Who

The host of Lou Dobbs Tonight, Dobbs is CNN's resident fear-mongering immigrant basher.

Backstory

Born in the Texas panhandle and reared in Idaho, Dobbs moved to LA after college to take a job with a bank. He soon decided to trade in finance for broadcasting, starting off at an Arizona radio station before stints on the local news in Phoenix and Seattle. He was recruited to join CNN before its launch, and anchored Moneyline following the network's debut in 1980. The program gave Dobbs unparalleled access to the moneyed movers-and-shakers of the business world; for close to two decades he hobnobbed with captains of industry on their private jets, spoke at corporate retreats, and even shilled for companies like Paine Webber. But after a dust-up with then-CNN head Rick Kaplan in the late '90s—and with dotcom fever overtaking the city—Dobbs left the network in 1999 to head up Space.com, a website dedicated to covering all things newsworthy about astronomy. As the internet bubble started to pop, Dobbs returned to the comfy confines of CNN in 2001.

Keeping score

Dobbs reportedly collects $6 million a year for his work at CNN.

Of note

When Dobbs returned to his evening newscast in the aftermath of Sept. 11th—and with corporate scandals dominating the financial news—he soon refocused his show into what it is today: a soapbox for Dobbs to deliver his rabid opinions on immigration, welfare and terrorism. With segments like "Broken Borders," "War on the Middle Class," and "Exporting America," Dobbs' pseudo-populist, anti-elitist rants have stirred up an enormous amount of controversy—which, of course, is precisely what he's after—and his aggressive stances against illegal immigration and globalization have led many to argue that he's racist and xenophobic. Like Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, many find his defense of "working men and women" something of an act (especially when he advocates his positions while nibbling on $56 Dover sole at the Four Seasons, as he did with the New Yorker's Ken Auletta in 2006). But for those with a bottomless appetite for Dobbs' immigrant-baiting, excellent news arrived in 2008 when he started hosting a three-hour nationally syndicated radio show, The Lou Dobbs Show.

Drama

CNN's most controversial personality, Dobbs would have likely been sent packing long ago if he weren't generating such commanding ratings for the network. In recent years, he's been accused of fudging facts to get his point across (the number of illegal immigrants who commit crimes, the number of illegal immigrants who have leprosy); he was also widely criticized for publishing a newsletter at a cost of $200 a year in which he touted many of the companies he condemned on his TV show. (The newsletter is now defunct.) More broadly, he's been accused of presenting opinion as news—with CNN correspondents who make appearances on his show expected to play along, no less—leading many critics to accuse CNN of indulging in the same tactics as its oft-criticized rival, Fox News.

Personal

Dobbs divorced his first wife in 1981 and later married former CNN anchor Debi Lee Segura (who, Dobbs is quick to point out, is Mexican-American). He has twin girls with Segura named Hillary and Heather. He has two sons—Chase and Jason—from his first marriage. Dobbs lives on a 300-acre horse farm in Sussex, New Jersey. (Both his daughters are competitive equestrians.) He also has a place is West Palm Beach.