Posted on 11/17/2009 1:53:35 AM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
CNN was so sick of Lou Dobbs, it gave him an $8 million severance package to leave, The Post has learned.
"They wanted him out," according to a source.
Dobbs, who a source said had a year and a half to go on his $12 million contract, shocked viewers last Wednesday by announcing he was quitting.
CNN boss Jonathan Klein and Dobbs, 64, had been publicly feuding over the kind of reporting Dobbs was doing on his show -- especially stories about illegal immigration and the anti-Obama "birther" movement, which contends the president was not born in Hawaii and is not an American citizen.
But it was not clear until now that CNN was willing to pay Dobbs so much money to leave.
"What they do is their business," Dobbs said yesterday. "I tried to accommodate them as best I could, but I've said for many years now that neutrality is not part of my being."
Klein long believed Dobbs was at odds with CNN's desire to position itself as an opinion-free, middle-of-the-road alternative to its cable news rivals -- conservative Fox News and liberal MSNBC.
Dobbs characterized his split with CNN after 27 years as "pleasant, friendly and professional" in an interview with the Atlanta Constitution-Journal.
But, he added, "I truly believe that it's also a liberating moment for me."
Dobbs said he is free to take a new job at another network, but said it would be "weeks, probably months" before he decides what to do next.
The end came quickly once the exit package had been negotiated, said Robert Dilenschneider, a spokesman for the anchorman.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
bwahahahahahahahahahah!!! What-a-joke!
I totally agree
I don't get cable but when I signed on to the internet I saw an ad for Joy Behar's show. Besides having the most inappropriate first name of any personality, I have to wonder, who is this unfunny woman's audience, angry, over-weight divorcees who don't get enough bitchin' and whinin' the other 23 hours of the TV day?
Behar fits in with those other two women, Nancy Grace and another one who does a show on Headline News (name escapes me but she has a crime themed show similar to Nancy Grace’s). Grace and that other women talk loudly, feign outrage...it’s nauseating. Behar isn’t loud in voice, but just as brassy.
There is zero chance that Dobbs and Fox News are not discussing future employment. They can easily slip him into the Fox Business News stream and then let him do guest spots on the regular Fox News Shows. A big benefit of this could be less Geraldo. That alone would make it worth it. If it goes this way it will be interesting to see how Fox/Dobbs handle the BC issue. It will tell us a lot about Fox News. They have generally, if not completely, stayed away from this issue.
Unless I missed something, there is a defect in Lou Dobbs.
The recent “they are shooting at me” episode revealed a side of Dobbs I did not expect.
Am I wrong that he made up the story?
This is why Fox News is a vibrant, thriving and much-appreciated business while CNN and MSNBC are both ideologically pure..... and operationally and economically putrid.
Oh, c’mon, it is middle of the road. Midway between Stalinist on one side and Maoist on the other.
I'm no fan of BORe, but he seems to maintain a large audience that are fans.
It wasn’t the time slot. They are probably under the impression that Beck’s style is gonna get tired to some viewers.
It is that CNN THINKS they are gonna fool people to think they are middle of the roaders. And Lou Dobbs doesn’t fit into that or wouldn’t agree to that. This is CNN’s new strategy and if you have noticed MSNBC hasn’t gotten nuttier and crazier in the last few years. And as we all know Fox has just exploded.
And you probably know that in the past none of the Cable networks would mention their competitors by name, but in the last few years they have started to. Of particular interest here is how the other two have decided they were gonna try and make Fox look bad. ‘Course that’s not working and neither will CNN’s attempt to appear middle of the road. You’ve got all these leopards over there that cannot change their spots no matter what CNN’s new strategy might be.
Ohhhhhh THAT middle of the road! Well ok then.
Not really. Actually, at least for this ‘birther’, it's a matter of feeling we have the right expect him to provide proof positive that he is eligible to hold the office he occupies. I don't care where he was born, but if I have to produce my drivers license to buy a cold medication that contains ephedrine then he darn should be required to show he is qualified!
And while I'm on the soapbox, the same goes for casting a vote in America. Elections are the underpinning of our great country. We should put more effort into assuring the quality of the process than anything else we do.
Middle of the road between Pol Pot and Uncle Ho.
“They can easily slip him into the Fox Business News stream”
He can easily replace that puke Quentin Hardy on Forbes on Fox and it would be a big improvement.
Can’t remember how many times I’ve emailed Steve Forbes suggesting he fire that puke from his San Fransicko bureau and remove him from the show of course.
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