Hatewatch Tweets
Hatewatch is managed by the staff of the Intelligence Report, an investigative magazine published by the Alabama-based civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center.
Lou Dobbs Citing Extremists, Again
Lou Dobbs, the CNN host who has been frequently criticized for turning his program, “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” into a forum for anti-immigrant extremists, is at it again. In the past few months, Dobbs has aired six different reports featuring anti-immigrant activist Rick Oltman of Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS). The reports, all narrated by CNN correspondent Casey Wian, primarily discussed California’s budget woes, with Oltman blaming them on undocumented workers.
If Wian had conducted a simple Web search for Oltman, he would have dug up a laundry list of Oltman’s extremist activities. For example, Wian would have quickly found out that in 1998, Oltman, who was then the western regional representative for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), traveled to Cullman, Ala., for a protest against a swelling local population of Mexican workers. The event was put on by the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), which “oppose[s] all efforts to mix the races of mankind,” and featured an unrobed Klansman burning a Mexican flag. In the CCC’s ad for the event, Oltman was described as a member of that group. There also is a photograph that has been available on the Web since last year of Oltman participating in a 1997 CCC conference panel entitled, “Immigration: Are We Being Overrun?,” which ran in the group’s in-house publication, Citizens Informer.
Wian can’t claim ignorance of the CCC. In 2006, during a report that Wian was narrating on “Lou Dobbs Tonight” about a state visit by Mexico’s then-president Vicente Fox, a graphic appeared of “Aztlan,” the southwestern portion of the current United States that conspiracy theorists claim Mexico is secretly plotting to “reconquer” with the aid of “invading” Mexican immigrants. Wian joked as the image was aired: “You could call this the Vicente Fox Aztlan tour, since the three states he’ll visit — Utah, Washington, and California — are all part of some radical group’s vision of the mythical indigenous homeland.” CNN’s accompanying full-screen map depicting “Aztlan” was prominently sourced to the CCC, causing widespread criticism of Dobbs for relying on hate group material. A spokesman for Dobbs went on the record shortly afterward saying that the producer who had found and used the hate group map was “disciplined” as a result.
If Wian had searched further into CAPS and Oltman, he would also have found that the group Oltman now works for, CAPS, received funding in 2002 from the race science outfit the Pioneer Fund. Set up in 1937 to “improve the character of the American people” by promoting the study of eugenics and the procreation of descendants of the original white colonial stock, Pioneer has funded many of the leading Anglo-American race scientists of the last several decades. Pioneer also has funded a few other anti-immigration groups besides CAPS, furnishing FAIR more than $1.2 million between 1985 and 1994, and giving ProjectUSA, a group known for putting up anti-immigrant billboards in New York City and run by Craig Nelsen, $10,000 in 2002.
Wian might even have figured out that CAPS has worked closely with other hate groups. Last October, CAPS and the Social Contract Press, listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, co-hosted a press conference at the National Press Club on “How Many Illegal Aliens are in the U.S.?” CAPS President Diana Hull shared the stage with Wayne Lutton, who edits the press’ journal The Social Contract. Few members of the radical right have a longer hate resume than Lutton, who has been published in the Holocaust-denying Journal of Historical Review, served as an editorial board member for the CCC’s Citizens Informer, and co-wrote an anti-immigrant screed, The Immigration Invasion, that has been seized as hate material in Canada. Under Lutton’s purview, The Social Contract has published dozens of white nationalists and put out a special issue that was entitled “Europhobia: The Hostility Toward European-Descended Americans.” The lead article argued that “multiculturalism” was replacing “successful Euro-American culture” with “dysfunctional Third World cultures.”
Other popular anti-immigration folks featured on Dobbs’ show in the last year include Dan Stein and Ira Mehlman of FAIR, which the Southern Poverty Law Center began listing as a hate group in 2007 and whose founder, John Tanton, has spoken of a “Latin onslaught” and questioned the “educability” of Latino immigrants. Dobbs has also featured officials from the Center for Immigration Studies, an organization that describes itself as “an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research organization,” but which is an anti-immigration group originally conceived of by Tanton and founded as part of FAIR. CIS awarded Dobbs its 2004 Eugene Katz Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration.
on August 2nd, 2008 at 11:48 pm
It sounds like Mr. Dobbs is doing a good job.
on August 4th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
And there are lots of sweeping generalizations and stereotypical statements on this website.
Many people personally KNOW Hispanic Americans who have harbored illegals of THEIR OWN ethnic group. It isn’t like we were born yesterday.
Which came first – the Aztlanians or the FAIR members? I will contend that all Americans who object to illegal immigration are called all manner of names – from “racist” to “nativist”. Whether they are Hispanic Minutemen or black Minutemen – they are all “racist”. It doesn’t compute.
Either that or they are naive “pawns” swayed this way and that way by those mean racist leaders.
They can never be just plain old Americans – who see their country declining – who see illegals getting a free ride on Medicaid – or any other problem which is as plain as day.
And Hispanics are never led hither and yon by THEIR racist leaders – like Jose Angel Guttierez.
Oh, no. That doesn’t fit with the agenda.
on August 4th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
In my community, even Latinos question the educatibility of Latinos.
They must be racist…..against themselves??????
on August 4th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
First the all, the educability of illegals must be questioned.
If they know it is illegal to be here and come anyway, their educability is questionable from the get-go.
Would you be an illegal in another country simply because you could might possibly have more income? If so, you must go to several other countries in the world, besides the US, which now have a higher income level than we do.
(But don’t expect your mother and father to come rescue you when you get thrown into a detention center.)
Ignorance of the LAW is no excuse.
on August 4th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
If you really stand back and take a look, it doesn’t take much of an IQ to see that the Latinos ARE invading. They come without the permission of our citizens or our government. They make themselves right at home.
No one invited them.
If they came here as workers and were invited – like the Chinese or other Asians were in previous immigration waves – Americans would only have a gripe with the employers.
Not so. The illegals take it upon themselves to jump fences, leap small buildings and dig tunnels.
They reap what they sow.
on August 4th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Why wouldn’t groups question the educability of Latinos?
They, by their own admission, refuse to assimilate. Oh, no, that is only the MECHA student group – the future LEADERS of the Latino ethnic group. If the leaders refuse to assimilate and become part of the greater society – (which is more educated and financially successful than the society from which they came) – are they not missing a major POINT?
Hence, Americans of all colors must question the educability of not only MECHA members, but Latino groups of similar learnings – and perhaps – all Latinos. If these are the leaders, what are the followers like?
on August 4th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
The murmurings of hate are once again being heard in our land. As with other nations that have chosen this path this hatred is being used as a political weapon. A scapegoat! Never mind the massive corruption infesting every department, here is an enemy only WE can save you from. Must mankind ALWAYS fall for this?
on August 4th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Hey Granny, sounds like you’re describing the neighborhoods OUR ancestors settled into when they first arrived. Every argument you’ve used against Hispanics have been used against the Irish and the Germans and the French and the chinese and the Italians etc. etc.
As for the illegal “claim” as a Jew I can tell you how easy it is for some soulless government official to sign a form making it illegal for “some people” to breathe.
on August 5th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Marvin,
“The murmurings of hate are once again being heard in our land …”
Yes, that would be MEChA, the National Council for La Raza (“Raza” means “race” – that would make them racist) and other entities.
on August 5th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Marvin,
As a Jew, do you advocate Israel having open borders and allowing the Palestinians become the majority there? Do you think it is “soulless” for the Israeli government to have a restrictive immigration policy?
PS:
And no, I’m not anti-Israeli; I have great admiration for Israel.
on August 5th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Jonathan,
Simply amazing. Thank you for proving my point. You actually equate Hispanics with Palestinians? To my knowledge our fellow Americans (you know north, central and south Americas) do not come here with bombs strapped to their bodies. They come here to make a better life for themselves and their families. The very same reason our own ancestors arrived here.
Sorry but I understand the “Lou Dobbs” of the world. They abet the crooks in charge by creating enemies in your mind.
on August 6th, 2008 at 12:01 am
Marvin,
More amazing, you didn’t answer my question.
No, Palestinians and Hispanics aren’t clones of each other. But there’s no benefit for the Americans or Israelis being demographically displaced.
You said: “They abet the crooks in charge by creating enemies in your mind.”
Who are the “crooks” to whom you refer?
on August 6th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Israel uses common sense, why can’t we?
Israel accused of discrimination after ending Ethiopian immigration Israel has ended a three-decade-old policy of immigration from Ethiopia, saying it wants to devote resources instead to integrating Ethiopian Jews already in the country.
The move evoked a furious reaction from leaders of the 120,000-strong Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel, who said the “discrimination” and “prejudice” of the Israeli government would strand thousands of people in Africa and thwart family reunifications.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....ation.html
on August 7th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Jonathan, I’m a citizen of the United States I am not a citizen of Israel. Your rush to respond with items about Israel after learning that I’m a jew reflects the reason the Lou Dobbs bigoted rants appeal to you.
on August 18th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
What does “Isreal” have anything to do with our current illegal immigration mess?
Besides juxtapositioning the Palastianians to Hispanics is as lame as Lou Dobbs himself. There’s no relations between the two. But frankly speaking, I always question the sanity of those who actually believe what Lou Dobbs has to say about our current immigration crisis. That’s like reading the National Enquire for your latest updates. Which brings me to another question–if CNN wants to remain a credible and accurate national newsmedia source then they should cut loose Lou Dobbs to begin with.
on September 29th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Facts lost in all the Lou Dobbs noise and mexican American outrage.
1. White people from SPAIN took over most of the continent by killings tens of millions of NATIVE AMERICANS(Indians).
2. Then white people from Northern Europe took large portions of the captured Indian territory from the White Spaniards.(land stolen from INDIANS).
3. Mexico has absolutely no legitimate right to call ANY of America as having been theirs or to lay claim to Any part of
North America.(and not much of South America)
on October 1st, 2008 at 9:54 am
Man I’m desperately trying to follow the train of logic here Don, but since North America is comprised of Canada, The USA and Mexico the logic is lost.
on October 1st, 2008 at 11:50 am
Well at least we can all agree with one point regarding Lou Blobs is that the loon is an exaggerating nutbar. He can’t even give prominent journalists the source of his facts. And that’s a shame for a national spokeshole like Dobbsy.
This forum is as old as hearing Brittany Spears is in rehab again. This is nothing new.
And I’m not sure why some backward numbskulls are stuck on here like a dead plant.