video interview

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — James Dobson, a child psychologist who founded the conservative ministry Focus on the Family and was a politically influential campaigner against abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, died on Thursday. He was 89.

Born in 1936 in Shreveport, La., Dobson launched a radio show counseling Christians on how to be good parents and in 1977 started Focus on the Family.

He became a force in the 1980s for pushing conservative Christian ideals in mainstream American politics alongside fundamentalist giants like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. At its peak, Focus on the Family had more than 1,000 employees and gave Dobson a platform to weigh in on legislation and serve as an advisor to five presidents.

His death was confirmed by the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Shirley, as well as their two children, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.

‘Mount Rushmore’ of conservatives

Dobson interviewed President Reagan in the Oval Office in 1985, and Falwell called him a rising star in 1989. Decades later, he was among the evangelical leaders tapped to advise President Trump in 2016.

In 2022, he praised Trump for appointing conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that allowed states to ban abortion.

“Whether you like Donald Trump or not, whether you supported or voted for him or not, if you are supportive of this Dobbs decision that struck down Roe v. Wade, you have to mention in the same breath the man who made it possible,” he said in a ministry broadcast.

Dobson belongs on the “Mount Rushmore” of Christian conservatives, said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, another group Dobson founded. He promoted ideas from “a biblical standpoint” that pushed back against progressive parenting of the 1960s, Perkins said.

Weighing Dobson’s legacy

John Fea, an American History professor at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, has been critical of Dobson’s politics and ideas but recounts how his own father was a better parent after becoming an evangelical Christian and listening to Dobson’s radio program. Fea’s dad was a tough Marine who spanked his kids when he was mad at them. Dobson advocated spanking to enforce discipline but said it shouldn’t be done in anger.

“Even as a self-identified evangelical Christian that I am, I have no use in my own life for Dobson’s politics or his child-rearing,” he said. “But as a historian what do you do with these stories? About a dad who becomes a better dad?”

Possible presidential run

After developing a following of millions, Dobson considered running for president in the 2000 election, following in the footsteps of former television minister Pat Robertson’s surprise success in 1988.

“He had a big audience. He was not afraid to speak out,” said Ralph Reed, a Christian conservative political organizer and lobbyist who founded the Faith and Freedom Coalition. “If Jim had decided to run, he would have been a major force.”

Despite their close association later in life, Reed’s enduring memory is of Dobson’s voice as his sole companion while traveling through rural America as a younger political organizer.

“I’d be out there somewhere, and I could go to the AM dial and there was never a time, day or night when I couldn’t find that guy,” Reed said. “There will probably never be another one like him.”

A political juggernaut for decades

Dobson helped create a constellation of Family Policy Councils in around 40 states that work in tandem with his organization to push a socially conservative agenda and lobby lawmakers, said Peter Wolfgang, executive director of one such group in Connecticut.

“If there is one man above all whom I would credit with being the builder — not just the thinker — who gave us the institutions that created the space for President Trump to help us turn the tide in the culture war, it would be Dr. James Dobson,” Wolfgang wrote in a column last month.

James Bopp, a lawyer who has represented Focus on the Family, said Dobson was able to rally public support like few other social conservatives.

Records compiled by the watchdog group Open Secrets show that Focus on the Family and Family Research Council have combined to spend more than $4 million on political ads and close to $2 million lobbying Congress since the late 1990s.

Opposition to abortion and LGBTQ+ rights

Dobson left Focus on the Family in 2010 and founded the institute that bears his name. He continued with the Family Talk radio show, which is nationally syndicated and is carried by 1,500 radio outlets with more than half a million listeners weekly, according to the institute.

His radio program featured guests talking about the importance of embracing religion and rejecting homosexuality, promoting the idea that people could change their sexuality.

“The homosexual community will tell us that transformations never occur. That you cannot change,” he said in a 2021 video posted on his institute’s site that promoted “success stories” of people who “no longer struggle with homosexuality” after attending a ministry. He said there is typically a “pain and agitation” associated with homosexuality.

Conversion therapy is the scientifically discredited practice of using therapy to “convert” LGBTQ+ people to heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations.

The practice has been banned in 23 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ rights think tank.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed in March to hear a Colorado case about whether state and local governments can enforce laws banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ children.

Ted Bundy interview

An anti-pornography crusader, Dobson recorded a video interview with serial killer Ted Bundy the day before his 1989 execution. Bundy told Dobson that exposure to pornography helped fuel his sexual urges to a point that he looked for satisfaction by mutilating, killing and raping women.

Months after the execution, Bundy’s attorney James Coleman downplayed the Dobson exchange.

“I think that was a little bit of Ted telling the minister what he wanted to hear and Ted offering an explanation that would exonerate him personally,” Coleman said in an interview with the AP. “I had heard that before and I told Ted I never accepted it.”

Catalini and Meyer write for the Associated Press. Catalini reported from Trenton, N.J., and Meyer from Nashville. AP writers Tom Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa; Tiffany Stanley in Washington; Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, N.J.; and Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.

The makers behind Netflix’s hit drama “Adolescence,” knew their series about a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering a female classmate was something special.

And while creators and executive producers Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne were thrilled after learning that the U.K. drama received 13 Emmy nominations in the limited series category, they were even more gratified that the collective efforts of the cast and crew were being honored.

“There was just something magical that happened with this show, and it was the true definition of an ensemble,” said Graham during a video interview with Thorne. The duo were nominated for writing and producing the drama, and Graham was also nominated as lead actor for his portrayal of the devastated father of the teen suspect.

“My true gratitude is not the fact that we got 13 nominations. It’s the fact that every single person, every single player, every single part of the crew is being acknowledged for what we achieved as a collective,” Graham said. “What we do is not a game of golf. We managed this collective consciousness between us.”

The four-episode series became one of the buzziest dramas of the year, and was highly praised for its approach of filming each installment in a single camera shot.

Thorne said of the hoopla surrounding the series, “I think we got very lucky in capturing a particular time, place and mood. We also got lucky with all the people we worked with.”

Win or lose, plans are already being formed for an Emmy night celebration.

“Stephen just declared that we’re all going to the Emmys in a minibus,” Thorne said. “We’re all going to stand on the red carpet as one. That will be really special.”

The minibus passengers will include Owen Cooper, who played the young suspect, and Erin Doherty, who played a psychologist. The two, who were both nominated in supporting actor categories, starred in the drama’s third episode where their characters engaged in a tense battle of wills.

Cooper and Doherty discussed the show and their nominations in a separate video interview.

Congratulations on your nominations and amazing performances. Where were you when you got the news?

Cooper: I was in my living room and I put on the TV. Then I found it we got 13 nominations. It’s just crazy.

Doherty: To be fair, I avoided it. So I was waiting for my phone to ring. My agent told me, “I’ll ring you either way.” Then she started phoning me and I thought, “Oh, what, is this going to me?” And all those nominations came in. I’m so over the moon for the show.

Owen, you’re making history as the youngest Primetime Emmy nominee in a limited series .

Cooper: I heard about that the other day. It’s hard to even think about that stuff, to be honest. It’s crazy. I don’t even know how to put that into words, really.

Did both of you know at the time you were doing the third episode that you were creating something really special?

Cooper: Yes. We knew it would hit many homes, and that it would create conversations. We didn’t know it would get 13 nominations. That’s just the cherry on top. The success of the show has been mind-blowing.

Doherty: We knew everyone who was participating on and off the screen wanted to be a part of this, having the courage to address this subject matter. We knew the importance of the story. You never know if something like this is going to hit the way that this has.

Owen, what impressed you the most about Erin’s performance?

Cooper: The fact that she could just think of things to say off the spot. I would put attitude into the line and she would put even more attitude into it.

And Erin?

Doherty: I would say the exact same thing. Like he would start yawning and start throwing around different things. It felt like the most exciting game of tennis that I’ve been a part of. You don’t get that every day with actors who have been doing this for 40 years. Owen has the ability and skill and bravery. For him to throw himself into this environment, which is nerve-wracking, overwhelming and over-stimulating. To have the ability to stay centered and be present with each other is really rare. I’m so, so proud of him and that I got to be there for his first go, because he’s going to be doing this for years and years and years.

I know it’s early, but any thoughts on how you’ll feel on Emmy night?

Cooper: I don’t think I’ll be nervous. I don’t care if I win. I’ll just get there, eat nice food, meet a lot of people. And I’ll be in L.A. where the weather is nice. I’m not bothered by the result at the end of the day.

Doherty: We’ve won. The show got 13 nominations. We’re all going to be there. It’s just going to be the best night ever. We’re going to treat it like a big party.