Dobbs is a vile bigot. No one has suggested he be arrested. This has nothing to do with the first amendment. Our lawmakers have the right to free speech as well, which they have used. One point might be that a menacing tone coming from lawmakers could be deemed a threat but there is no hint of that here. Indeed, these lawmakers are expressing the will of many of the constituants who have elected them.

Dobbs doesn't practice journalism. He's a propagandist whose goal is to dehumanize a group of people. I don't see the problem with Congress asking the MSM to include some facts and context in their shows when you consider how much control and influence the corporate media have over our government and our society.

If Dobbs were railing about any other group of people I doubt that Salon would be defending it as free speech. We all know that certain groups are "off limits," free speech or not.

I see Dobbs as more like a columnist or pundit than a journalist.

Are they going after Limbaugh and all the rest too, or just Dobbs? Last time I checked it wasn't unconstitutional to be against illegal immigration. Now, what Lou is advocating might be pretty misguided and lead to lots of unintended consequences. But there's nothing illegal about that.

They are just handing Dobbs one more thing to get outraged over and to rally his viewers around him.

He didn't sound insane or bigoted. Dobbs looks more at the non efforts of government and Congress to do ANYTHING about illegal immigration than on the immigrants themselves. There there is simply no way to avoid the fact that illegal immigrants are in fact foreigners. That's the nature of illegal immigration. If not Hispanics it will be Koreans or Russians or Indians or mainland Chinese. It's ALWAYS going to be someone. You can't forbid anyone from raising the issue of illegal foreigners BECAUSE they are foreign. Would you talk about race relations in the US w/o being able to mention race?

I used to like money line and deeply miss Willow Bay. I used to like Lou more but he has decided to become O'Reilly lite. I write CNN every day to remind them that he is a pompous boneheaded biased opinionated shallow jackass disgrace to journalism.

Well I have freedom too ;-p

So members of Congress have less of a right to voice their disagreement with a reporter's point of view?

"You still have freedom of speech, but you've got to put out the facts and information."

uh, sorry congressman Baca. No you don't. If this were true, we really wouldn't have any media at all. The Whitehouse wouldn't be able to make any public statements either!

As one of my favorite law professors used to say "You have a First Amendment Right to be a racist and a bigot!!!" And racist, bigoted views certainly don't have any factual or logical support. So Dobbs can say whatever he wants, as ill-informed and unrealistic as it might be. It's not for our elected officials to criticise him in their official capacity.

I would like to agree with the claim that "He's a news broadcaster and he should be fair and objective". But I agree with Glenn that this is not the case for many people who appear on news channels. Many of them are little more than entertainers. Now and then Dobbs pulls out some useful info, but most of the time I just can't watch.

On the other hand, what if the day came that there was no real news on TV? Free speech is a fine principle, but airwaves are precious, and too many people get their news only from TV.

It's like the "war on drugs": politicians want to go after the "dealers" (newscasters), and somehow the "users" can't tear themselves away and make the right choices. Dobbs is pandering and the people are smoking it.

Gosh he's bad. Always cutting into the profits of nice people like major banks and chicken processors and the Mexican government.

Say, has Andrew Leonard looked into the fun backgrounds of those involved in the letter? For instance, Baca has a couple links to an Aztlan-favoring extremist. Any thought of doing some real reporting?

Scroll through my archives to find out what's really going on with the wider issue.

For instance, Baca has a couple links to an Aztlan-favoring extremist. Any thought of doing some real reporting?

Why is that important here? The columnist was not supporting their condemnation in the first place. Who cares where they are coming from?

And what is your "wider issue?" I read a couple of posts in your history, and the only thing I could discern is that you don't want people immigrating to this country at all... but mostly not people of hispanic descent.

I think that approach is completely devoid of logic and reason. Not to mention counter-productive to a country facing labor shortages in key areas with a neighboring population ready and willing to fill those shortages.

Dobbs has gotten increasingly over-the-top with his anti-illegal immigration fervor. However, he doesn't bash people (e.g., Mexicans), he bashes *unlawful conduct* (coming to / remaining in the USA illegally). Also, a lot of Americans, including many racially / ethnically tolerant Dems and Independents, are very angry that Dems seem to tolerate illegal immigration because they want Latino votes and that Republican seem to tolerate illegal immigration because they want cheap labor. To borrow from William F. Buckley, Jr., Dobbs seems to be the only media person who has the guts to do what most Americans want the government to do....to stand athwart the illegal immigration mess and yell "Stop!". Dobbs is yelling "Stop!" in an increasingly loud voice and millions of CNN (read: left of Fox News) viewers are loving it.

Who cares what those guys say? And who cares what Dobbs believes?

I can't understand the accusation that Dobbs is a bigot, that's for sure. He's an anti-Hispanic nativist who married a Mexican woman?!?

That don't add up, really.

Personally, I think the guy's just a paleo-conservative, and that's not such a horrible thing.

I have an idea to address the "problem," anyway. Let the people who are so upset by working illegal immigrants take their jobs. If an employer can't produce proof that an employee is a citizen, let any citizen with documentation who can do the work just move in to do it.

It'll cost the employers some money, natch. But they're breaking the law hiring illegal immigrants anyway, and losses in new employee costs would be onerous than fines.