Lou Dobbs is an American political commentator, author, and TV host. He is best known as the former presenter of the talk show “Lou Dobbs Tonight“. He presented the show from 2003 to 2009 on CNN and from 2011 until its cancellation in February 2021 on the Fox Business Network. He has also worked on United Stations Radio Networks as a host of the show Lou Dobbs Radio.
Besides, Dobbs is a regular columnist in Money magazine, U.S. News & World Report, and the New York Daily News.
He has a huge fan following on social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. He has around 2.1 million followers on his Twitter account: @LouDobbs and around 319k followers on his Instagram account: @laudobbstonight.
What is Lou Dobbs famous for?
- Being an American political commentator, author, and television host.
- Famous as the former presenter of talk show, “Lou Dobbs Tonight”.
Source: @newyorker
Where was Lou Dobbs born?
Lau Dobbs was born in Childress County, Texas, the United States on September 24, 1945. His birth name is Louis Carl Dobbs. He was born to his father, Frank Dobbs who was a co-owner of a propane business, and his mother, Lydia Mae who was a bookkeeper. At age of twelve, Dobbs shifted to Rupert, Idaho alongside his parents after his father’s propane business failed.
He holds an American nationality and belongs to the White ethnicity. His zodiac sign is Libra. He believes in Christianity.
Regarding his education, Dobbs graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in economics from Harvard University in 1967. He had also attended the University of Idaho College of Law in Moscow and then worked as a cash management specialist for Union Bank of California in Los Angeles.
Lou Dobbs Career Highlights
- After his college, Lau Dobbs worked for federal anti-poverty programs in Boston and Washington.
- Thereafter, he briefly attended the University of Idaho College of Law in Moscow and then worked as a cash-management specialist for Union Bank of California in Los Angeles.
- Later, he did a job as a police and fire reporter for KBLU.
- By the mid-1970s, he was contacted by a recruiter for Ted Turner, who was in the process of forming CNN.
- In 1980, Dobbs began his career with CNN at the time of its formation serving as a chief economics correspondent and as host of the business news program Moneyline on CNN. He also served as a corporate executive for CNN.
- He then founded CNNfn (CNN financial news), serving as its president and anchoring the program Business Unusual which examined business creativity and leadership.
- In July 1999, Dobbs announced that he was leaving CNN to start up the site Space.com, a website devoted to astronautical news.
- In 2001, Dobbs returned to CNN becoming host and managing editor of the new and initially more general news program Lou Dobbs Reporting. He also regained the helm of the newly renamed Lou Dobbs Moneyline.
- In July 2009, the controversy around Dobbs began when he was the only mainstream news anchor to give airtime to the birther theory.
- Dobbs announced his departure from CNN after working for almost three decades with CNN citing plans to pursue new opportunities on November 11, 2009. Dobbs reportedly paid $8 million in severance pay when he left CNN.
- On November 10, 2010, Fox Business Network announced that Dobbs would host a show on the channel and he began hosting a show titled Lou Dobbs Tonight which debuted on March 14, 2011.
- Voting machine company Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion defamation suit against multiple parties including Dobbs and two other Fox Corporation program hosts, asserting they had promoted conspiracy theories alleging the company and its competitor Dominion Voting Systems had participated in an international conspiracy to rig the 2020 presidential election against Donald Trump on February 4, 2021.
- The three programs had each run a video retraction weeks earlier, after receiving a demand letter from Smartmatic, though neither Dobbs nor the other hosts personally issued retractions.
- On February 5, 2021, The show Lou Dobbs Tonight was canceled by Fox News after nearly 10 years on the Channel. The Los Angeles Times reported the decision had been under consideration before the Smartmatic legal issues arose. CNN claimed that, despite being the highest-rated Fix Business Network program, it was a loss leader because many advertisers didn’t want to be associated with the content.
- Besides, Dobbs has also appeared on CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report” and Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor”. Even, Dobbs made a guest appearance on an episode of the TV series “The Good Wife” entitled ‘Double Jeopardy’.
- Additionally, Lou Dobbs has also worked on United Stations Radio Networks as a host of the show Lou Dobbs Radio which was guest-centered and featured political discussion and listener calls. He also hosts the financially themed Lou Dobbs Minute on the same network.
- Also, Dobbs is a regular columnist in Money magazine, U.S. News & World Report, and the New York Daily News.
- Furthermore, Lou Dobbs is a great author and hence has written lots of books including “Independents Day: Awakening The American Spirit” (2007), “Exporting America: Why Corporate Greed Is Shipping American Jobs Overseas” (2004), “Space: The Next Business Frontier with HP Newquist” (2001), “War on the Middle Class: How the Government, Big Business, and Special Interest Groups Are Waging War on the American Dream and How to Fight Back” (2006), “Upheaval” (2014), “Putin’s Gambit: A Novel” (2017), and “The Trump Century: How Our President Changed the Course of History Forever” (2020).
Lou Dobbs Political Views and Controversies
- Lou Dobbs said he thought that there should not be a St. Patrick’s Day in March 2009.
- In December 2018, Lou Dobbs suggested that the United States should start a war with China because of hacking by Chinese state actors. He compared hacking by the People’s Liberation Army of China to the attack by the Japanese military on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
- He promoted the theory that Barack Obama was not born in the United States and he was the only mainstream news anchor to give airtime to the birther theory in 2009.
- Lau Dobbs is known for his pro-Trump coverage. He described Mitt Romney as a “traitor and treasonous after she wrote an op-ed published in The Washington Post criticizing Trump’s character in January 2019.
- Like Trump, his surrogates and supporters made baseless claims of voting fraud in the aftermath of his 2020 election defeat, Dobbs chastised Republicans for not helping the president to claim “What is rightfully his”. Even, he said that those who voted to certify Joe Biden’s Electoral College win were “criminal”.
- On January 4, 2021, speaking to Republican consultant Ed Rollins during his broadcast, Dobbs said: We’re eight weeks from the election, and we still don’t have verifiable, tangible support for the crimes that everyone knows were committed that is, defrauding other citizens who voted with fraudulent votes. We know that’s the case in Nevada, we know it’s the case in Pennsylvania and a number of other states, but we have a devil of a time finding actual proof. Why?”
- Following the storming of the United States Capitol by Trump supporters in January 2021, Dobbs was among those who advanced the conspiracy theory that people associated with Antifa were responsible for the attack.
Source: @gettyimages
Lou Dobbs Awards and Achievements
- Lou Dobbs has won a ‘Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award’ and a ‘Cable Ace Award’.
- He received the ‘George Foster Peabody Award’ for his coverage of the 1987 stock market crash.
- He received the ‘Luminary Award’ of the Business Journalism Review in 1990.
- In 1990, he received the ‘Horatio Alger Association Award’ for Distinguished Americans.
- He achieved the ‘National Space Club Media Award’ in 2000.
- In 2004, he was awarded the ‘Eugene Katz Award’ For excellence in the coverage of Immigration by the Center for Immigration Studies.
- In 2005, he received the ‘Alexis de Tocqueville Institution’s Statesmanship Award’
- In 2008, he received the ‘American Legion Public Relations Award’ from the National Commander of The American Legion.
- Dobbs was named “TV’s Premier Business News Anchorman” by the Wall Street Journal. He was also named “Father of the Year” by the National Father’s Day Committee in1993.
Source: @gettyimages
Who is Lou Dobbs married to?
Lou Dobbs is a married man. He has been married to Debi Lee Segura, a former CNN sports anchor since 1982. The couple has four children together. Previously, he was married to Kathy Wheeler in 1987 and they shared two children together. Sadly, the pair divorced in 1981. With Deni and Kethi, Dobbs has six children named Hilary Dobbs, Jason Dobbs, Chance Dobbs, Michelle Dobbs, Heather Dobbs, and Buffie Dobbs.
How tall is Lou Dobbs?
Lou Dobbs is a handsome man with a fair skin tone. He has an average body build. He stands at a towering height of 1.88m (6 feet and 2 inches) but his body weight and other measurements are unknown. His hair color is Blonde and his eye color is Light Brown. His sexual orientation is Straight.
What is the Net Worth of Lou Dobbs?
Having a successful journalism career, Lou Dobbs has garnered a huge amount of money. His major source of income is from his TV shows and hosting career. As of 2021, his net worth is estimated to be $20 million. As a salary, he earns around $5 million yearly.
Currently, he lives on a 300-acre horse farm in Wantage Township, New Jersey with his wife Debi and children.
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