Lou Dobbs website has a list of 350 companies sending jobs overseas !!

[MORTARDUDE]

go here : http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/

then go down to the item ( the fifth one down ) that says "Exporting America" "click here for the list"


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http://www.opinionjournal.com/column.../?id=110004778

Lou Dobbs Takes On the World
The good thing about his demagoguery: It can't be taken seriously.

BY DANIEL HENNINGER
Friday, March 5, 2004 12:01 a.m. EST

Not too long ago, the people who watch Lou Dobbs's evening business program on CNN tuned into see someone who looked just like Lou Dobbs ranting about free trade and corporations that outsource jobs--"Exporting America," he calls it. This didn't compute. The Lou Dobbs everyone thought they knew was a font of economic reason.

Every night of the week now, no matter how big or small the rest of the day's news, the Lou nobody knew finds time to kvetch about outsourcing, "cheap overseas labor" and about a Nafta free-trade agreement that flung open the door to "illegal aliens" whom he's happy to routinely identify as "Mexicans." On a recent program, as if he were doing talk radio at 2 a.m. in Youngstown, he said, "Many critics of Mexico's economy refer to what's called the ma?ana syndrome, putting off work until tomorrow," as his introduction to some unrelated remarks by Alan Greenspan.

He's got a Web site that lists "more than 350 corporations we've confirmed are exporting America." He reads letters from viewers who wonder "why are we importing beef." The new Lou mocks Adam Smith and David Ricardo--"economists who lived 200 years ago." He invites in liberal Democrats, such as Senators Hillary Clinton and Max Baucus, to share ideas on a "plan" to keep America's jobs "at home."

Old admirers are aghast. It's as if whatever made Linda Blair's head spin around in "The Exorcist" had invaded the body of Lou Dobbs and left him with the brain of Dennis Kucinich. No public figure has moved so far left so fast since the transfiguration of Arianna Huffington. So who is this wild and crazy guy in the dark suit, white shirt and dark tie and where did he come from? Since Lou Dobbs is on television, I can't answer who he is, but I think I know where he's coming from.





For starters, Lou Dobbs isn't an economist; he's a television performer. As such what Lou is doing would satisfy economic rationalists from Adam Smith to Milton Friedman. "Exporting America" has little to do with economics but everything to do with Lou Dobbs's economic self-interest.
Every program that appears on the broadcast networks and on 46 cable channels--from Animal Planet to all-news cable--is measured for audience size by A.C. Nielsen. And Nielsen purports to tell its network clients whether a program's audience rises or falls every 15 minutes. Because advertiser revenue tracks the mercury in Nielsen's audience barometer, TV executives can quote these ratings from memory--for their own and each competitor's programs. It is a competitive, brutal, even crazy market. But it's the market Lou Dobbs has to swim in.

While most TV viewers seem to understand the crypto-reality of the ratings when sitcoms get pulled off the air, even sophisticated viewers lull themselves into thinking cable news is, you know, news, that it's somehow above the grimy cash-flow imperative to "deliver audience" that rules prime-time on NBC or CBS. But if that were true, Connie Chung would still be on CNN.

Now, all that said, it is entirely possible that Lou Dobbs fell off his horse on the road back from Space.com, and now believes with the faith of Saul of Tarsus that outsourcing is the root of all evil. But as an economic rationalist, I have to believe that Lou Dobbs is ranting nightly about "cheap overseas labor" as a pure ratings play. It's about the money. And it makes perfect sense: Companies outsource to protect their market share, and Lou attacks outsourcing to protect his market share.





What's weird is what a lonely fight it turns out to be. On the programs I've watched, hardly anyone, including CNN, seems willing to join master and commander Lou on his three-masted outsourcing schooner.
This Tuesday, after Lou described "the shipment of hundreds of thousands of high-tech jobs to cheap foreign labor markets," a CNN reporter's piece on the outsourcing of computer jobs bowed in Lou's direction, then quoted an industry source who says they still can't meet the demand here for programmers. Later, after Lou teed up Ohio's manufacturing job losses, a CNN reporter found evidence to blame Ohio itself--its crummy educational performance and an uncompetitive tax structure with nine income-tax brackets. (If this amazing even-handedness keeps up, CNN will be the network letting us decide.)

Lou's guest was the hyper-liberal Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, once a stronghold of unionized mining. But Sen. Baucus was a globalized moderate compared to his host. After Lou grumbled about "corporate America" having responsibilities "that extend beyond a quarterly profit statement," the Montana liberal said, "We can't as Americans bury our heads in the sand, we cannot put up barriers." Lou ended the show by arguing with two letter-writers who disagree with him.

The next night, Lou's guest was Hillary Clinton, who like Sen. Baucus sensed the need to emigrate from Louville. Lou noted that "your husband's administration was a leading proponent" of free trade, as if outing an Albigensian heretic. Lou attacked something called Tata Consultancy in Buffalo, "a well-known outsourcer." "I know they outsource jobs," the senator replied with the patience of Job, "but they've brought jobs to Buffalo. You know, outsourcing does work both ways." Lou wanted to know if John Kerry has been strong enough on "stopping outsourcing." The senator offered a reassuring answer yes and added, "I'm not in favor of putting up fences around the country." As the show ended, Lou announced that the French Senate had voted to ban Islamic headscarves.





The ratings are up and we hope they stay up. On two hours earlier than "The Factor," Lou Dobbs doesn't get in the way of any basketball games. And unlike O'Reilly, "Exporting America" is a boatload of straight-faced fun. And I think Lou Dobbs knows it.
Mr. Henninger is deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page. His column appears Fridays in the Journal and on OpinionJournal.com.