Lou Dobbs, cable news pioneer who vocally backed Donald Trump, dies at 78

Lou Dobbs, a veteran broadcast journalist who helped launch CNN and later became an outspoken conservative, died Thursday. He was 78.

Dobbs’ career spanned five decades, during which he became one of the most recognizable business journalists in the U.S. Dobbs won a variety of news awards, including a Peabody Award for coverage of the 1987 stock market crash and a lifetime achievement Emmy in 2005. 

But in later years he espoused extremist rhetoric and embraced rising populist and conspiratorial ideas in the Republican Party, earning him widespread criticism from mainstream journalists.

“It’s with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of ‘the great Lou Dobbs,’” a post on his Instagram and Facebook profiles said Thursday. “Lou was a fighter till the very end — fighting for what mattered to him the most, God, his family and the country. 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.”

Dobbs also became a supporter of former President Donald Trump, who appeared to be the first person to tell the world that he had died.

“The Great Lou Dobbs has just passed away — A friend, and truly incredible Journalist, Reporter, and Talent. He understood the World, and what was “happening,” better than others,” Trump posted to his social media platform, Truth Social. “Lou was unique in so many ways, and loved our Country. Our warmest condolences to his wonderful wife, Debi, and family. He will be greatly missed!”

Dobbs, a Texas native who attended Harvard University, started out as a local news reporter in Arizona, where he eventually became an on-air anchor and drew the attention of Ted Turner as he was looking for people to start a new kind of cable channel that would focus entirely on news. 

Dobbs’ “Moneyline” became a staple of that channel, CNN, for more than 20 years, making him one of the most recognized business journalists in the world.

But his political evolution toward an embrace of populism, including a deep and outspoken skepticism of immigration, eventually put him at odds with Turner and CNN management. Dobbs left CNN in 1999 to found Space.com, only to return in 2001 to host what would become “Lou Dobbs Tonight.” He left again in 2009 when he began to embrace the unfounded theory that Barack Obama had not been born in the U.S. and was not an American citizen.

Dobbs would go on to host a radio show, and in 2010 joined Fox Business Network, which would remain his home for a decade.

In 2021, Dobbs was named as a defendant in a lawsuit against Fox News alleging it lied about the role of voting machines in the 2020 election. Dobbs refused to abandon the false contention that the machines contributed to what he called a fraudulent election outcome, at one point calling the presidential vote a “cyber Pearl Harbor.”   

Fox canceled Dobbs’ show one day after Smartmatic, the voting software company, filed its suit. While Fox has settled a separate suit filed by Dominion, which manufactures voting machines, the Smartmatic suit is still being litigated.    

Fox News Media said in an emailed statement: “We are deeply saddened by the passing of Lou Dobbs. 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.”

Most recently, according to Forbes, Dobbs hosted a show on FrankSpeech.com, a website run by the outspoken election conspiracy activist and former MyPillow executive Mike Lindell.