Lou Dobbs, the distinguished political pundit, bestselling author, radio host and popular broadcast fixture on CNN and Fox Business News has died at the age of 78.
The official launch on July 20, 1999 was chosen as being the 30th anniversary of NASA's historic Apollo 11 moon landing. He served as Space.com's first CEO and one of its majority shareholders until 2001 when he stepped down from his post and returned to CNN.
Dobbs' death was confirmed Thursday (July 18) in a post on his his official account on X (formerly Twitter). "It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of 'the Great Lou Dobbs.' Lou was a fighter till [sic] the very end - fighting for what mattered to him most," the post stated.
Dobbs was born on Sept. 24, 1945 in Childress County, Texas but the family relocated to Rupert, Idaho where he spent most of his formative years. In 1967 he graduated from Harvard University, earning a BA in Economics, before heading back to Idaho where he married his first wife, Kathy Wheeler. After stints in the 1970s as a local television reporter and anchor in Phoenix and Seattle, billionaire Ted Turner lassoed him as on-air talent for his new CNN cable news enterprise.
The seasoned TV news host of "Moneyline" and "Lou Dobbs Tonight" was a favorite conservative political analyst and commentator that began his tenure with CNN as an economics correspondent when that network first launched in 1980.
He remained one of the network's major anchors until migrating over to Fox Business News in 2009. In 2021, Fox News Media yanked his program due to his controversial comments on rampant voter fraud in the Biden-Trump 2020 election.
Back in July of 1999, Dobbs and Rich Zahradnik were the primary founders of Space.com, the online destination targeting news relating to human spaceflight, space exploration, astronomy, search-for-life, and space-based sci-fi entertainment that's celebrating its 25th anniversary this month.
"We will serve the largest unrecognized community on the Web," Dobbs told Daily Variety in 1999. "Space.com is the first mover on the Web in this category. We have the premium brand in space."
In 2001 Atria published Dobbs' prescient novel, "Space: The Next Business Frontier," which accurately predicted the vital role private enterprise would play in outer space's lucrative future and the unlimited growth potential of space commerce that we now see blossoming before us today.
Dobbs is survived by his wife Debi and multiple children and grandchildren.
