Controversy Surrounding Lou Dobbs Has Failed to Increase His Ratings (Down 15%)

New York Observer

Controversy Surrounding Lou Dobbs Has Failed to Increase His Ratings

By Felix Gillette
July 30, 2009 | 4:32 p.m


On the night of Monday, July 27, Bill O'Reilly welcomed Richard Cohen, the head of the Southern Poverty Law Center, onto The O'Reilly Factor, to talk about Mr. Cohen's repeated public criticisms of CNN anchor Lou Dobbs.

In recent weeks, along with several liberal media watchdog groups, including Media Matters and MoveOn.org, the Southern Poverty Law Center has petitioned CNN to fire Mr. Dobbs for repeatedly providing a forum to conspiracy theorists who believe, against all evidence, that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

On Monday night, Mr. O'Reilly wondered why Mr. Dobbs' critics bothered taking his bait. "I don't know why you guys are overreacting to this," said Mr. O'Reilly. "I mean, that's—come on, I mean, it's not true. Mr. Dobbs is trying to get ratings, trying to be provocative."

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By contrast, during the first two weeks of the month (July 1 to July 14) Mr. Dobbs averaged 771,000 total viewers and 218,000 in the 25-54 demo. In other words, Mr. Dobbs' audience has decreased 15 percent in total viewers and 27 percent in the demo since the start of the controversy.

[link to www.observer.com]