26 October 2009

BLOGTOBER 2009: It's LOU DOBBS Fault!



Incredible, CNN's abyssmal ratings from 7-11pm ET has nothing to do with how boring their programming is, it's all Lou Dobbs fault (according to the first four commenters at the NYT Media Decoder blogpost on the subject).

Nevermind that Lou Dobbs is only on from 7-8pm, and while his numbers are terrible, they're in line with the rest of the lineup.

I'm sure whatever CNN replaces Lou Dobbs with when he leaves, will do even worse (can an Andrew Sullivan Hour be far behind, they could replace one fake token 'conservative' who hasn't been a conservative for years with another 'conservative' who no longer believes in conservatism).

I don't like Lou Dobbs personally, his brand of populism veers into many bad territories. While there's some areas where libertarians, populist, and social conservatives agree, the populist are the most likely of those three to demand government 'does something' about the things they don't like. I disagree with much that comes out of the social conservative movement, as well, but for the most part, their solution is, let us be and don't force us to pay taxes to fund acts we find reprehensible, more than, let us use the massive apparatus of government to impose our will on others (though as far as progressives are concerned, not spending government funds on something is tantamount to prohibiting that thing).

Lou Dobbs might sound like a conservative or libertarian to the 'progressives' who enjoy the rest of CNN's programming, but he seems to me more like an opportunistic populist who takes whatever position will sell his current book.

Rumor is he wants on Fox Business, but if Fox was smart, they'll leave him alone.

5 comments:

Trooper York said...

Most people don't know what "Populists" really are. They should research Tom Watson (the senator not the golfer) and they might get an eye openner.

Trooper York said...

Who in their right mind would watch CNN when somewhere there is an informercial about a juicer or a thigh master with Christy Brinkley and Chuck Norris.

Trooper York said...

We have a hard time sleeping because we are always fretting about our business so we always have late, late night TV on to try to be lulled to sleep. The funny thing is how consistent the comericals are on the channels we like.

The ones the wife wants to watch have a lot of commercials about the yougut that makes you crap.

The ones I want to watch have "Girls gone Wild" and how to get out of credit card debt.

Marriage is compromise.

Trooper York said...

Lou Dobbs always struck me as a stupider Protestant version of Donald Trump.

XWL said...

The Watson wiki is interesting reading.

There's been many movements to fall under the 'populist' banner, but one defining feature is an "Us v Them" mentality, defined usually racially, religously, or economically (and sometimes all three).

(Lou Dobbs has managed all three at one time or another, though his critics exaggerate the degree)

(and just cause his outcry over illegal immigration seems racially motivated, doesn't make him wrong about the costs to our country)

But that's the problem, 'progressivism', and 'populism', make for better soundbites and infomercials.

A consistent laissez-faire libertarian message on both social and economic issues comes across as disinterested at best, heartless at worst.