Fox Business Network needs to rein in Lou Dobbs’ recklessly inflammatory rhetoric or else share in the responsibility for any violence that is being incited by his militant attacks on those daring to question Dear Leader Donald Trump.

Believe it or not, Dobbs is even more of a Trump lickspittle than Fox & Friends and, possibly, Sean Hannity. An excellent post today by Media Matters’ Simon Maloy notes that while it’s “easy to laugh” at Dobbs’ “perpetually overwrought” fanaticism, his “creepy adulation of Donald Trump and routine calls to imprison the president’s opponents” is actually “sinister.” His “intensely and creepily propagandistic” show sets Dobbs apart from his divisive, hate-mongering colleagues at Fox News.

As if to prove the point, a tweet from journalist Ken Klippenstein last night called attention to a tweet from Dobbs as well as the kind of response it solicited from his fans:

Dobbs is referring, of course, to the FBI conspiracy theories which so far amount to nothing more than innuendo and whataboutism. But Fox’s Trump supporters would rather tear down our institutions than live with questions about Trump and Russia.

Also, Dobbs didn’t just assert conspiracy theories as truth, he went the extra mile by demanding someone or something “crush” “the corrupt secret society working against President @realDonaldTrump.”

The video clip included in Dobbs’ tweet revealed the kind of anti-democratic, demagogic rhetoric Fox Business thinks appropriate to broadcast:

DOBBS: The public lies of the Dems and the Deep State coming up. And now, too numerous and even threatening for even the left-wing media to ignore altogether.

We’re at the point we feared we might be. There is an all too clear requirement to determine the full extent to which the FBI, the DOJ and special counsel’s office have been compromised and corrupted. … It is deep and it is determined. … It is now obvious to all that what is needed is not mere change but fundamental cleansing and reform.

In the written-out version of Dobbs’ commentary, displayed over Dobbs’ shoulder, “Dems” is written as “Dimms.” A nice touch, Fox Business, eh?

Earlier this week, it was revealed that a Michigan man was arrested after making a series of seriously threatening phone calls to CNN, with “fake news” rhetoric that echoes both Trump and Fox. Yet, Dobbs doesn’t seem to have a care in the world about the ramifications. In his feed of reactions to this tweet, as Klippenstein noted, are the following responses. So far, Dobbs has disavowed none of them, nearly two days later.

The only thing more frightening than this? Donald Trump’s love for Dobbs. Maloy wrote:

At his New Year’s Eve celebration at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump grabbed a microphone and gave thanks to the guests who paid him several hundred dollars each for the privilege of attending. As he spoke, the president singled out one attendee for some especially fulsome praise: Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs. “The great Lou Dobbs is here, by the way,” Trump said. “Boy, I tell you, I’ve loved him for years, but now I really love him. And you know what? It’s not about me. It’s about -- he is saying what he believes.” To applause and cheers, the president heaped his admiration on the cable news personality: “I just want to tell you, you are fantastic, and we appreciate it. Everybody in this room appreciates it.”

Watch what Trump appreciates above, from the January 23, 2018 Lou Dobbs Tonight.

Crossposted at News Hounds.
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