All hail Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, for challenging protectionism and its most prominent agent in the media world, Lou Dobbs. The CEA’s news release this week speaks for itself, and in a pretty hard-hitting fashion, too:

CEA TACKLES FEAR MONGERING ON TRADE
CEA’s Gary Shapiro Challenges Protectionist Cable News Personality to Free Trade Debate

Calling international trade a vital component of the nation’s economy, Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® President and CEO Gary Shapiro today announced a campaign to challenge protectionism. Shapiro also decried the unbalanced support of protectionism expounded by certain opponents of international trade, such as CNN’s Lou Dobbs, and challenged the CNN anchor to a live debate on his show.

In an October 2007 poll of more than 10,000 Americans conducted by Zogby International for CEA:

Seventy-eight percent believe a television news anchor who speaks out against international trade while his network promotes his program overseas and garners foreign advertising revenue can be labeled a “hypocrite”; and

Among those who had an opinion, a 2:1 ratio of respondents say criticizing international trade sends the wrong message that the U.S isn’t good enough to compete globally, and that it fears foreign competition.

“The facts are indisputable—without international trade, our nation would not have the greatest economy in the world,” said Shapiro. “If we accept messages of fear without acknowledging the facts, we will adopt a defeatist approach that will only hurt our economy and the innovative businesses and talented workers that would otherwise bring more jobs and opportunities to Americans than ever before.”

Shapiro issued a direct challenge to Dobbs to present his viewers with a balanced view of international trade. “I am prepared to debate Lou Dobbs live on his CNN show,” Shapiro said. “His anti-trade comments on his cable show and his refusal to grant equal time to opposing viewpoints are inconsistent with CNN’s great legacy as a pioneering news network. We are hopeful that CNN will wish to retain its credibility and allow equal time for pro-free trade viewpoints.

Really, don’t see how Dobbs and CNN can refuse Shapiro’s challenge without appearing….unfair and lacking confidence. That’s a polite way of saying it.

Thanks a lot to Sean Garrett at The 463: Inside Tech Policy blog for bringing the CEA’s challenge to our attention. He has a fun post with videos, background and more on Dobbs’ many anti-trade blusteries. The 463 even resurrects a 2005 NAM blog post with a photo-caption contest over Dobbs’ appearance in a clean room. For a caption, Sean suggests: “”Sorry, Mr. Dobbs, that life-saving medical device can’t be used. It was created in Japan.”

And good luck, Mr. Shapiro. We’ll be rooting for you.

James Wolcott at Vanity Fair profiles Lou Dobbs. Hard to tell, but we think it’s a positive review.

If Lou Dobbs were any more full of himself, the tub would overflow. In the autumn resplendence of his telecasting career, Dobbs’s self-regard, never meek or slender, has ripened into the pompatus of love. I am Lou, hear me moo, in numbers too big to eschew. It isn’t just that the ratings for CNN’s starship enterprise Lou Dobbs Tonight have been climbing while those of other cable news shows are being intubated, but that his force of personality and power of persuasion have elevated him to the status of a major public-opinion shaper—a heavy-lumber political slugger. If he were a Robert Ludlum hero, this chapter of his life could be called “The Dobbs Supremacy.”

Hat tip: James Taranto, OpinionJournal.com, who cites the piece for his “metaphor alert” feature.

The NBA draft is tomorrow evening, and ESPN’s Bill Simmons and Chad Ford run their mock draft in this entertaining piece. Simmons trashes Yi Jianlian, the 7 foot Chinese small forward, provoking this response from Ford:

Chad: Has there ever been an international player you did like, Bill? You’re the Lou Dobbs of NBA sportswriters. I’m waiting for your new book “War on American Hoops.”

Too bad they can’t build a wall around every NBA arena.

Bill: I’m very xenophobic when it comes to the NBA draft — too many foreign guys have bombed miserably, everyone underestimates the cultural adjustment. For every Nowitzki, there’s been four Darkos. For every Tony Parker, there’s been four Beno Udrihs. We overrate the younger foreigners, even though they’re playing against crappy competition, and we underrate the older foreigners (like Oberto, Hermann, Garbajosa and others), even though they’re tough and know how to play the game. I don’t get it. What a screwed-up league.

Which is why we stick to supporting H-1B basketball visas. For the most skilled.

But anyway, how interesting to see Dobbs emerge as a cultural point of reference. Not since Father Coughlin (who was really foul prone)…

Sometimes humor is the most effective weapon against demagoguery and nobody is better at it than Gene Weingarten, who writes a weekly humor column for The Washington Post Magazine. For his June 17 column, Weingarten chose a most appropriate target – Lou Dobbs.

Weingarten acknowledges that once upon a time, Dobbs was “an actual newsman,” but then he realized he could get a lot more attention by ranting and raving. “Like a pigeon in a box who gets rewarded with a corn kernel every time he flaps a designated wing, Lou was soon just one big madly flapping right wing.”

Weingarten has a lot of fun with Lou’s penchant for nonsense and rigged polls, but my description of the column doesn’t do it justice. Go take a look for yourself.

There is a wonderful and long overdue expose of Lou Dobbs in today’s New York Times by David Leonhardt. It begins with Lou’s preposterous claim, that he defended in an interview with Leslie Stahl on the CBS program “Sixty Minutes,” that there had been 7,000 cases of leprosy reported in the U.S. in the last three years. When Stahl challenged him, Lou said, “If we reported it, it’s a fact.” In reality, there have been 7,000 cases of leprosy reported in the last 30 years, not three. Leonhardt also cited Dobbs’ claim that a third of the inmates in the federal prison system are illegal immigrants. Actually, illegal immigrants comprise 6 percent of the federal prison population.

But then, it would take a lot of space to document all of the bogus claims aired by Lou Dobbs. Or as Leonhardt put it, “Mr. Dobbs has a somewhat flexible relationship with reality.” Man does he ever.

Those of you who caught our buddy Lou’s interview on “60 Minutes” last Sunday heard more than a few whoppers. In the course of a long profile/interview with Leslie Stahl, Dobbs calls himself an “advocacy journalist,” whatever the hell that means.

But the best part of the interview for non-fans like us who regularly point out Lou’s non-obsession with the facts, was an exchange with Stahl where she notes that in the course of a story on illegal immigrant carrying diseases into the US, Dobbs minion Christine Romans says there were 7,000 cases of leprosy in the US in the past 3 years. Says Stahl, “60 Minutes checked that and found a report issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, saying that 7,000 is the number of leprosy cases over the last 30 years, not the past three. The report also says that nobody knows how many of those cases involve illegal immigrants.” (Emphasis ours). This exchange then ensues:

“We went to try and check that number, 7,000. We can’t…,” Stahl says.

“Well, I can tell you this. If we reported it, it’s a fact,” Dobbs replies.

“You can’t tell me that. You did report it,” Stahl says.

“I just did,” Dobbs says.

“How can you guarantee that to me?” Stahl asks.

Says Dobbs, “Because I’m the managing editor. And that’s the way we do business. We don’t make up numbers, Lesley.”

Wow. Let’s let the arrogance linger in the air just a bit, shall we…?

But that’s not all. In the end of the interview, there’s this back and forth on whether Lou is a journalist, which of course everyone knows he’s not. Imagine an interview with a guy claiming he’s Elvis. Same-same:

STAHL: I’m sitting here saying to myself, `This man runs a news show?’

Mr. DOBBS: Hmm. I do.

STAHL: And you can just tell me you don’t like the president. Whoo.

Mr. DOBBS: I, matter of fact, insist that the audience know where I come from.

STAHL: What about fair and balanced?

Mr. DOBBS: I’ve never, Lesley, found the truth to be fair and balanced. I found it to be…

STAHL: But that’s–but wait, what’s the definition of “journalism?” That that’s in there.

Mr. DOBBS: I…

STAHL: That has to be part of what a journalist is, is fair and balanced.

Mr. DOBBS: I truly believe there’s a nonpartisian, independent reality. But more of the same…

STAHL: But it’s your reality.

Mr. DOBBS: It is my reality.

STAHL: But it’s not the reality.

Mr. DOBBS: Well, how so?

We’ve been tracking Lou’s many foibles for nigh on two years now. He plays fast and loose with the facts, is johnny-one-note and at least as far as trade is concerned is just flat wrong on so many fronts. That hasn’t stopped him — far from it — and it hasn’t stopped CNN from giving him a platform for his ill-informed point of view. Hopefully exposure of the kind he got on Sunday from “60 Minutes” will further reinforce in the public’s mind how far he’ll go for ratings — far beyond the truth.

Who needs facts, indeed?

Lou Dobbs for president, eh? Well, there’s always room for an angry populist to stoke the fires of protectionism and the class struggle.

True, most of the celebrities like Dobbs who talk about running for office are more interested in gratifying huge egos and boosting sales of whatever they’re selling at the moment. Remember Warren Beatty’s run? Donald Trump, a CEO for the Oval Office? Jesse Ventura?

At least a Dobbs’ candidacy would invite some scrutiny, accountability, for the contradictions and economic illiteracy he spouts. And surely it would pose at least a minor political conundrum to Democrats who share his views, folks like Senators Byron Dorgan or Sherrod Brown, for example: Support the cause or the party?

Although, why go for a copy when the original is available? Eugene V. Debs for President!

(Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds.)

Thanks to our blog buddy Kevin Meyer for passing along this post from the Skeptical Optimist blog entitled, “Destroying jobs, and creating them,” pointing out that Lou Dobbs is consistent in telling about half the story. The entry talks about the “creative destruction” that is the American economy, still the envy of the world. We have pointed this out frequently, but this is a slightly different take. Every year we lose and create jobs in this country. The trick is to create more than we lose, and we have pretty consistently done that.

There are also some good charts in this post that show the job creation that has taken place. So while it’s popular to believe that jobs are being shipped offshore, the truth — as with so much “conventional wisdom” these days — is quite the opposite. Jobs are being lost and created right here in the US of A.

“The problem with this city,” former Sen. Bob Dole once cracked, “Is that the second demagogue doesn’t stand a chance.” Today, the demagogues will converge on Capitol Hill, represented by their spiritual leader — and our pal — Lou Dobbs.

That’s right, TV personality and demagogue Lou Dobbs is testifiying on Capitol Hill. “On what topic?” you might ask. Demagoguery? How to turn good news into bad news? How to twist data to fit your own ends? How to ignore years of economics training at Harvard in shameless pursuit of ratings?

Nope. Lou is coming to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on — get this — Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade. Guess they didn’t have one on demagoguery. The topic is, “Trade, Foreign Policy and the American Worker,” vaguely fitting under the expansive jurisdiction of this committee. Funny, we thought the Ways and Means Committee handled trade. Truth is, Charlie Rangel is too smart to allow his committee to be used as a platform for a commentator with an ax to grind.

We’ll keep you posted on what Lou says, but just as a wild guess, we’re figuring he’ll continue to weave his yarn about the war on the middle class and continue to blame trade agreements for our trade deficit. He’s mostly wrong on the first point and flat wrong on the second (just check out this chart, if you don’t believe us), but as we always say, never let the facts get in the way of a good story — or your ratings.

ThyssenKrupp, the $61 billion (US) German company, announced yesterday that it has narrowed its search for a new US plant site to Louisiana and Alabama. They are looking to build a $2.9 billion state-of-the-art steel and stainless steel manufacturing and processing facility in one of those two states. This would be the second-largest investment in a new industrial project in the US since 2002.

In the US alone, ThyssenKrupp employs about 25,000 employees, with annual sales of $9.7 billion. This plant will eventually employ about 2,700 people, but the construction phase will require almost 30,000 jobs. According to this company fact sheet, “the new U.S. plant will be a cornerstone of the company’s NAFTA strategy.” (Emphasis ours)

We will keep you posted on their eventual decision, but while the Dobbs-ians rail about “globalization”, they always seem to forget that the door of investment swings both ways. They also forget that NAFTA opened markets for US-made goods and attracted foreign investment, as here. The challenge is to continue to create a climate in this country that attracts manufacturing. We do that by addressing the 32% cost disadvantage we have with our global competitors.

We’ve written in this space before about the positive impact of globalization on Indiana – twice – South Carolina, Georgia and the US at large. The planned ThyssenKrupp project is yet another reminder of the benefits of free and open trade.

Bring it on.