James Dobson

James C. Dobson, founder and former president of Focus on the Family, is a psychologist and "former associate clinical professor of pediatrics, USC School of Medicine." He is the host of the "Focus on the Family" radio program. [1]

Publications

• Dare to Discipline
• Dr. Dobson Answers Your Questions
• Emotions: Can You Trust Them?
• Hide and Seek
• Love Must Be Tough
• Straight Talk to Men and Their Wives
• The Strong-Willed Child
• What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew About Women

Affiliations

• Presidential appointee, National Advisory Commission for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
• Member, Attorney General's Advisory Board on Missing and Exploited Children
• Chairman, U.S. Army Task Force on Families

Note: "This information was compiled by the Institute for First Amendment Studies and was posted on their website in 1998." [2]

Dobson is also known to be affiliated with the secretive Council for National Policy[3] and with the Arlington Group.

---

Dobson "created in 1982 the advocacy group, the Family Research Council. But it was purposely designed to keep him one step removed from direct political involvement. Gary Bauer, an aide in Ronald Reagan's White House, now [1998] runs the group, and he is supposed to be the partisan lightning rod, allowing Dobson to focus, as it were, on the family." [4]

SourceWatch Resources

• communitarianism
• compassionate conservatism
• Council on National Policy
• Religious Right

External links

Biographical

• Dr. James Dobson, Focus on the Family website.
• James Dobson in the Wikipedia.
• James Dobson, Dr. John Grohol's Psych Central.
• "Focus on James Dobson," The Charlatan Observer, undated (about 1998).
• Brian Elroy McKinley, "James Dobson: Focusing on Himself. How James Dobson, leader of Focus on the Family, sets himself up as the moral authority of the nation -- taken from his own words and from other media reports," elroy.net, undated.
• Know Your Evangelicals: James Dobson, evangelicaloutpost, August 10, 2004.

Websites

• Focus on the Family with Dr. James Dobson website.
• drjamesdobsonsucks.com website.

Articles & Commentary

Interviews with Dobson

• "Dr. James C. Dobson. General Teachings/Activities," Biblical Discernment Ministries, last updated November 2000.
• Transcript: Interview with Larry King: James Dobson, CNN, August 9, 2001.
• Transcript: Interview with Larry King: James Dobson, CNN, February 29, 2002.
• Transcript: Interview with Larry King: James Dobson, CNN, March 7, 2002.
• Transcript: Interview with Larry King: James Dobson, CNN, September 5, 2003.
• Interview: "Dr. James Dobson," Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, July 16, 2004.

General Articles

• Albert J. Menendez, "The world of James Dobson," Institute for First Amendment Studies, August 1996.
• Robert Unruh, "James Dobson : Self-Important and Whining Theocrat," AP, March 9, 1998.
• Ron Fournier, "James Dobson is at war with congressional Republicans again," AP, March 25, 1998.
• Michael J. Gerson, "A Righteous Indignation. James Dobson--psychologist, radio host, family-values crusader -- is set to topple the political establishment," U.S. News, May 4, 1998: "This conflict dramatizes a growing gap between grass-roots conservatism and governing conservatism, between the raised expectations of activists and the weary realism of legislators. It reveals a party that may be crumbling, not at its periphery but at its center, among its most loyal supporters. And it may be signaling a major shift in the attitudes of Christian conservatives toward politics."
• Jacob Weisberg, "Dobson's Choice. Religious right leader James Dobson's 'my way or the highway' tactics spell trouble for the GOP," Slate, May 9, 1998.
• "James Dobson vs America," about.com, June 23, 1999.
• Bob Fertik, "James Dobson leads Christian Soldiers into battle," democrats.com, November 7, 2004.
• "James Dobson," Media Transparency, November 9, 2004.
• "Conservative leader targets Specter. Senator says opponents misconstrued his remarks on abortion," CNN, November 9, 2004.
• Michael Crowley, "James Dobson. The religious right's new kingmaker," Slate, November 14, 2004.
• David Palmer, "The Lies of James Dobson and Focus on the Family. Dr. James Dobson and Gay Bashing 101-201," Independent Media TV, December 2, 2004.
• "James Dobson threatens six senators," UPI, January 1, 2005: " ...if they block conservative appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court."
• Dan Gilgof with Bret Schulte, "The Dobson way: An evangelical leader steps squarely into the political ring," U.S. News & World Report, January 17, 2005. (Subscriber access only after Feb 2005).
• David D. Kirkpatrick, "Conservatives Pick Soft Target: A Cartoon Sponge," New York Times, January 20, 2005.
• Bob Smietana, "Tolerating James Dobson," The Revealer, January 31, 2005: "Bob Smietana, giving Dobson the benefit of the doubt, finds a moral in L'Affaire SpongeBob."
• Jerry Leaming, "James Dobson. The Religious Right’s 800-Pound Gorilla," Americans United, February 2005.
• Max Blumenthal, "Air Jesus," Media Transparency, February 27, 2005.
• "James Dobson compared Supreme Court justices to the KKK," Media Matters for America, April 11, 2005. See video clip in which Dobson says: "I heard a minister the other day talking about the great injustice and evil of the men in white robes, the Ku Klux Klan, that roamed the country in the South, and they did great wrong to civil rights and to morality. And now we have black-robed men, and that's what you're talking about."
• Bill Berkowitz, "The coming crack up in the Christian Right: Fact or fiction?: Focus on the Family's Dr. James Dobson calls for civil debate after being attacked by evangelical brethren", Media Transparency, March 10, 2006.
• Bill Berkowitz, "dilemma", Media Transparency, June 8, 2007.
• David D. Kirkpatrick, "Giuliani Inspires Threat of a Third-Party Run", The New York Times, October 1, 2007.
• James C. Dobson, "Op-Ed: The Values Test", The New York Times, October 4, 2007.
• Bill Berkowitz, "For the Religious Right, "The Times They Are A-Changin'": The old guard is wondering if 'the younger generation will heed the call' while the young Turks have other things on their minds besides abortion and same-sex marriage", Media Transparency, March 27, 2008.