Updated, Transcript Added: Lou Dobbs Resigns – With Video
Nov 11, 2009 18 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Confirmed: Lou Dobbs announced his resignation from CNN on his Nov. 11 broadcast. Transcription at bottom.
Has Lou Dobbs been forced out at CNN by the left-wing attack machine and other forces on the left? Quite possibly.
According to New York Times reporters Brian Stelter and Bill Carter, CNN’s Lou Dobbs will announce his resignation from CNN on his Nov. 11 show.
“Lou Dobbs, the longtime CNN anchor whose anti-immigration views made him a TV lightning rod, plans to announce Wednesday that he is leaving the network, two network employees said,” Stelter and Carter wrote. “A CNN executive confirmed that Mr. Dobbs will announce his resignation plans on his 7 p.m. program. His resignation is effective immediately; tonight’s program will be his last on CNN. His contract was not set to expire until the end of 2011.”
Also according to Stelter, tonight’s show will be his last CNN broadcast.
“Dobbs’ resignation is effective immediately; tonight’s program will be his last on CNN,” Stelter wrote in an update on Twitter.
Dobbs has been under attack by the left-wing noise machine and it escalated recently after a gunshot was fired at his home, which he revealed on his Oct. 27 radio program.
There has also been talk Dobbs could be headed for Fox News, another storyline Stelter revealed last month.
Transcript from Nov. 11 broadcast below:
Tonight I want to turn to a personal note, if I may, and address a matter that has raised some curiosity. This will be my last broadcast here on CNN, where I’ve worked for most of the past 30 years, and where I have many friends and colleagues whom I admire deeply and respect greatly.
I’m the last of the original anchors here on CNN and I’m proud to have had the privilege to helping to build the world’s first news network. I’m grateful for the many opportunities that CNN has given me over the many years. I’ve tried to reciprocate with a full measure of my ability.
Over the past six months it’s become increasingly clear that strong winds of change have begun buffeting this country and affecting all of us. And some leaders in media, and in politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role at CNN and to engage in constructive problem solving as well as to contribute positively to the great understanding of the issues of our day and to continue to do so in the most honest and direct language possible.
I’ve talked extensively with Jonathan Klein. John’s the president of CNN, and as a result of those talks, John and I have agreed to a release from my contract that will enable me to pursue new opportunities. At this point, I’m considering a number of options, and directions, and I assure you, I will let you know when I set my course.
I truly believe that the major issues of our time include — the growth of our middle-class, the creation of more jobs, health care, immigration policy, the environment, climate change, and our military involvement, of course, in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But each of those issues is, in my opinion, informed by our capacity to demonstrate strong resilience of our now weakened capitalist economy and demonstrate the political will to overcome the lack of true representation in Washington, D.C.
I believe these to be profoundly, critically important issues, and I will continue to strive to deal honestly and straightforwardly with those issues in the future. Unfortunately, these issues are now defined in the public arena by partisanship and ideology rather than by rigorous, empirical thought and forthright analysis and discussion.
I’ll be working diligently to change that as best I can. And as for the important work of restoring inspiration to our great free society and our market economy, I will strive as well to be a leader in that national conversation.
It’s been my great honor to work with each and every person at this wonderful network. I will be eternally grateful to CNN, to Ted Turner, and to all of my colleagues and friends and, of course, to you at home.
I thank you, and may God bless you.
Original post below
NEW YORK (AP) – CNN host Lou Dobbs says he is leaving CNN effective immediately.
The longtime host of “Lou Dobbs Tonight” said Wednesday on his show that it would be his last. He said CNN had allowed him to be released from his contact, which would enable him “to pursue new opportunities.”
He said he was considering a number of options.
The longest-running anchor on CNN’s air, Dobbs was one of the nation’s leading financial journalists before turning his program in a more opinionated direction. His persistent advocacy against illegal immigration angered many.
