal, insofar as everyone in the news biz has a healthy-sized ego.
But then, today, I read this front-page article on Dobbs' possible presidential ambitions, in Monday's Wall Street Journal, and I think maybe Dobbs really going to run for the White House. Maybe with Mike Bloomberg? I mean, if we live in a world where such obvious presidential frontrunners as Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani can be toppled, seemingly, by the likes of Huckabee and Barack Obama, then just about anything is possible. And the same thought must be running through Dobbs' mind. And perhaps Dobbs' ambitions, however free-floating, are causing Klein reach for the Prilosec.
Indeed, surely Dobbs' ambitions are a cause of friction inside CNN. First of all, there are laws about campaigning, especially presidential campaigning. Is it an "in kind" contribution? A corporate contribution? What about the FCC? A lot of no-no's for the CNN lawyers.
Moreover, it's to believe that the Clinton News Network--or it, by now, the Obama News Network?--would cotton to the idea of someone such as Dobbs actually running on his own.
Watch this space. Things are moving.
