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Lou Dobbs: Mirroring the medium

By John Rash

Last update: November 12, 2009 - 11:27 AM

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Whether he hangs his hat at Fox News or throws it in the political ring, speculation is rampant about Lou Dobbs' future after his surprise on-air announcement that he's leaving CNN. But his past is just as intriguing, because it mirrors the medium he helped come of age.

Present at the creation, he joined the swashbuckling Ted Turner, the America's Cup yachtsmen turned helmsman of not only CNN, but a new genre. Like the early days of CNN itself, Dobbs played it straight, just trying to be taken seriously at what cultural critics then drubbed the "Chicken Noodle Network."

But as CNN's influence grew along with the great economic expansion of the 1980s, so did Dobbs', especially as he occasionally opined on business and politics. If not of Wall Street, he spoke for it.

Soon, as with so many, Dobbs' political, economic and geographical orientation turned toward Silicon Valley, when it also became a metaphorical money center along with Wall Street. He left the still maturing medium of cable for an even newer media form -- cyberspace -- and space.com, until the astronaut site fell to earth along with the Internet bubble economy.

Returning to CNN, he once again alternately changed, and changed with, the increasingly competitive cable news network landscape, moving more decisively toward subjective, opinionated journalism and further away from the objective model he had already begun to buck.

Focusing beyond Silicon Valley and Wall Street, Main Street became his next cause, as he leveraged his popularity to pick populist fights, with recurring reporting on "Exporting America," "War on the Middle Class" and "Broken Borders."

It was the latter of these concerns that defined Dobbs in recent years. His intense interest, if not obsession, over citizenship -- be it illegal immigrants from Mexico or the president of the United States -- made him a lightning rod even within CNN, let alone with many viewers.

Indeed, CNN distanced itself from Dobbs' dalliance with the "Birther" movement, reflecting the news network's need to differentiate itself from the host-driven political polarity of Fox News and MSNBC. Dobbs' on-air scolds (which often became screeds) were a "hot" style that didn't jive with the "cooler heads" model CNN is marketing. As if to punctuate the point, CNN quickly named John King, who would have fit in with Dobbs during the early CNN days, as his replacement.

King, and CNN, will have their work cut out for them, as they continue to try to go back to the future of a more objective journalism model. Because as a business model, it's not working, as the first has become last. CNN is in fourth place in the ratings race, behind Fox, MSNBC and even cable cousin HLN (formerly Headline News).

So maybe Dobbs, who was once considered a market sage before rage became a more appropriate appellation, had it right. Because cable news, as he well understood as a business journalist, is, after all, a business.

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