If Lou Dobbs cared about his audience.......?

Question

Wouldn't he tell them what they NEED to hear instead of what they WANT to hear?

He comes on at 6 pm EST - translating into 5 pm CST, 4 pm mountain, 3 pm pacific....

If you're routinely home in time to see that, you're probably not getting ahead - you work part-time or work an 8 hour shift at a repetitive, manual labor position. That's a broad brush, it's not everyone, but it's most people who get home by late afternoon, and it's his audience.

They WANT to hear that they're not getting ahead because of some conspiracy.

But they COULD be getting ahead by taking night courses in finance, accounting, computers, or another marketable skill at the local community college, which CLEARLY THEY HAVE THE TIME TO DO, SINCE THEY'RE HOME WATCHING TV AT 5 PM.

Even if a conspiracy IS why they make $40K doing what they do, it's in their power to make $60K in a few years.

Wouldn't they be better off if Dobbs told them this instead of trying to hawk his misleading book?

And I don't know where to start on the misleading aspects of the book, but start with Econospinning by Gene Epstein.

Dobbs does things like tell you "service sector" means "foodservice" - like Krugman and Phillips and Reich he speaks in terms of the "share of the national income received by the bottom 20%" over a period in which "the national income" rose by 50% in real dollars, all "20%" groups' real income rose, and over 85% of the individuals who started the period in the "bottom 20%" moved up to higher income groups.

And this clever one: job descriptions in the blue collar world are similar - the janitors at Bank of America and at Mutual of Omaha are both "janitors" - - the analysts are not both "analysts" because in the white collar world things are more highly specialized - so of course the fastest growing job titles will be blue collar jobs: because white collar workers with similar skills are classified into a much higher number of job titles! Cute, but total BS.

ex f it's not a question of blame, it's a question of expectations - when do we expect people to grow up?

Rush and Hannity are self-described "conservative commentators."

Dobbs represents himself to be a news guy - - - he does say he "cares" and has views, he's not as deceitful as, say, Dan Rather was, but he doesn't exactly represent himself to be Michael Moore with a shave, a diet and a blue suit, but that's exactly what he is.

I guess the flip-side of the argument would be - - if you get home at 4 and you can still afford the Comcast bill, just exactly what is your complaint?

Civil yes it's 6 EST but even then, if you have a commute you got out at quarter past five, if you ran a single errand you got out right at 5 - - arguably you might start earlier, but that's still only 1/4 of the country - I don't know the breakdown of his audience. But the appeal, to people who think the economy stinks - the only region where that has any resemblance to the truth is the rust belt - half EST and half CST.

Uh, Don, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Yes, you can't make as good a living doing repetitive blue collar tasks as you could a generation ago - - which comes hand in hand with the fact that we have a higher standard of living, more luxuries, more life-easing tools like these PCs and this internet we're using. It's not about "let them eat cake" it's about not having your cake and eating it too.

azred if they didn't mind making $40K they wouldn't tune in to see a guy rant about how they make only $40K because of some big conspiracy.

No rebel that's not what I'm saying - what I'm saying is if you're home at 4 every day. And it's specific to Dobb's audience - the losers of whom you speak, who want to believe that it's all because of a big conspiracy.

Answer 1

One could make the same argument for any tv audience at any time of the day. Something in the order of, "if you watch any tv at all, you must be a low-rent loser because anybody that has any kind of real success shuns tv for books". IMHO, most tv people could care less about their audience, they only care about their ratings.

Answer 2

shut up. Lou dobbs is the best thing to happen to the mainstream media in a long time.

On the EAST coast he comes on at 6 pm. I am home by that time most days.

Answer 3

You have a problem with people being home at 5pm to watch television if they want to? Why?

What if those people enjoy what they do and don't mind making $40k?

Answer 4

in other words, if you cant make a living with a regular job, get two or get more education (not everyone has time or cash, some are working mothers or single parent families)
We've already had that answer by Ronald Reagan,
and NOW its takes two income earners to provide what it TOOK ONE before all that trickle down crap

Answer 5

He must have learned this from Rush and Hannity. Tell people what they want to hear and they will tune in, regardless of the veracity of the statements you are making.

Answer 6

It is all about ratings. Capitalism, pure and simple. Would you want it any other way?

Answer 7

thats right, blame the people first...

lol