Cable
Lou Dobbs quits CNN: 'America calls'
By Diego Vasquez
Nov 12, 2009 - 8:36:19 AM

Lou Dobbs is not one for long good-byes, and this one was particularly short.

Last night, Dobbs announced that the broadcast was his last on CNN, after several decades as the cable news network's star anchor. He was quitting.

The announcement followed long months of internal wrangling at the network over Dobbs' outspokenness on issues such as immigration, with critics complaining his newscast had become a single-themed rant over illegals in America and the refusal of the administration to close the borders.

Dobbs' contract went through to the end of 2011, but that seems not to have been an issue with CNN management, which had given Dobbs an ultimatum: Get back to presenting the news in an unbiased fashion, based on reporting, not your opinions, or leave. Dobbs took the latter option.

This morning CNN said John King, host of the Sunday program "State of the Union," will take over the 7 p.m. slot with a politically focused show.

It's unlikely Dobbs will be much missed. His 7 p.m. show had been on a slide and has ranked behind Fox News Channel and often MSNBC in that hour over recent months. Clearly CNN needs to get back into the competition with a news hour that fits into its image as the one cable news network where news is based on reporting, not attitude and opinion.

Last week, Dobbs ranked a distant second among the three news networks in his timeslot, with 810,000 total viewers. FNC's "The Fox Report with Shepard Smith" averaged 2.65 million, while MSNBC's "Hardball" with Chris Matthews averaged 786,000, according to Nielsen.

Both Dobbs and the network put the best face they could on the anchor's abrupt departure. Dobbs praised the network to viewers:

"This will be my last broadcast here on CNN, where I have worked for most of the past 30 years and where I have many friends and colleagues whom I admire deeply and respect greatly. I’m the last of the original anchors here on CNN and am proud to have had the privilege of helping to build the world’s first news network. I am grateful for the many opportunities that CNN has given me over these many years."

CNN President Jon Klein issued this statement: "For decades, Lou fearlessly and tirelessly pursued some of the most important and complex stories of our time, often well ahead of the pack. All of us will miss his appetite for big ideas, the megawatt smile and larger-than-life presence he brought to our newsroom, and we’re grateful to have known and worked with him over the years."

While a star from the earliest days of the cable news network, at a time when there was only one, Dobbs had clearly moved beyond CNN in recent years, but just where he was headed was never clear.

Just where he’s headed now is no clearer.

Most recently, leading up to the last presidential election, he's been considering a role in politics, and that's still a possibility, as he suggested to viewers: "Over the past six months, it’s become increasingly clear that strong winds of change have begun buffeting this country and affecting all of us. And some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond my role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem-solving, as well as to contribute positively to a better understanding of the great issues of our day."

But there's also been talk that Dobbs could well end up at Fox, where opinion journalism is more readily accepted.

Dobbs will continue expressing his beliefs on his radio show, which launched in early 2008.

Dobbs quit CNN back in 1999, also abruptly, in a power squabble with then-network president Rick Kaplan, going off to run Space.com. He returned two years later.