Last week we revealed that CNN’s Lou Dobbs, who uses his nightly news show to finger corporations which outsource jobs, also writes an investment newsletter for paid subscribers in which he recommends that readers invest in some of those same companies.
When we contacted him, Dobbs was unrepentant, saying that he didn’t see a problem with using one hand to reprimand companies for outsourcing, while using the other to promote the same firms.
But when our report caught the eye of The Wall Street Journal and when the paper asked (subscription required) Dobbs about the discrepancy, he backed down. The Journal notes today that the conflict “illustrates the perils of Mr. Dobbs’s dual roles as crusading journalist and businessman,” and continues:
In an interview, Mr. Dobbs said he would change his newsletter in response to critics’ concerns. In the future, Mr. Dobbs said, every examination of a company and every interview in the newsletter will include mention of that business’s offshoring record. “It makes absolute sense,” Mr. Dobbs said. “If this is a concern — and it certainly is a concern of people — I will respect that. It’s something I will begin implementing in the newsletter.”
It’s nice that Dobbs will now inform the thousands of subscribers to his newsletter about the offshoring records of his featured companies. It would be even nicer if he informed the much larger number of people who watch his anti-outsourcing crusade on CNN that he promotes some of the companies on his “exporting America” list.
We’re watching.
–Zachary Roth
Zachary Roth is a contributing editor to The Washington Monthly. He also has written for The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, Slate, Salon, The Daily Beast, and Talking Points Memo, among other outlets.