Media Matters To Run Ads Attacking Lou Dobbs' Birther Obsession -- On CNN!

It looks like CNN president John Klein's laissez faire attitude about Lou Dobbs "birther" obsession is about to be tested.

Yesterday we noted that CNN host Lou Dobbs' "birther" obsession -- the right-wing theory Dobbs has been trumpeting that President Obama has no U.S. birth certificate, is an "undocumented" alien, and his presidency is "illegal" -- has been good for creating controversy and hot feelings but bad for CNN's ratings. In short, since Dobbs began talking Obama birth certificate conspiracy theories on his radio show, his audience on CNN has decreased by 15 percent.

CNN's president John Klein has been largely defending Dobbs. After initially declaring the birthers story "dead" in an internal memo to Dobbs' staff, Klein switched tacks and went on to say that "Lous' his own show," and, in a panel discussion, Klein emphasized that what Dobbs said on his radio show was not his (Klein's) problem. "We have no control over what he says on his radio show." Klein said. "It's not a CNN radio program so he does what he does on the radio separate from what he does on our air."

Now, media watchdog group Media Matters, who has been calling for Dobbs resignation has bought air time on CNN to run anti-Lou Dobbs ads-- on Lou's show!

Greg Sargent spoke with Media Matters:

A Media Matters spokesman tells me the group has bought a week of ad time on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News in D.C., New York, and Atlanta, beginning Tuesday. The catch: Media Matters has specifically purchased time to air the ad during Dobbs' show -- putting CNN in the position of either running the spot or nixing it and making this a bigger story

Read the full transcript of the ad here.

UPDATE: Dobbs has now responded to the ads on his radio show, calling them a "Swift Boat of the left" and "really extraordinary." He ends his rant suggesting he won't try to put a stop to the ad running: "So it'll be interesting to see what Media Matters runs. That sounds like a fascinating ad."

Comments

[GOODREASON]

12:50 AM on 08/05/2009

Thank you, Lou Dobbs for helping the US to get to the murky bottom of this very legit matter.

[kteachums]

05:45 PM on 08/03/2009

Actually get tired of listening to Lou. He can't quite decide on anything but, negativity­. He claims to be independen­t but, sways toward the Hannity types. Wouldn't it be nice if what really made the news special was all the wonderful positive things about our new President. Like, let the President enjoy his birthday without this bc stuff.
Anyway, I got a new Obama bag and I'm displaying it on the 4th. My daughter bought it for me on my birthday. Let's get some positive stuff out there on health care. Like the young gal who was pregnant and diagnosed with breast cancer was covered by health care if the pregnancy needs to be terminated­?
Real stuff is more important right now.
Lou, I'm 58. How old is he anyway? I'm retiring from teaching in a few years. Are you going soon too?

[Kittyfire]

09:42 AM on 08/03/2009

It is so perfect that the last president of the United States should be an illegal alien, or citizen of the world, if you can see the comic tragedy of the destructio­n of the United States in a positive light. There are hundreds of details that tell you it is true. His paternal grandmothe­r says she was there at his birth (in Kenya). He attended an Indonesian school that was only open to Indonesian citizens at the time. (They remember Barry Soetoro fondly as a devout Moslem and terrific basketball player.) His mother gave up her US citizenshi­p because Indonesia did not permit dual citizenshi­p at that time. He went to college in the US on a scholarshi­p available only to non-US citizens. Look it up. People who went to Harvard Law School in the late eighties (when Obama says he was there) say they never met any such person. Did he did a degree without attending classes? What's going on?

[Cil]

12:11 PM on 08/03/2009

What's going on????????­?

SOMEONE'S BRAIN IS BEING DELIBERATE­LY
SCRAMBLED!

[tjntn]

12:51 PM on 08/03/2009

Would you make up your mind Kittyfire? Is he a Kenyan citizen as you say or is he an Indonesian citizen as you also say. You choose to believe innuendo and lies because they agree with your preconceiv­ed idea of the world. And you choose to ignore documents and newspaper articles because they are part of some "conspirac­y" that also fits your world. There is a high statistica­l probabilit­y that you are a Republican living in the southern part of the US (see http://www­.perrspect­ives.com/b­log/archiv­es/001582.­htm) and you don't have a college education. I add the part about a college education because most colleges in the US still strive to teach critical thinking which you have clearly missed.

By the way, did you know that not a single member of Congress voted against a resolution celebratin­g Hawaii's 50th anniversar­y of statehood with the wording "Whereas the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961;" (see http://bel­owthebeltw­ay.com/200­9/07/27/co­ngress-una­nimously-p­asses-reso­lution-rec­ognizing-o­bamas-hawa­iian-birth­/). That means every single member of Congress (with the possible exception of the 55 that didn't vote) must agree that Obama was born in Hawaii. Are they all evil members of the Obama conspiracy­?

[lydiajean]

08:32 AM on 08/03/2009

A kenya birth certificat­e did appear yesterday. What is the latest on it?

[tjntn]

12:55 PM on 08/03/2009

See http://www­.huffingto­npost.com/­2009/08/03­/kenyan-bi­rth-certif­icate_n_24­9850.html. It is not only a forgery, it is a forgery that is so obvious that it must be designed to make the birthers look bad when they latch on to it as "proof".

[Kevins]

02:42 AM on 08/03/2009

What's 'objective­' about continuall­y questionin­g a Public Record--wh­ich has already been produced, and the original of which remains on file with the State of Hawaii?
http://www­.factcheck­.org/elect­ions-2008/­born_in_th­e_usa.html­.

Racist, factually false...I call that lousy reporting.

Is this Lou's new crusade after his immigratio­n anti-Hispa­nic fiasco? Why is CNN hosting the crusades? What happened to CNN? It's catering to people who wear tin hats against the cosmic rays.

[donnabella]

10:57 PM on 08/02/2009

i've already stopped watching cnn because of lou dobbs' incessant raving about Obama not having a BC, etc. Note to CNN - by allowing dobbs to perpetuate this lie is like pouring gasoline on a fire.

[GOODREASON]

12:48 AM on 08/05/2009

Dobbs is not "perpetuat­ing" the "lie". He is only questionin­g, which in
America, last time I checked, was healthy. As far as networks go, Katie Couric's is off my list b/c of her very very biased reporting.

[TMcG]

10:17 PM on 08/02/2009

Dobbs is a spent force and should be fired immediatel­y. His exploitati­on of immigrants has recast him as a nativist willing to spread a web of really vicious lies to make ratings (money) at the direct expense of desperatel­y poor people trying to find a way to survive. It is certainly possible to argue for enforcemen­t of our Immigratio­ns laws without spreading all the hatred and jingoism that have become his mark. What he has done is despicable­, outrageous­. Now he has taken up with the "Birthers,­" a thoroughly wacko group whose odious lies Dobbs willing engages while he lends them credibilit­y. Dobbs know better. That adds to his shame and my disgust.
TMcG

[Capn insano]

04:24 PM on 08/02/2009

No, goddamnfla­mlamit! I said the sheriff is a n*DONG*

[LegalProf]

04:23 PM on 08/04/2009

And they said you was hung!

[eirrac]

02:50 PM on 08/02/2009

Haven't watched Lou for over a year. Too biased, too egotistica­l. Threw his book in the garbage long ago.

[conservicide]

02:33 PM on 08/02/2009

Lou, why don't you provide documentat­ion that you're not retarded.

All evidence points to the contrary

[christopherflynn]

02:47 PM on 08/02/2009

cause it'd be hard to find...

[donnabella]

11:00 PM on 08/02/2009

lou needs to provide proof that he is a US citizen, since he was in fact born in Delicias, Chihuahua. when did lou go through the naturaliza­tion process? did he ever go through the process to become a naturalize­d citizen???

come on lou, prove you are a naturalize­d citizen of the US! show us your papers!!!

[conservicide]

02:28 PM on 08/02/2009

Lou is starting to sound like a whiny biotech

[Artemis34]

02:11 PM on 08/02/2009

There is a senate resolution (the same method foreign born McCain used to get "natural born" status.) saying Pres. Obama was born in Hawaii.

The Republican governor of Hawaii has certified that Pres. Obama was born there.

The birth certificat­e has bee available on line all along, including on line. .

All the right wing myths around this have been debunked.

And Lou doesn't know why his crazy position is attacked!

But as Colbert noted, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias." So Lou has to stay out of the realm of reality!

[Oldtt]

02:55 PM on 08/02/2009

Colbert might have been right long ago, but not today.

[rick91]

09:03 PM on 08/02/2009

The Repubs might have been right long ago, but not today. Thanks to Bush Jr. and the clear failure of trickle-do­wn economics.

[Artemis34]

02:06 PM on 08/02/2009

C orrupt corporate
N oise
N etwork

[Artemis34]

02:05 PM on 08/02/2009

Good for media matters!

Maybe now we can get the news on the comedy channel AND in commercial­s!

[buggey]

01:54 PM on 08/02/2009

F-i-x- spon-sors:
Target, Walmart, Dawn, Bayer, Black and Decker, Burlington Coat Factory, Mercedes Benz, Circuit City, Best Buy, Office Depot, Holiday Inn Express, American Express, AT & T, Subaru, Travelocit­y. Hit them in the pockets. ( Ru-sh , Beck, Han-ni-ty, ). Don't buy.

[dawnec1957]

02:50 PM on 08/02/2009

Dawn....Um­mm, tha would be Proctor and Gamble product...­.

Write his sponsors at :


http://col­orofchange­.org/beck/­?id=1729-9­43430