Jewish Group Urges Firing Of CNN's Dobbs Over Nazi Remarks
A Jewish group is calling for the firing of an outspoken CNN anchor, Lou Dobbs, after he accused advocates for illegal immigrants of using propaganda techniques employed by Nazi Germany.
"Comparisons to Nazis — especially in this day and age — are abhorrent," the president and CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Gideon Aronoff, said in a statement yesterday. "Mr. Dobbs has crossed the line between responsible television commentary and hate-speech propaganda of his own. Keeping him on the air is essentially sanctioning by CNN — which is why we're asking CNN to remove Dobbs from his very public platform."
In a broadcast last week, Mr. Dobbs denounced immigrant-rights groups for portraying a crackdown on illegal immigration as a threat to foreigners who live in America legally.
"They might as well work for Herman Göring," Mr. Dobbs said. "I mean, they're running so much propaganda, trying to confuse the debate, the national dialogue, by talking about immigrants rather than illegal aliens and legal immigrants. It's mindless beyond belief."
A spokeswoman for CNN, Christa Robinson, did not respond directly to the call for Mr. Dobbs's ouster. However, she said his rhetoric was directed at those promoting sanctuary for illegal immigrants, such as Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco.
"Lou Dobbs's expression of outrage was not directed toward anyone except the officials of San Francisco. Any offense taken by any other group was certainly not intended," Ms. Robinson said in a statement last night.
Mr. Dobbs's use of the Nazi metaphor was first reported on The New York Sun's political Web log, nysunpolitics.com.
