Lou Dobbs and Standards

Andrew Sullivan points out a conversation between Dobbs and Bob Garfield here. In it, he pretty much tries to argue for why he should be held to a different set of journalistic standards than most other people on CNN (i.e. why he can be a xenophobic economic populist). Peter Beinart came up with a term - and I commented on it here - to describe the effects of this in 2006: the Lou Dobbs Democrat. I watch Dobbs's show half-thrilled by the emphasis of using economics to help real people, but immediately disgusted by the anti-immigrant (sorry, "illegal alien invasion") rhetoric. I'm also uncomfortable with the blatant demagoguery. It will be interesting to see how Dobbs covers the Democrats in Congress next year.