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CNN and Lou Dobbs Take Credibility Dive, Promote Debunked Obama Birth Certificate Conspiracy

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Via Media Matters, a major CNN controversy is brewing over Lou Dobbs‘ July 15th parroting of an inaccurate and unfounded claim that Obama’s birth certificate is fake.

Despite the fact that the “birther” claim has been debunked countless times on Dobbs’ own news network, Dobbs claims that there has been no evidence to counter the birth certificate conspiracy. And, no, apparently the birth certificate produced by the Hawaii Health Department– photographed, seen, and “felt” by the staff of Factcheck.org— doesn’t count.

Dobbs, with his refusal to back down, has taken a major credibility dive (this, after the major ratings dive), and fellow CNN anchors appear desperate to not get dragged along with him. Watch it:

 

Think Progress blogger Andrea Nill reported the story early in Dobbs wonders whether President Obama is undocumented:

Today, Political Wire posted a clip of an episode of Lou Dobbs’ radio show in which he not only questions President Obama’s citizenship and promotes the bizarre right-wing “birther” theory, but also insinuates that Obama might be undocumented:

DOBBS: I’m starting to think we have a document issue. You suppose he’s un — no, I won’t even use the word undocumented, it wouldn’t be right.

Now Think Progress is tracking coverage of other conspiratorialists, coming out of the woodwork to weigh in on what should be, by now, a non-issue. Check out G. Gordon Liddy says Obama is an ‘illegal alien’ born in a ‘hospital in Mombasa.’

Watch it:

According to Latino political analyst, Mario Solis-Marich, however, Dobbs is Being Dobbs:

The newest outrage about Lou Dobbs is his embrace of the idea that President Obama is not a US citizen. Yup Lou Dobbs has seen the potential ratings in becoming the nations most trusted “birther”. The CNN entertainer / propagandist is doing what he has done best over the last few years. Dobbs had made a good living from CNN by catering to the worst racist fears of Americans uneasy about the state of their world and looking for a scapegoat. The latest iteration is only that , a new frame for the centuries old political hat trick of scapegoating. It is a trick not worthy of a real news organization and it is a trick with potentially dangerous social implications.

The real travesty is that Dobbs has survived so long on a news channel that seems to want respect. It is hard for many Latinos to take any programming on CNN seriously when they have allowed Dobbs to use its logo as a hood to hide the real face of his appeal. “The Most Trusted Name in News” has looked the other way as Dobbs made them cash by selling outright lies about the immigration debate and demonizing immigrant workers. Will CNN officials continue to hide in their accounting suites as Dobbs makes believe that the President of the United States is “undocumented”?

The latest from Media Matters:

“CNN has a very serious Lou Dobbs problem on its hands,” said Eric Burns, President of Media Matters. “All eyes are on CNN to see how the network will handle a host who has clearly become a stain on its journalistic credibility.”