CNN's Dobbs Floats Nazi Metaphor in Immigration Fight
by Josh Gerstein
Tue, 24 Apr 2007 at 12:51 AM
updated Tue, 24 Apr 2007 at 1:46 AM
CNN's Lou Dobbs has accused immigrant rights groups and perhaps Mayor Newsom of San Francisco of embracing propaganda tactics reminiscent of the Third Reich.
"They might as well work for Hermann Goering, 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," Mr. Dobbs declared on his program Monday night. The spark for the CNN's anchor's ire was Mr. Newsom's speech over the weekend reaffirming his city's policy of not assisting federal officials with immigration-related raids.
At a time when offense-takers are still waving Imus's scalp, it doesn't seem wise to be throwing around Nazi allusions willy-nilly. It appears Mr. Dobbs was referring to both Mr. Newsom and pro-immigrant groups, but you can judge for yourself here.
I suspect Mr. Dobbs may have intended to refer to the Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, rather than Goering, who was more of a military type. In any event, the aspersions cast are equally nasty.
It is surely true that organizations favoring lax border controls and amnesty for illegal aliens try to advance their cause by harnessing Americans generous sentiments towards legal immigrants. The widely-adopted phrase, "undocumented worker," is a good example of efforts to use doubletalk to recast the immigration debate. Still, that point can be forcefully and even colorfully made without dropping the other N-bomb.
Speaking of inappropriate Nazi references, my colleague, Ryan Sager, recently opined on the wisdom of a former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, invoking Hitler on the presidential campaign trail.
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