Journalism professor Paul Janensch teaches Lou Dobbs 101 in the Hartford Courant today, and Dobbs himself gets an "A" in anger, but an "F" in journalism:
Those who cheer Dobbs on should listen carefully to what he is saying. He not only pummels liberals, Democrats, unions and Hispanic groups, he denounces President Bush, congressional Republicans who toe the administration's line on immigration, "corporate supremacists" and the Roman Catholic Church for advocating "amnesty, guest-worker programs and open borders."
Dobbs has added little but anger to the debate. He insists he speaks "the truth" and said that those who disagree with him are "unconcerned about the 280 million American citizens, the men and women of this country who work for a living and their families...."
....Objective journalism has its flaws. It often sinks to the level of what one side says vs. what another side says, with little neutral interpretation. But the mixture of news and spin served up by Dobbs and others like him is a poisonous witch's brew.
If all the news were presented Dobbs-style, we would not believe any of it except when we shared the presenter's bias.
