A leading Hispanic organization is launching a campaign to pressure CNN to rein in host Lou Dobbs. Hispanic group to CNN: Rein in Dobbs

One of the country’s leading Hispanic organizations is launching a campaign designed to pressure CNN to rein in host Lou Dobbs.

The organization behind the campaign, Democracia Ahora, is kicking off the effort Friday with the release of a report based on interviews with 100 Hispanic leaders about the impact of Dobbs’ evening show.


The results of the report are not surprising – 90 percent of the interviewees believe Dobbs is helping create a negative image of Hispanics, with his frequent criticisms of illegal immigration.

But Democracia Ahora is hoping the report inspires a grassroots movement aimed at executives at CNN’s parent company, Time Warner, to draw attention to what the group calls “frequent negative portrayals of Hispanics on the Lou Dobbs show.” It is using its release to start a national campaign, “Enough is Enough!” that will be carried out through a Web site, www.TellCNNEnoughisEnough.com, that goes live Friday.

“We’re asking CNN, the alleged ‘most trusted name in news,’ to really hold Lou Dobbs to the journalistic standards he should be held to,” said Jorge Mursuli, president of Democracia Ahora, who expressed frustration with Dobbs’ reports that immigration contributed to thousands of new reported cases of leprosy and of a ‘superhighway’ from Mexico to Canada.

“CNN needs to take responsibility for what he’s saying,” he said, adding, “We want CNN to insure that Lou Dobbs is going to stick with the facts. He can have his opinions but he can’t present his opinions as facts.”

Mursuili said Democracia Ahora will be coordinating petitions and encouraging other Hispanic groups to make phone calls and write letters to CNN asking the news station to “to cease the daily drum roll of misinformation and offensive commentary about the Latino community on the Lou Dobbs Tonight show.”

Democracia Ahora has not disclosed the names of all 100 of the individuals whose responses make up the results of the study. It describes them as “political figures, business leaders, heads of civic and community organizations, and journalists and academics.”

Among those surveyed were Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, and Dan Restrepo, a member of President Obama’s National Security Council, who Democracia Ahora says was interviewed while he was a director for the Americas Project at Center for American Progress. Others taking the survey included Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.).

The survey included questions such as, “Many Hispanics are offended by the news content of Lou Dobbs’ show and regard him as a demagogue who is helping to create a negative image of Hispanics. Do you agree or disagree with this assessment?” according to a copy of the report obtained by POLITICO.

CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the National Security Council and representatives for Menendez, Grijalva and Roybal-Allard did not respond to requests for comment.

The survey was conducted by the Miami-based polling firm Bendixen and Associates. Communications for “Enough is Enough!” are being handled by another Miami-based firm, Balsera Communications, which is run by Freddy Balsera, who coordinated Hispanic media for the Obama campaign and is co-chair of the Democratic National Committee’s National Hispanic Leadership Council.