This past weekend I had the opportunity to interview Lou Dobbs as a guest on my radio show.
I found the interview fascinating on several levels and consider it as one of my more memorable interviews.
First
off on a personal level, I have always been viewer of his programs. As
someone with a financial background (I began my career as a financial
advisor with Merrill Lynch) Lou Dobbs, along with Louis Rukeyser,
in my mind set the gold standard for television financial reporting in
America. During the late 80’s and 90’s stockbrokers and financial
advisors across the country frequently based their view of the
financial world on what it was they heard nightly on ‘CNN Lou Dobbs Money Line’. The show was common topic of early morning conversation (and argument) in coffee rooms of brokerage offices across America.
While I have had the privilege of appearing as a guest on ‘Lou Dobbs Tonight’, this was his first time appearing as my guest.
Aside from the obvious, radio is very different from television. As
fabulous a median as television is, talk radio by its very nature
allows for a much more personal and intimate experience between the
host, guest and audience.
Therein lies the beauty of this
interview. This was Lou Dobbs as many may have never seen him before.
Passionate, fire in the belly and dead-on candid on the receiving end of questions.
My
listeners and I learned several new things about Mr. Dobbs. The first
of which was ‘why, how and when did he go from financial and business
reporting to that of a cultural warrior’? After all he had been
branded so strongly in our minds as a business journalist and then one
day he seemed to re-appear taking on illegal immigration, job outsourcing and the like.
To this he attributes the emotional events of September 11th, corporate corruption scandals and what he sees as the vanishing American dream for the middle-class. These events led him to become what he calls an advocacy journalist.
And boy has he ever advocated. He has taken on our nations illegal immigration policies (or lack thereof), U.S. trade policies which have eliminated or outsourced American middle class manufacturing jobs and federal deficits which he calls an ‘estate tax on the middle class and their children’.
Confidently,
he pointed out that because of his background and grasp of the subject
matter, it is difficult- if not impossible- for CEO’s , trade policy
makers and elected officials to appear as his guest and ‘skirt around
the truth’.
In his new book - War
on the Middle Class: How the Government, Big Business, and Special
Interest Groups Are Waging War on the American Dream and How to Fight
Back- he takes aim at both the republican and democratic parties and the special interest groups which they are beholden to.
The book is an excellent blue print for anyone concerned about under representation in Washington and what to do about it.
Recently
CNN announced it is giving a newly prominent role to Dobbs including
coverage alongside Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer of November’s
midterm elections. It was also announced that ‘Lou Dobbs Tonight’ is up 22 percent in viewers this year over last, a bigger increase than any show on CNN or Fox News Channel.
American classics always seem to manage to stay in vogue.
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