(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) The death of longtime newsman Lou Dobbs took many by surprise Thursday after his family announced it via social media channels, while a recent absence suggested that the 78-year-old may have been suffering from an extended illness.
No immediate cause of death was given.
“It’s with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of ‘the great Lou Dobbs,'” said the statement.
“Lou was a fighter till the very end—fighting for what mattered to him the most, God, his family and the country,” it continued. “Lou’s legacy will forever live on as a patriot and a great American. We ask for your prayers for Lou’s wonderful wife Debi, children and grandchildren.”
GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, who was due to deliver his acceptance speech Thursday night at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, issued a statement around 4 p.m. via Truth Social expressing his condolences to his longtime friend and supporter.
“He understood the World, and what was “happening,” better than others,” Trump wrote. “Lou was unique in so many ways, and loved our Country.”
In 2020, Trump noted that he watched Dobbs’s show “all the time,” and called it a “very important show” with a “tremendous audience.”
Dobbs’s influence on Trump’s political development may, in fact, be seen in two of the issues he most championed: his opposition to illegal immigration and his skepticism over Barack Obama’s American citizenship.
Trump became the public face of the so-called birther movement, which continued to gain steam until Obama’s long-lost long-form birth certificate was conveniently discovered in 2011, more than two years into his presidency, quelling any further discussion about his legitimacy.
A fitting testament to his legacy as a truth seeker, the deep-state-infiltrated New York Times took the occasion of Dobbs’s obituary to smear him, saying he “used his platforms at CNN and Fox Business to promote baseless conspiracy theories.”
The Times has yet to return the Pulitzer Prizes it received for its false reporting on the 2016 Russia collusion hoax, nor to issue any retractions for its false reporting about Joe Biden and his family, despite recent acknowledgements that leftist media were complicit in concealing the president’s infirmities.
“[I]t was not immediately clear where or when he died,” the newspaper noted incredulously. “Mr. Dobbs had been absent from ‘The Great America Show,’ his podcast on the iHeartRadio network, for several weeks.”
Dobbs earned his reputation as a financial journalist at CNN, where he spent nearly 30 years before the network’s reinvention as a leftist propaganda platform. Dobbs then gravitated to its top rival, Fox, in 2009, where he became a fixture on the Fox Business Network mixing financial reporting with opinion commentary.
The cancellation of Lou Dobbs Tonight in 2021 came in connection with the $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit waged by Smartmatic, which accused the network of spreading falsehoods about its role in the stolen 2020 election.
In addition to Dobbs, it named as defendants hosts Maria Bartiromo and Judge Jeanine Pirro, both of whom remain on air at the network. Fox claimed the decision to cancel Dobbs had been made independently of the lawsuit.
In a statement to the Washington Post, a Fox News spokesperson conveyed the company’s grief.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Lou Dobbs,” it said. “An incredible business mind with a gift for broadcasting, Lou helped pioneer cable news into a successful and influential industry. We are immensely grateful for his many contributions and send our heartfelt condolences to his family.”
CNN, likewise, added its own condolences in a statement that Dobbs himself undoubtedly would have disavowed, calling him “one of the CNN originals, who helped launch and shape the network.”
Leading lawmakers also offered their tributes, including Reps. James Comer, R-Ky., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the respective chairs of the House Oversight and Judiciary committees.
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/realbensellers.
