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The recent attention paid to a notorious Long Island hate crime in which a group of young whites went in search of Latinos to harm has raised serious questions about the relationship between immigrant-bashing rhetoric and the surge of anti-Latino bias crimes nationally.

And the mainstream purveyors of this rhetoric -- particularly pundits like Bill O'Reilly and Lou Dobbs -- are denying their culpability in the only means available to them: By distorting the reality of hate crimes themselves.

In O'Reilly's case, this entailed conflating hate crimes with ordinary (and completely unrelated) crimes.

And in Dobbs', as we saw on his Monday program, it entails distorting statistics and pretending that he's never bashed or demonized Latinos on his CNN show:

DOBBS: Advocates of open borders and amnesty accusing border security advocates of fostering a wave of hate, but as usual, those groups led by La Raza and MALDEF were long on rhetoric and absolutely, absolutely devoid of facts or respect for them. Bill Tucker has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Being tough on illegal immigration is a bad thing in the eyes of La Raza, a Hispanic special interest group which says it represents the civil rights of all Latino immigrants. The group blames the murder of Marcello Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant on Long Island, New York, on a wave of immigrant hate sparked by local politicians who have called for enforcement of immigration law.

JANET MURGUIA, NATIONAL COUNCIL OF LA RAZA: Steve Levy has taken a notably hard line against immigrants in his county and has been lauded by cable hosts like Lou Dobbs as a folk hero.

TUCKER: The community has shown no tolerance for the crime. Seven teenagers were quickly arrested and charged with hate crimes ranging from assault to manslaughter in connection with that murder, the leader of the gang being held without bail. Lucero's murder though is being used by special interest groups like La Raza and MALDEF to call attention to what they call "a wave of hate crime in America."

However, just last month the FBI reported a slight decline in hate crimes nationally last year. The FBI saying there were just over 7,600 hate crimes versus just over 7,700 the year before. Groups calling for the enforcement of immigration law are furious that La Raza and MALDEF and others equate their position with hate.

DAN STEIN, F.A.I.R.: Their true agenda is to try to stop public discussion about the need to control the borders. And they are using isolated incidents, tragic incidents, to be sure, but isolated ones, and distorting statistics to try to muzzle important free-speech rights in this country.

TUCKER: Not once in the news conference was the phrase "illegal immigration" used or heard, instead the phrase "immigrant bashing" and "anti-immigrant" were the word choices of the day.

Dobbs and Tucker essentially lie by omission here: Even though hate crimes have in fact declined overall in the past couple of years, anti-Latino bias crimes have actually increased significantly. In other words, the statistics actually speak strongly to the fact that Latino-bashing bias crimes are on the rise because those figures run counter to the larger trend of declines in such crimes generally.

[Heidi Beirich at SPLC's Hatewatch has more on this point.]

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As his warmup for Wednesday night's debate, Lou Dobbs pretended (as he always does) to be engaging in free-form, nonpartisan outrage. Funny how it turned into nonstop Democrat bashing: from Dobbs' wonderment that white rural voters apparently don't care that Obama once supposedly dissed them, to the hyped-up "voter fraud scandal" in Ohio (odd, too, how the prospect of legitimate voters being denied the right to vote bothers Dobbs not one little whit), to ACORN (which he repeatedly referred to as a "radical left group").

But it all hit a peak when Diana West came on and said this, in discussing how someone like Obama could be ahead at this juncture:

WEST: I find it amazing. I think that a lot of our traditional beliefs about the way people think and act are being shattered in this election. One of whom would be in a time of economic crisis, I am amazed that Americans seem to be turning to one, the one, Senator Obama of course, who is someone who embraces what I would increasingly describe as socialist policies. He spoke about it this week in terms of spreading wealth around.

We kept hearing John McCain deride Obama during the debate for saying he wants to "spread the wealth". It's starting to sound like the "Obama is a socialist" meme is just about all they have left. (That may also explain why it's on the tongues of the entire wingnutosphere.)

Of course, West went on to advise McCain to go on the attack last night over Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright.

No wonder she thinks Civilization As We Know It Is Ending (because of Latinos, naturally, which makes her a Dobbs favorite and regular). It's being overrun by nonwhite socialists, after all.

I'm really hoping that the coming election sends a message -- not just to the Republican right, but to the poobahs in charge of our media -- that the public is fed up with this bullshit. And guys like Dobbs and West are relegated to the dungheaps of media history whence they crawled.

  After a mini-rant about how the "liberal media" has lost all sense of objectivity this election cycle, Lou Dobbs invites media "critic" Howard Kurtz on to "set him straight." As anyone who has watched/read Kurtz over the years knows, he couldn't agree more.

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DOBBS: It is, I think, a fairly safe assertion to put forward that the national media is liberal, it's biased and this year, at least to me, and as an advocacy journal, I can say these sorts of things here on CNN, I think they're missing a lot under the veil of objectivity and the impulses of something less than objective, at least in my view.

Let me turn to you first, Howard, just as a matter of straightforward fact, I believe, the fact of my opinion, anyway, I believe that the national media has revealed a lack of objectivity unprecedented in campaign coverage.

KURTZ: If you look at the last year and a half, Lou, I've never seen so much coverage and so much positive coverage of a presidential candidate as Barack Obama has gotten up through the overseas trip where some of the coverage was just gushing. In recent weeks, I think there's been a little more skepticism in the coverage, not because of any ethical re-assessment but because the race has tightened which makes poll-driven journalists wonder well what's he doing wrong. Why isn't he leading this race in a democratic year by ten points?

You're right, Howard: I can't even begin to imagine how many voters Obama picked up while having to defend himself from accusations by the media of being a secret Muslim who hates America and won't say the pledge of allegiance. Is this guy freaking serious?

Glenn has a great post up about the "liberal media," which he sums up thusly, borrowing a line from Duncan:

"Your liberal media: no liberals allowed."

Recommended reading on Kurtz at "The Daily Howler".

KURTZ JUMPS INTO THE TANK: Howard Kurtz is deep in the tank as he begins today's report. You'll rarely see a reporter recite a political party's line quite the way Kurtz recites the GOP line as he opens: 

From the moment Sarah Palin stepped onto the national stage, she was mauled, minimized and manhandled by an openly skeptical media establishment.
That lasted six days. By Thursday morning, after a speech in which she chided the journalistic elite, the previously obscure governor of Alaska was being hailed by many of the same media gurus.

The media's tattered reputation has not fared as well, not after the frenzy over Palin's mothering skills, her baby and her pregnant teenage daughter. 

Truly, that's quite a statement-and it's the straight Republican line. Palin was "mauled and manhandled by an openly skeptical media establishment," Kurtz says. But go ahead! Just try to find Kurtz's support for that remarkable statement...read on

The federal government can invade every aspect of my life as long as they keep me safe from those drug-running Mexicans.

WaPo reported Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security is building a database that tracks every every American citizen's border crossings and catalogs the data for as long as 15 years, with little to no privacy measures in place to prevent abuse.

The federal government has been using its system of border checkpoints to greatly expand a database on travelers entering the country by collecting information on all U.S. citizens crossing by land, compiling data that will be stored for 15 years and may be used in criminal and intelligence investigations.

When Wolf Blitzer asks CNN's Resident Xenophobe, Lou Dobbs, for his opinion, the pseudo-intellectual said this story is troublesome not because of the invasion of privacy issues it raises, but rater because those damn illegals are still sneaking into the country with their horrific (i.e. non-existent) diseases and contraband.

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"The State Department has been tracking what's happening with our passports for years and years and years. There seems to be some dust-up here. The real story to me is that all of this concern about tracking citizens going about their lawful activities entering and exiting this country, while they have done nothing at the DHS to shut down the flow of illegals aliens across our borders, potential terrorists, and still Mexico, for example, is the primary source for methamphetamines, heroin, cocaine and marijuana into this country... and it's not being stopped!!!"

Is there no issue out there that this hack won't exploit in order to bash illegal immigrants?

The State Department certainly hasn't been tracking border crossings "for years and years and years," and keeping that information in a central computer for 15 years with no oversight provisions.

The fact that we're becoming a bona fide surveillance state doesn't bother Lou Dobbs. All he cares about is twisting a story in order to rail against his favorite target. He's always sure to slip in his talking points, too, even if they're bogus.

  For all the things to raise the specter of impeachment over, Lou Dobbs chooses poison tomatoes. Go figure.

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"You know, I have heard a lot of reasons over the years as to why George W. Bush should be impeached. For them to leave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in this state, its leadership in this sorry condition and to have no capacity apparently or will to protect the American consumer - that is alone, to me, sufficient reason to impeach a President who has made this agency possible, and has ripped its guts out in its ability to protect the American consumer. It's insane what is going on here."

Watch out, Lou Dobbs. Max and the Marginalized have burritos and they're not afraid to use them.

Paul Waldman at The Sanctuary (crossposted at DailyKos)

If your only source of news is cable during prime time, you might be among those who believe that the U.S. government and American society are groaning under the weight of undocumented immigrants. You might believe that there is a terrifying crime wave attributable to illegal immigration. You might believe that undocumented immigrants feast on a cornucopia of social services, while avoiding paying taxes. You might also believe that they are voting illegally in large numbers, and that they bring with them all sorts of diseases. You might also believe that there are secret plans afoot to give away American sovereignty, as the United States joins with Canada and Mexico in a North American Union similar to the European Union. You might even believe that there is an enormous "NAFTA Superhighway," running all the way from Mexico City to Toronto, in the works as we speak.

All of these ideas are false, but you might believe them if you watch prime-time cable news. We at the Media Matters Action Network have documented the spread of this kind of misinformation in our latest report, Fear & Loathing in Prime Time: Immigration Myths and Cable News, which focuses on the three cable hosts most responsible for spreading misinformation and fostering fear and anger about undocumented immigrants: Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly, and Glenn Beck. Read on...

If you want to talk about who's "out of touch" with regular Americans, look no further than the Village Idiots that comprise the super-majority of our political press corps. Foremost among them is Lou Dobbs, who last night got punk'd by his own admittedly-"adjusted" poll.

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It's pretty funny that Dobbs doesn't realize that he's the one whose been stoking his viewers' anger and bitterness for the past 5 years with his anti-immigrant diatribes. There is nothing wrong with being "bitter and angry" about where America is at today. I would argue that you're not paying much attention if you're not.

By the way, the current tally now stands at:

I wonder if the media regrets having picked this fight, if only because it shows how "out of touch" they are with "small town America" from their cushy DC and NY studios.

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Maybe because I'm a "San Francisco elite," when I heard what Barack Obama said at a Marin County fundraiser about the difficulties inherent in reaching out to small town voters, I said, "And...?" Obviously, context is everything, and perhaps it was not as artfully phrased as it might have been. Are voters so fragile that having someone point out that there is antipathy and bitterness in many economically impoverished areas that makes it hard to connect to voters and encourage them to vote for you is somehow an elitist attitude? Are we so immature that we need candidates to pat us on our heads and say, "It's okay, little voter, there, there...don't let me bother your pretty little head with reality"? Really, which is more condescending?

But you wouldn't have known that by CNN's coverage on Lou Dobbs Tonight. Guest host Kitty Pilgrim spent the whole hour talking about how this could potentially devastate Obama's campaign, bringing on concerned analysts and reporters alike to discuss how this shows Obama's elitist attitude (my God, he declined a cup of coffee for a glass of orange juice...and he can't bowl! That snob!). And while they acknowledged Obama's response, they saw fit to focus on Clinton and McCain's pouncing on this opportunity to go after Obama. At first, I was incredulous over the whole thing and figured that the media just needed something to talk about. But then I looked at the calendar.

Friday afternoon data dump. What came out of the White House this Friday? Bush sanctioned torture.

That's right. While Kitty Pilgrim clutched her pearls for a full hour at the thought of poor voters in rural Pennsylvania being thought of as being bitter and distrustful of others because of their disaffection, she (and all the other talking heads and news shows) IGNORED the fact that our president has admitted that he committed a war crime. A crime for which other heads of state have found themselves in front of a war crimes tribunal in The Hague, but merited not even a yawn out of our media. Read what is less important to CNN than Barack Obama's characterization (NSFW).

Talk about disaffection. At this point, I am of the belief that we need to put the heads of these media companies on trial as well for their complicity. Take the AOL Hot Seat below the fold:

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As the resident parent of the C&L bunch, I've been looking at the toy recalls closely and have written about the Bush administration's version of Consumer Products Safety Commission, which like so many of Bush's appointees, places more importance on corporations than the consumers it has been charged to protect.   Well, now CPSC chairperson Nancy Nord has brought the wrath of Dobbs upon her:

This -- Nord, is she as imbecilic as she appears to be as absolutely insensitive to American consumers, as absolutely lacking the judgment to run a federal agency designed and created to protect the American consumer? I mean this woman is beyond belief. [..]

How many of these recalls did her agency initiate? I wonder if she would like to answer that question. I wonder if she would like to explain how in the world she could say this is not a trade issue when she is sitting there testifying before Congress saying that this country is simply swamped with those giant containers filled with all sorts of things, but in this case, toys that are not being inspected.

Welcome to BushWorld, Lou.  Where have you been for the last eight years?

Full Transcripts Below The Fold

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Lou Dobbs is outraged, outraged, I tell you!, at yet another example of lip service by the Bush Administration of caring about national security while doing something entirely opposite.  No offense, Lou, but get in line. 

Apparently, our tax dollars are going to fund a Russian nuclear lab (why?) that is in turn, working with the Iranians. The subtext is that the Russians are helping the Iranians develop a nuclear weapons program, NIE Report be damned. However, it would be interesting to know why the US continues to fund nuclear technology development in Russia.

PILGRIM: The rationale for the Department of Energy program was to pay the salaries of Russian scientists who were left without incomes after the Cold War. The thinking was to keep them on the payroll so they wouldn't peddle their nuclear expertise to rogue nations like Iran. [..]

DOBBS: This administration, everyone keeps talking about the legacy of this administration, well their legacy is mind-boggling, unbelievable, breathtaking, incompetence and stupidity. That is going to be the legacy of the Bush administration. Thank god that Congressman Dingell and Stupak are leading the way on this issue. I mean my -- how in the heck can a secretary of the Department of Energy, Samuel Bodman, even get up in the morning and think he has done anything but waste some of God's protoplasm if he can't run that department better than he is.

Transcript of this segment below. Full show transcripts available here.

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Just days away from the South Carolina primary, Lou Dobbs warns about the dangers of electronic voting systems.  Um, Lou?  Where were you in 2004? 2000?

The reality is, because no one thinks -- we're focusing on this, the issue is that these machines are not reliable to the degree they should be and with a paper trail, verified paper system. There is -- at least you're protecting the integrity of the system so you have a recount. People must understand, you can't have a recount without that. 

Welcome to our world, Lou.  Just shows you that the netroots have been ahead of the curve and it's the MSM that must catch up.  On a related note--not that it will assuage those who want to believe otherwise--NH's Democratic primary recount has ended and they've found very few errors and the results remained basically the same.  

 Transcripts below the fold:

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Lou Dobbs looks at how the Fed's stimulus plan ignores the larger deficits we face and is a little too little and a little too late.

The stimulus package that Ben Bernanke the Fed Chairman said that we should be buying those domestically-produced products, we’re in a world of hurt even in that area.

Well, exactly. Then Dobbs speaks to Robert Kuttner and Jeremy Siegel on exactly what that means to the middle class.

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KUTTNER: The problem is, (the 3/4 point drop) won't fix what's broken. You've got all of these structural problems with bank balance sheets because the bank sponsored this orgy of speculative spending. And they've lost tens of billions of dollars. You know a balance sheet is a balance sheet. The idea that Citigroup can have something that's off balance sheet. If you and I apply for a loan and we say to the creditor, well, some of my stuff is off balance sheets, I didn't tell you that, we'd go to hail. This smack of Enron and the damage of all this stuff is going to cascade on the rest of the economy.

DOBBS: Robert Kuttner is referring to the collateralized debt obligations, more securitized debt, the misapplication of which Professor Siegel we have seen the ramifications for just about 30 years in this country. Why in the world aren't the regulators in this marketplace, why aren't they regulating these institutions? And why in the world is this government, in both political parties, permitting this kind of unadulterated, unfettered capitalism to rape this country?

SPIEGEL: Well, certainly we had too much lending, mostly against housing. And a case can be made, that Greenspan sat back without saying anything, saying, oh, the markets will take care of it. The world markets will take care of it and ignoring it. And there can be a case made on that.

DOBBS: Where are the free marketeers now? Where are those faith-based economists who said let Mr. Market smile and everything will be fine?

KUTTNER: Well, they look like damn fools, as they ought to. And we've some had foxes in chicken coops for third years often under republicans and sometimes democrats. We've had regulators who didn't believe in protecting the consumer.

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On Friday's Countdown, the bronze went to Swift Boat Vet Ted Sampley for being an idiot with his racist hit-job on Barack Obama which earned him a letter from the General (and yes, this is the same louse who is jointly behind the swift-boating of John McCain that Keith reported on last night), the silver went to Lou Dobbs for his baseless assertion that half of the Culinary Workers Union's members "are illegal aliens," and the gold went to, of course, Bill O'Reilly for his hitting a new low after his being presented by a guest with the fact that he's been wrong all along about his slandering of John Edwards for caring about the 200,000 homeless veterans that Billo has repeatedly denied even existed, when he had the gall to declare that John Edwards owes him an apology.

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Media: Do. Your. Job.

'nuff said.