How about sueing Lou Dobbs??

R

rcetc

Registered Users (C)
This Lou Dobbs guy (if you don't know he runs an hour long program on CNN) is spreading hatred to immigrants in general and Indians in particular. In all his programs for the past couple of months he has been running a series "Exporting America" and targeting people like us.
poongunranar has pointed it out in another thread about this guy in the same forum.
Being Indians of course, we take things very lightly and care only about our immediate need, getting a GC. But the long term impact on us from a program like this aired everynight could be disasterous for us. It could result in increasing hate-crimes against Indians and employers thinking twice about hiring Indians.
If Indian lawyers get together they can probably sue him for spreading hate and also false exagerrated infomrmation (For instance he told that an H1 is initally issued for 5 years and can be renewed indefintely)
 
Don't worry. By the time he finishes up his " kick out the foreigners" series, his job would probably have been oursourced to India.
 
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Good idea or1or2. I will be starting a petition soon. Ideas for the petition welcome.

Tombaan, I respectfully disagree with your view "he can say what he wants". As you know there are limitations in the US about "freedom of expression". For example you can't use the N.... word for an African-American. You can not say all "All Muslims are terrorists" (which of course they are not). Look into how much trouble Trent Lott got into for making a simple statement praising Storm Therman.
Basically the "freedom of expression" in US constitution is good as long as it does not generate "hatred" or is an "insult" to a community. These programs in CNN and other US media seriously generate hatred towards Indians. They also insult Indians by saying that Indians get jobs just because they accept a lower pay. I don't know about you but I am paid pretty much equal to an American in my company
 
Politics is different, dude!

rcetc:

I do think tombaan is right in his glib remarks. That is how it is, over here. You are partially right about the furor that was generated on Trent Lott throwing his lot behind Strom Thurmond's policies supporting seggregation. Now, do you even in your right mind think that Trent was ousted because of "law taking its own course?" No, dude! It was a politics of appeasement. Dubya was having a free ride on his gravy-train, when the Democrats tried to turn the tables against him by portraying him as a person against Blacks. The political cost would be exhorbitant. Therefore, Dubya asked Trent to step down.

I was going through the laws of this country, albeit, on a very superficial level and the ironical thing is that, First Amendment Rights always seem to mask the liability arising out of defamation in the form of slander or libel. Winning a defamation suit, in this country is very difficult, unlike India, because the First Amendment Rights are omnipotent here. Hence, tombaan's assertion is right.

Now, in order to win a defamation case in the court, you have only one option of winning your case -- you basically need to prove that your opponent's statement was grossly wrong and was done with malafide intent. Now, tell me, how are we going to argue that Lou uttered lies, leave alone pointing out that he spoke lies with a malafide intent. What is the "barometer" to assess the "damage" done to "Indians?" See, we can argue in forums like these to silently prepare an awareness. Such an awareness will surely have an effect on others, provided they can effectively dispute the "biased" reporting Lou does, each evening. Today, he was boldly introducing a Congressman saying that he was a highly vocal and opponent of a bill that would seriously restrict the high-tech workers from coming into this country. In this era of globalization, people like Lou should be ashamed of themselves because of having a Luddite outlook.

Such Luddite outlook and biased reporting would result in sky-rocketing prices on basically every commodity that Walmart has. Why not Lou report issues holistically? Because, he wants to grovel to his counterparts at Fox, so that he can get a decent rating.

I think, the strategy as envisioned by or1or2 will be more effective, because of the aforementioned reasons.
 
rcetc,
Good!!!!! Goahead with with your petition. Once we have sufficient number of signatures we can send that to even ACLU.
 
Thanks Edison.
Poongonranar I started this thread mainly to spread awareness - all the anti-Lou Dobbs messages were hidden in a thread whose subject line indicated that Lou would be a messiah who would help us in getting our GC. I agree I might have gotten little too hot in suggesting that we should sue Lou Dobbs - which Indian wouldn't on seeing his program.

The petition is in the works. I am posting the current state of the petition below. Please give your valuable suggestions/additions to the same......
 
Part 1 (since the petition is longer than 1000 words I am splitting it)
We, the undersigned, believe the image of the Indian-American community in the US, and the expanded viewing audience of CNN in India, has been tarnished by the programs run on your network - particularly the “Exporting America” series run on Lou Dobbs MoneyLine. The program continuously and deliberately generates hatred towards the Indian-American community and India by falsely portraying Indians as job-stealers and holds the Indian-American community directly responsible for the unemployment in the US. The program insults the Indian-American community by generalizing that Indians get jobs in America only because they are paid less, ignoring the fact that many Indian-Americans even those on “H1 visa” are hard-working, dedicated, have excellent skills and are hired purely on merit – getting an equal pay as their “American-American” counterparts.
 
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Part 2
For the many millions of Indians and Indian-Americans, CNN indeed is “The Most trusted Name in News”. Every day tens of millions of Indians (both in India and in America) tune automatically to CNN to get an “unbiased opinion” and know the “real deal” of current events. CNN in turn has an obligation to provide responsible journalistic coverage and has an obligation not to create an atmosphere of harassment, intimidation and hostility towards the Indian-American community and hatred towards India among its viewing public.
 
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Part 3 (This is currently all I have)
CNN through Lou Dobbs Moneyline has failed to provide balance in reporting to enable the viewing public to discern the advantages of outsourcing on the US economy and the contributions of Indian-Americans to the US economy. The host Lou Dobbs seems to have a personal hatred against the Indian-American community and “H1/L1 visa holders” and is propagating the same through his hour-long program everyday on CNN. It is sad to see “The Most Trusted Name In News” propagating such hate- propaganda.
 
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Lou the Poo

Mr. Lou Dobbs, you suck big time. If you are brave go to Afghanistan just like Mr. Heraldo from Fox News did. I am sure you will poo in your pants.

Yes, that's how Mr. Heraldo expressed his opinion about other news anchors at CNN.
 
great rce

now hy dont you put in a thread so we get it signed and send it across
let us strike it when the iron is still hot.:D
 
Good one

I am sure a whole bunch of folks (even who are current GC holders) beyong this portal would support this.
 
Indian-Americans

Dude,

I think you want to use Indian-American, not American Indian.

The former is used for East Indians, while the latter, before becoming un-PC was formerly used for those that are now called native-americans (read the red indians)
:D

Cheers, and good luck with your petition. I'll be sure to sign it!

K
 
Thanks everybody for the support...

OOPS!! That was a bad mixup about the Indian-American/American-Indian. :o
I have corrected it. Thanks PhillyKP and or1or2 for pointing it out. I have also corrected the spelling errors (I make lot of them, don't I.....:D)
I edited my post directly - so you can take a look at the corrections.

or1or2, about point 1 - I am planning to send this to CNN and it is mostly about this particular program "Lou Dobbs Moneyline" on CNN. I don't think other programs in CNN are as anti-Indian as this. If you have other opirions or ways to modify the petition let me know.
 
Thanks buddy, or1or2. :) It was you who channeled my anger at the program correctly and made me explore my writing skills...

I added a few more things now. The final draft version is attached as a .doc document. Hope you can access it and give me your comments.
 
If you are unable to access the .doc Part 4 of petition:

We the undersigned protest the continuing derogatory, degrading, hate-generating and absolutely false portrayal of India and Indian-American in the program Lou Dobbs Moneyline.
We pray for relief and rectification and request the following:
1.An official apology broadcast in a future Lou Dobbs Moneyline program by CNN anchorman Lou Dobbs, mentioning the contributions of Indian-Americans to the American economy and correcting the perception that Indian-Americans are not “low-paid job-stealers”.
2.This petition in its entirety be put on CNNs Moneyline web-page.
3.A concerted and conscientious effort by CNN to include the voices of Indian-Americans and Indians to offer a more broad-based perspective on all programs particularly those programs about US job losses.
4.A concerted and conscientious effort on behalf of CNN to control radical, offensive and hate-generating remarks made by CNN anchormen, staff, and speakers
 
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