CNN Paid Dobbs $8M to Leave

CNN was so outraged over Lou Dobbs’ conservative reporting that they paid him $8 million just to leave, an anonymous source tells the New York Post. “They wanted him out,” the source says. Dobbs still had a year and a half left on his $12 million contract, but CNN boss Jonathan Klein objected to the show he was doing, particularly his stories about the “birther” movement and illegal immigration.

Klein believed Dobbs’ show was hurting CNN’s image as the neutral alternative to right-leaning Fox and left-leaning MSNBC. “Neutrality is not part of my being,” Dobbs said yesterday. Some speculate that Dobbs may wind up at Fox News, but unnamed TV insiders tell the Post—which, of course, is also owned by News Corp—that it’s highly unlikely. (More Lou Dobbs stories.)