Latino Groups demand CNN drop Lou Dobbs

Latino Leaders Across U.S. Demand CNN Drop Controversial
Host Lou Dobbs for Extremist Ties

Dobbs’ participation in event organized by hate group FAIR sparks Latinos nationally to launch unprecedented bilingual campaign using email and text messaging

www.BastaDobbs.com
Text Message: BASTA or ENOUGH to 3-0-6-4-4

Washington, D.C. – Citing his links to extremist groups and his ongoing promotion of dangerous anti-Latino and anti-immigrant rhetoric, organizations from the 25 U.S. cities with the largest Latino populations today joined forces to mount a national technology-driven campaign to demand that CNN drop Lou Dobbs from its program offering.

The campaign launches as Dobbs broadcasts his radio show this week from a national lobbying conference sponsored by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which was founded by white nationalist John Tanton and is designated as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Earlier this year, FAIR was linked to a woman in Arizona now charged with killing a 9-year-old Latina girl and her father. Recent studies have tied anti-immigrant hate speech to increased violence against Latinos in America.

“Enough is enough. CNN has allowed Dobbs to spout hate on its network for too long, and his alignment with a hate group like FAIR should be the last straw,” said Roberto Lovato of Presente.org, the national online group that is organizing the effort. “We are calling on CNN President Jon Klein to drop Dobbs if he and his network are to maintain any semblance of credibility in the fast-growing Latino media market.”

The appearance at this year’s FAIR event is the latest in Dobbs’ long career of aligning with white supremacist groups and using his platform on CNN to spread lies and conspiracy theories about Latinos and immigrants.

“Dobbs isn’t simply attending the FAIR rally – by broadcasting his show from there he is endorsing everything this group stands for,” Lovato added. “It can’t be tolerated from a news personality associated with a supposedly unbiased network like CNN.”

Presente.org and its partners are using a combination of traditional and new media in English and Spanish to educate Latinos across America about Dobbs’ anti-Latino history. Efforts will include Spanish-language radio PSAs that connect to a text-message campaign, email petitions and a bilingual website hub.

The campaign includes local partner organizations in the 25 U.S. cities with the largest Latino populations, listed below. These same cities account for more than 75 percent of the Hispanic television audience in the country. Latinos are the fastest-growing demographic group in the nation at 44 million, representing about 15 percent of the total U.S. population.

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List of Groups & Cities

Accion America (Dallas, TX)
Alma de Mujer Center for Social Change (Austin, TX)
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) (San Diego, CA)
CARECEN (San Francisco, CA)
Center for Media Justice (Oakland, CA)
Centro Presente (Boston, MA)
Chicano Consortium (Sacramento, CA)
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA)(Los Angeles, CA)
Coalicion de Derechos Humanos (Tucson, AZ)
Colorado Latino Forum (Denver, CO)
CRECEN (Houston, TX)
and many more


English Language Media Contact: Brandon Hatler
DobbsMustGo@gmail.com

Spanish Language Media Contact: Natali Fani
Telephone: 301.442.8459 / natali@mateagroup.com