NEW YORK — Lou Dobbs says he doesn’t feel like he was pushed out at CNN, the news organization where he worked for all but two years of its existence until Wednesday.
“Not at all,” he said in a weekend interview. “I don’t know if people will believe it, but we had a very amicable parting on the best of terms.”
He announced his resignation on “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” finished the newscast and walked out of CNN.
Dobbs spoke his mind freely on his radio show, unrelated to CNN, but tried at management’s request for the past several months to do a straight television newscast. He and CNN president Jon Klein spoke frequently about the direction of the show.
Although the decision to leave was characterized as mutual, Dobbs said he approached Klein to say it wasn’t working for him.
“What they do is their business, and I tried to accommodate them as best I could, but I’ve said for many years now that neutrality is not part of my being,” he said. “I have strong views about a lot of issues that are important to the country and I think are important to my audience.”
CNN has tried to promote an unbiased approach to establish a middle ground between opinionated hosts on Fox News Channel and MSNBC. Dobbs was quickly replaced by John King, a straightforward political reporter who used to work for The Associated Press.
Dobbs said he will take weeks — perhaps months — to sift through ideas before deciding his next step.
The future could include journalism. He said his separation agreement didn’t have a noncompete clause, something TV news organizations frequently use to keep people off the air for a while. Dobbs denied reports that he had met with Fox News chief Roger Ailes or had talked to anyone at Fox about a job.
He said he’s eager to meet with some of the groups that have criticized him. Most prominent are Latino organizations that had contended his anti-illegal-immigration stance was insulting and encouraged an atmosphere of prejudice.
Roberto Lovato, whose group helped organize an anti-Dobbs petition effort, said Dobbs has called him a “flea,” a “bozo” and a “nonentity” on his radio show. He declined an opportunity to face off with Dobbs on his turf, the radio program.
Dobbs said he’s also interested in running for public office. It’s one of several options he said he’s considering.
