Lou Dobbs lets right-wing front group smear SEIU so he can link Obama to Blagojevich
By John Amato Tuesday Dec 16, 2008 1:00pm
Lou Dobbs did a complete hit piece on Obama, ACORN and the SEIU yesterday and used Rick Berman's right-wing front group, which poses (unconvincingly) as a non-partisan organization to do it. Shame on you, Lou.
Right-wingers are freaked out that after conservatives got trounced in the 2008 election, Americans might want to join unions, so they are spending megabucks to smear them, including SEIU. UnionFacts.org ran this smear ad in the NY Times that Dobbs, who loves to descrtibe himself as a "populist," used in the above segment.
Lou called them a "union watchdog group":
Dobbs: There are new questions tonight about possible ties between President-elect Obama's campaign and Governor Blagojevich's office. A union watchdog group says Blagojevich's largest contributor, the Service Employees International Union, also donated millions of dollars to the Obama campaign. Bill Tucker has our report.
So Dobbs is doing what almost every other media outlet is doing: Trying to smear Obama with Blags, and using idiotic examples to do it.
Dobbs willingly used the Center for Union Facts -- which is another word for "smear" -- to make these farcical claims. CNN should be ashamed of itself.
TUCKER: Now Employee Free Choice Act is strongly opposed by a number of groups including the Union Facts Organization. Obama and the Democratic leadership, Lou, have made it very clear that they publicly support the Employee Free Choice Act.
DOBBS: A number of people have said you know they will support the Free Choice Act if the United States Congress starts doing all of its caucusing in public. It's -- this is a very difficult issue here.
Tucker fails to name any groups that oppose EFCA except a wingnut front group that he fails to identify. Have you noticed how CNN has changed their graphics? They could have easily given viewers some facts about the group. And what does Congress caucusing in public view have to do with unionizing?
If you've never heard of the "Center for Union Facts," here's a little info:
The Center is the latest public relations campaign and front group devised by “notorious D.C. lobbyist”1 and veteran spin doctor Richard “Rick” Berman with his firm, Berman and Company.
The Center for Union Facts is a front group focused on damaging the public image of unions, depressing workers’ rights, pushing legislation that would make it more difficult for workers to join unions, and furthering an anti-union business climate.
Berman earned his status as one of The Hill’s top lobbyists, along with Jack Abramoff,2 by working on behalf of unpopular clients like the tobacco, alcohol, and fast food industries. Berman’s campaigns have attempted to relax drunk driving laws, argue obesity is not a public health issue, prevent increases in the federal or state minimum wage, and attack advocacy groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).
They were created in 2006 and ran full page ads in the NY Times and the Washington Post attacking unions.
The group, the Center for Union Facts, ran full-page advertisements in national newspapers yesterday and started a Web site, UnionFacts.com, asserting that many unions are corrupt and have hurt airlines, steel makers and automakers.
{snip}
The Center for Union Facts shot onto the public stage yesterday by running full-page ads in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.
And guess what the creation of the bogus "UnionFacts" was for? I'll give you a hint...It's two words...."Card Check" That's right. the right wing is terrified that American workers might want to join a union.
Dobbs mimics the above ad that Union Facts bought in the NY Times which tries to link Obama to disgraced Illinois Gov Blagojevich by saying that since the SEIU gave campaign contributions to both they are all guilty of something. Typical Republican branding.In Dobbs mind these campaign donations somehow link Obama and SEIU to Blagojevich's possible corruption by the usual Republican mantra. Guilt by Association. Give me a freaking break. I know the media is looking for anything they can use to smear Obama with on Blags, but get real... Nowhere in this segment does Dobbs tell his audience anything about this front group for CEO's and misleads the audience completely.
It's bad enough that Dobbs doesn't even know what Employee Free Choice Act is, but to then use a wingnut front group to attack it means either a couple of things. He knows they are a CEO-backed front group. He is lying to his audience or he is completely ignorant of the entire story. Which then begs the question: Why the heck would he run such garbage knowingly? Lou, the "independent populist," either got willingly played for a fool by corporate shills, or hates union workers, or both. You tell me.
I'd debate Lou anytime if he'd like on this topic. What do you say, Lou?
More about Berman here.
Full transcript via CNN below the fold:
BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This full-page ad in "The New York Times" doesn't hesitate to connect Illinois' scandal- ridden Governor Rod Blagojevich, ACORN and corrupt Chicago politics. The ad was paid for by the self-described union watchdog group the Center for Union Facts.
The ad draws attention near the Service Employee International Union. The SEIU was Governor Blagojevich's largest contributor in his last campaign in 2006, donating almost a million dollars. The next year, 2007, the governor signed the first-ever contract with the SEIU local 880, made up of state childcare workers, increasing union membership by 49,000 members. The Center for Union Facts says the connection is more Chicago-style politics on open display.
JUSTIN WILSON, CENTER FOR UNION FACTS: These people really and truly are pushing around politicians with money and power and influence. And in a lot of ways they try to control the public debate about issues and use a lot of misinformation to steer constituents, to contact their voters or contact their congressmen.
TUCKER: ACORN though denies any connection with SEIU as a union. The Center for Union Facts points out that the SEIU was the first union to publicly endorse Obama's candidacy and it spent more than $13 million on ads supporting him.
The SEIU calls the ad a quote, "distraction". And without responding directly to the charges made in the ad, the union released the following statement. Quote, "the SEIU will continue working with President-elect Obama, the new Congress, and activists all around this country to help bring change that works to America." Part of that change would be the Employee Free Choice Act, which would eliminate secret ballots and union organizing efforts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCKER: Now Employee Free Choice Act is strongly opposed by a number of groups including the Union Facts Organization. Obama and the Democratic leadership, Lou, have made it very clear that they publicly support the Employee Free Choice Act.
DOBBS: A number of people have said you know they will support the Free Choice Act if the United States Congress starts doing all of its caucusing in public. It's -- this is a very difficult issue here.
TUCKER: It is.
DOBBS: Appreciate it. Thank you very much -- Bill Tucker.
What people would that be Lou? Don't you hate these lame brain assertions? What does Congress caucusing have to do with unions?
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Where do they find these SCUMBAGS. Look at the US after 8 years. What is with these FuckTards.
Is it me or is Dobbs loosing it? Could his CNN production team be helping him loose it? You know what they say about political group think...
He never had it.
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You can't lose what you never had.
Good luck Obama, the fool is trying to appease those who only want to see blood.
He hasn't been sworn in and the MSM is already sharpening their knives after 8 years of dulling...
FAUX news was playing up the SEIU "connection" between Blagojevich and Obama today. I was at the VA hospital for a check up and that was what was playing on the TV in the mess.
I tried my best to ignore them until they got to this blond doing electronic gizmo news. I swear her blouse was half unbuttoned, and everytime she shifted position I swear I was about to see a wardrobe malfunction.
Geeze, and here I swear I've been trying not to swear so much.
Hurry up and run, don't walk to your nearest Rexall to get your new copy of Mad magazine. They have their yearly 20 Dumbest People, Events and Things of 2008.
They'll do anything to demonize them.
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If it were likely that the Obama staff had blown the whistle on Blagojevich, Dobbs would be silent.
In the hood, it's known as Mother's United Together Hating Alcoholics (MUTHA.)
ever to debate an informed liberal like John Amato.
CNN once again shows its true corporate colors.
I think of all the chattering class,Lou Dobbs may be the most dangerous.He presents a carefully crafted populist persona to his audience while slipping them toxic factoids of rightwing spawned misinformation.He's plugged directly into the corporate agenda and its unsurprising that he is regurgitating this anti-union propaganda.
I know that Drum Major Institute has been pointing out that Dobb's tendency for sometime.
But then again Dobbs is an American hero truth seeker, and I'm of course a blind Obamabot lemming incapable of independent thought in order to see the facts that the President-elect has incredibly destroyed the country even before he's taken office....we're doomed.
He's entirely and uncontrollably Xenophobic.
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Lou Dobbs is a fraud who pretends to care for the common man and privately hates Democrats. It's sickening to watch his piece of crap show and see his blatant contempt for our President Elect.
and don't watch his crap show, which I haven't been watching ever.
"He is lying to his audience or he is completely ignorant of the entire story. Which then begs the question: Why the heck would he run such garbage knowingly?"
Begging the question is actually a petitio principii, where one frames the question in such a way, the respondent cannot do so without looking bad with either answer. The famous example is, "When did you stop beating your wife?"
I think it more effective to say it raises the question...
Otherwise it seems to frame Lou Dobbs intentions or lack of attention fairly accurately.
"I never beat my wife"
"A yes or no answer, sir. Are you still beating your wife?"
I cited that as the most famous example but you're right about the yes or no part. The petitio principii proper is framing the question with some idea of how your opponent may answer, so you already have a ready set response for it, usually to try to undercut the opponent's argument.
In some ways, I think that's what palin attempted when she asked, "Can I call you Joe?" If he said no, he'd look bad, and if he said yes, she had the already set line, "Say it's not so Joe." That was a kind of kindergartner's version of it.
In my opinion, Mr. Dobbs has just officially and permanently migrated to wing nut land. Yes, I think the man has lost it.
See, in order for him to feel shame, he's have to think he did something wrong. Which he obviously doesn't.
More shame on CNN for putting this crap on without a voice to respond appropriately.
Oh yeah, I'm sure Blago and Obama are tight as can be. Who doesn't refer to their best bud as a "motherfu*ker?
Dobbs, like most of the other talking heads on tv, just wants to keep the pot boiling so they can seem or feel relevant. Whip up a story, add some spice and serve it as though it's real. No facts needed. It's low fact food.
Dobbs, in addition to being Xenophobic - is completely dishonest.
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And I mean that in the kindest way possible. Not.
Yeah! But see, now you've insulted scum.
about pudgey soft men with whispy hair. Sort of like a bleak high school hallway in the month of february.
I was just in the thinking room, and whilst I was wiping, I realized that Dobbs and/or his bosses may know exactly what they're doing. They're presenting the story in such a way, that if it blows up in their face (like Bubba did on Monica's), they still have "plausible deniability."
I heard just the other day, that there's rumblings of another TV strike. I'm not sure how that affects cable, but that can be another explanation for the animosity toward unions.
Don't worry, I washed my hands before getting back on my keyboard.
Chris Matthews is infinitely more entertaining.
I take great pleasure switching away when his show starts.
who is an extreme racist to boot. As far as this SHIT with the media trying desperately to tie Obama to Blagojevich, where were they when Bush was elected? You cannot find a politician who isn't, in some way, connected to someone who has done something dirty. But they didn't go after Bush for his connection to Kenneth Lay like this. I guess as long as they own the media this will not change.
can we rid ourselves of hacks like Dobbs. He seems to have gone just as insane as George Will. Corporate media is stuffed to the rafters with neocon buttboys propagandizing the masses. The so-called news media need to give up the conservative ghost and trash these pimps who have been wrong about everything for the past 30 years.
".......or hates union workers....." Lou Dobbs hates everything except for the sound of his own voice. He is inciting racial violence and CNN should cancel his show and send him over to FOX so he can continue to hold hands with Glenn Beck
Yes - he does try to incite racial violence. He wants his hate vindicated. He wants his xenophobic fears validated.
He's a needful, ignorant and pathetic SOB.
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Mr. Dobbs is nothing more than a double talking wind-bag. On matters of immigration, he is against corporations and supposedly for those "blue collar" workers that those damn dirty leprosy infected brown people are stealing jobs from.
But when it comes to unions, Mr. Dobbs has no greater friend than corporations who are only trying to make a buck.
My question is: Mr. Dobbs, who the fuck are you?
dobbs is a whore. he is whoever his pay master tells him he is.
Or whatever he perceives is where his next paycheck is coming from.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgWQ1erBnMo
I just received this email from Huff Post.
"Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich sent a rather scathing letter to Mike Duncan on Tuesday, accusing the RNC chairman of engaging in "a destructive distraction" by attempting to tie Barack Obama to Rod Blagojevich. In particular, Gingrich hit the RNC for putting out a web ad that made it seem as if the President-elect was hiding a nefarious chapter of his personal history with the embattled Illinois Governor.
"The RNC should pull the ad down immediately," Gingrich writes."
Maybe Newt needs to give Lou a call too.
Gingrich can't be trusted. He's a double standard liar that cheats on his wives and misappropriate hundreds of thousands of dollars. No matter he says, there is always something else up his sleaves. I'm still trying to figure out why he has yet to exit the stage. When will the press stop putting the likes of Gingrich and Delay on television......they are criminals.
I agree. He has an ulterior motive here.
Like Dobbs, he is as dishonest as the day is long.
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The Center for Union Facts is a self-styled "watchdog" group which, itself, refuses to name the source of its funding.
Where I'm from, every time a candidate runs for office they campaign on being "tough on drunk driving". The result is that our drunk driving laws get ameded 3 and 4 times a year to the point that they are absurdly strict and virtually incomprehensible. The pandering to groups like MADD must stop at some point. Somewhere there is a logical medium between preventing drunk driving through common-sense limits and going overkill to the point that you are punishing people for having amounts of alcohol in their system that do not appreciably reduce their ability to safely operate a vehicle. However, due to the incredibly powerful lobby of groups like MADD and their stranglehold on public opinion, no legislator or candidate in their right mind would risk suggesting reforms to drunk driving laws that actually scale back some of the draconian gains made in the last decade at MADD's behest.
Trotsky
I thought in Mother Russia it was required to be crocked out of your mind on vodka while driving your tractor.
retracted....
lou dobbs is cnn's top newswhore. their main corporatist posing as a populist. their top spreader of disinformation posing as a newsman. he is a newsmodel, nothing more, nothing less.
just a glimpse at the intelligence-insulting "proof" these thugs broadcast: "union watchdog group says Blagojevich's largest contributor, the Service Employees International Union, also donated millions of dollars to the Obama campaign"
well, there you have it. case closed. its a wrap folks! as lou dobbs sputters forth, if the SEIU donated money to blago AND the SEIU donated to obama there must be some sort of left wing cabal going on here. really, what else could this possibly mean? *smacks head*
using that "logic" i wonder what we could tie to lou dobbs. if one of his advertisers paid to advertise somewhere else that means that dobbs is linked to it. right?
i would cross the street to spit on dobbs. really. i would. (sorry Mom)
in all sincerity: cnn is NO better than faux noise.
Re-Thug mentality -- If you live in Illinois then you were in bed with Blago. Period.
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and I never met the guy, let alone shared a bed with him. He's always been suspected of being a crook, now it is confirmed.
Absent other proof, I suggest that SEIU donated to Ruthless Rod and Obama because a Democrat is traditionally more pro-labor than a Republican. I feel sorry for their rank-and-file because of obviously wasted money on the gubernatorial campaign.
SEIU is a union hated by, and feared by, the GOP because those little service jobs--janitorial etc--cannot be automated or exported. In the past, organized labor jobs were priority for automation and layoffs. Thus illegal immigration--economically blackmailed employees, easily taken advantage of, easily tamed.
Ever since Obama mentioned his name in a speech as an example of bigoted anti-immigrationists he's been slagging on him constantly.
He is a small, small man.
You noticed that too huh? Dobbs cares deeply about his ego, not about reporting the news accurately.
Indeed he is. "Itsy-bitsy, teeny-weenie" - it must suck to be afraid to go to the men's room because you don't want anyone else to see.
And dumb as a stump.
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I very much support the right for any worker to join a union, and believe that unionization is an important tool in keeping our democracy from degrading into a plutocracy.
But I have to ask:
What is the benefit, from the democratic standpoint, of allowing unions to force open voting as opposed to secret ballot?
Open voting brings the possibility of coercion into an otherwise democratic process, and seems to have little benefit for the worker. And under that one point--that eliminating the secret ballot may harm the worker by forcing him or her into a union against their will--the right wing can pretend that their opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act is to protect the working class...
Thank you for paying attention to this story CRK but I need to correct you on something. The Employee Free Choice Act does not do what you describe.
Right now there are two main ways to form unions
1. a National Labor Review Board election and 2. majority sign-up
Right now employers make the choice about which process to use. Under the employee free choice act WORKERS will get to choose which process they want.
You are right that the corporate lobby will use the language you used to smear this legislation but what they are saying is not true.
Nancy Scola wrote a great piece explaining where the real coercion lies for MyDD.
American Rights at Work has a study that shows "in 46 percent of elections, employers interfere with the NLRB-supervised election process by firing pro-union employees, cutting back on workers’ hours, making groundless demotions, and using other intimidating tactics. "
the asswipe's (who started this asswiping group) name is rick berman. or, as he likes to be called 'rick head'
a touch of info:
"Berman said he has raised about $2.5 million from companies, trade organizations and individuals, who he declined to identify. Berman has run similar types of campaigns to defend his lobbying clients in the food, tobacco, beverage and restaurant industries. Those campaigns included criticism of studies linking diet to obesity, and drunk-driving laws that he sees as ineffective."
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/feb/14/busin...
berman and his corporate shills have gone after the following:
the CDC (yes, that CDC)
MADD
PETA
UCS (union of concerned scientists)
Center for Science in the Public Interest
and he has led the fight against raising the minimum wage
i think it would be a-ok to call 'rick head' berman a hater of the middle class.
he likes to be called 'rick head'
while he's actually a "dick head"
Rick Berman founded and runs a trio of shadowy tax-exempt food, tobacco, and beverage industry front groups. For a hefty fee, these nonprofit organizations hire Berman as executive director. Berman then uses his own privately owned public relations company to do work for the nonprofit organization. In this way, Berman channels between 49 and 79 percent of the donations given to these nonprofit groups into his own pocket. In 1998, this amounted to more than $1 million for just one of these groups.
Berman’s trio of tax-exempt groups includes:
The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) The CCF attacks anyone who criticizes smoking, fast food, or alcohol‹from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The American Beverage Institute (ABI) The ABI fights laws designed to curb drunk driving‹in part by claiming that even a blood alcohol level of 0.08 is within the realms of responsible, social drinking.
The Employment Policies Institute (EPI) The EPI is opposed to raising the minimum wage, particularly in the labor-intensive restaurant industry. It promotes the specious concept that an increased minimum wage would drive the poor and uneducated out of the job market.
http://www.consumerdeception.com/public.html
I wonder if CNN executives are aware of Dobbs deepening ties to white supremacist groups. He seems to be promoting their propaganda exclusively now. It has been a strange transformation to watch over these past few years.
. . . I wonder how many hooded outfits he has in his closet?
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Any links to your assertion? I don't doubt it, but how do you know?
I'm lovin' watching it all. They can smear all they want; the election's over, and they lost. Obama is in for four years no matter what they say. Hell, Bush remained president no matter how much actual corruption and incompetence was uncovered, and the conservatives just laughed at and disparaged anyone who objected. Well, let them cry in their beer now.
They wouldn't be so déclassé as to cry in their beer, now in their Dom Perignon maybe.
The reichwing is Obama's #1 threat to bringing America back on track from Republican destruction. The reichwing must be ground in the dirt and kicked in the b*lls for Obama to do his job effectively.
There's a couple of problems here. This man is dishonest. But that stems from the very real fact that he's stupid. Not ignorant - but stupid. At the core of it all though is his uncontrolled xenophobia. This man must be afraid of his own shadow.
I don't know why someone with such an obvious disorder is allowed to present his views to the public as though they were in any way valid.
Shame on whichever station it is that gives him the platform to do so.
If they wanted to tone down the hate rhetoric in this country - a worthy goal - they would cancel the shows of these miserable and unfortunate creatures.
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Dobs is doing the same thing as O'Loofa and Coulter and Milken. Create as much false controversy as you can come up with just to get ratings. What he says means nothing to him or anybody. It is all about getting people to watch him to see the next made up controversy. It is all false just like it "could come in the form of a mushroom cloud"
"There but for fortune, go you or I"
Something for Dobbs to ponder. But he won't.
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Lou Slobbs and his paranoid America Firsters remind me of rabid dogs that need to be put out of their misery. Better yet, deport them all to Colombia where they can make paranoid shit up about each other.
the talk radio monopoly sets up lazy sacks of crap like dobbs by prechewing their talking points for them all over the country until they can repeat the same shit on TV without getting laughed off. its an essential part of the swiftboating machine that's given us the whole bush disaster and it will continue to hold america back and slow it down as long as the GOP has that talk radio monopoly.
Who gives a rat's ass what this disgruntled piece of shit has to say about anything? Obviously people hear him...but the right wing nuts are going to believe any shit flung out about President-elect Obama, Unions, universal-health care, etc, etc.
F*CK YOU dobbs, you maggot!
I don't watch Lou Dobbs anymore. For an "independent" he sure is anti-Obama and has made it obvious since long before the election.
Lou has officially declared his independence from reality and accountability. Imagine getting paid the big bucks to make up filthy lies and represent them as the truth--essentially telling America to go f--k yourself. Have fun in your crack addled existence, Lou.
Is Dobbs implying that if you donate to, say, the Red Cross, you are automatically seriously "connected" to anyone else who has ever donated to the Red Cross? This. Is. Insane.
Lets just leave Barack Obama to get on with the job in hand...he just needs to ignore everyone who just wants to "bully" him before he even gets into office and concentrate with the job in hand as we know everything is a big mess and lets hope this spirit of change can come true. He has got this far when people doubted his credibility and credentials but he fought through that so he can do this and keep himself clean and steer out of mud throwing matches.
All of us liberals are sticking up for Obama, saying leave him alone, wah wah wah. I understand, but what about standing up for Rod Blagojevich? He's a two-time governor of one of the most important blue states in the union. He hasn't been convicted of anything yet. We need to give him a chance. The folks at http://www.freerodblagojevitch.com have gotten it right, however. LOL.
Lou Dobbs, a Reslug backer, has been totally useless and irrelevant for many years as not been truthful, like O'lielly, blimpaugh and all the other blowhard wing-nutO's.
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