December 04, 2007
In what may well be the most self-serving neocon column ever published in the New York Post, LA Times guest columnist Tim Rutten has today attacked CNN as the “corrupt news network,” for advancing the fame of its “most popular news-oriented columnist Lou Dobbs.” According to Rutten, what we should be stressing is the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but unfortunately CNN has “intentionally directed the debate to advance its own interests.” Apparently immigration and trade are not real issues, but the American people need to be told that “the surge is working.” Rutter goes into a rage that last Wednesday instead of talking about Rutter’s interests, Dobbs recklessly engaged in a “solid dose of immigrant bashing.” It seems that CNN, faced by a “desperate ratings battle with FOX,” has allowed Dobbs to vent his xenophobia, following the precept: “Make immigration a bigger issue and you”ve made a bigger audience for Dobbs.”
Mind you, it is not necessary to be a fan of Dobbs’s emoting style to know that he is not diverting attention from serious issues. It is hard to imagine a more explosive issue than our porous borders with Mexico, the threat to national security caused by an INS that has not done its job very well, and the cultural and political effects of the Latinization of the US. Although Rutters and the immigration-intoxicated New York Post (which, unlike other neocon propaganda outlets, has never hidden its xenophile addiction) may consider warnings about immigration (except in the case of anti-Israeli Arabs) to be mere nativist agitation, most Americans are concerned about the immigration bomb. In the Republican presidential debates, even those candidates who never saw a sanctuary city they didn”t like all sounded like Tom Tancredo and Pat Buchanan when the immigration question came up. One gets the sense, as Giuliani’s poll numbers continue to fall and as the Republican primaries come to center on Rutten’s least favorite topic that the neocons may be getting desperate about losing their political momentum. For the good of the human race, one trusts this trend will continue.
