MSNBC President: Conspiracy Theory About Obama's Citizenship Is "Racist" [View All]

[democracy1st]

MSNBC president Phil Griffin called the claim that President Obama is a foreigner, which has received significant media coverage over the last few days, "racist." From the NY Times

It's racist,said Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC. It's racist. Just call it for what it is.

Mr. Griffin said the cable news coverage was set off by two back-to-back events: the introduction of a bill that would require presidential candidates to provide a copy of their original birth certificate (it has nine co-sponsors in the House and one in the Senate) and the video of a town hall held by a Republican Congressman that turned into a hearing on Mr. Obamas citizenship.

This morning, the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a major civil rights group, wrote a letter calling on CNN President Jon Klein to remove CNN host Lou Dobbs from the air. The request stems from a segment on Dobbs' radio show this past Tuesday where Dobbs did his part to keep alive the conspiracy theory that President Obama is not an American citizen (AKA the "birther" theory). On air, he speculated: "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."


The SPLC isn't the first group to have demanded the removal of Dobbs. Yesterday, the progressive watchdog group Media Matters blasted out a press release to reporters charging that "CNN has a very serious Lou Dobbs problem."

And it seemed as though the message was starting to sink in. TVNewser reported today that Jon Klein sent a memo to a group of Dobbs' staffers explaining in no uncertain terms that the whole "birthers" story is "dead."

However, in an interview with Greg Sargent this afternoon, Klein backtracked and brushed off the criticism. "Look, Lou's his own show, and CNN in general has repeatedly and thoroughly reported on the facts behind this situation."

He also took a dig at his critics, suggesting that they were politically motivated.

Asked if CNN is concerned that Dobbs' repeated granting of airtime to theories the network has conclusively debunked amounts to overkill and could harm CNN's credibility, Klein brushed off the possibility. "We respect our viewers enough to present them the facts and let them make up their own minds," he said, adding that what Dobbs does is "his editorial decision to make."

full interview here
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/political-media/cnn-president-brushes-off-criticism-of-lou-dobbs-continued-floating-of-birther-theories/


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/24/major-civil-rights-group_n_244532.html