Should CNN attack its own anchor over 'birther' flap?
A media watchdog group releases an ad criticizing CNN anchor Lou Dobbs for stoking the 'birther' controversy.
CNN is facing a dilemma. It can run an advertisement that criticizes one of its prime time anchors – or refuse to run it and face criticism for that.
Media Matters, a nonprofit media watchdog group, has produced an ad which attacks CNN anchor Lou Dobbs for promoting a “false right wing conspiracy that President Obama hasn’t produced a valid U.S. birth certificate.”
MSNBC and FOX News will run the ad Monday in Washington and Atlanta, according to Media Matters. CNN has indicated to Media Matters that it will probably not air the ad.
"Five of the six cable providers we purchased ad time with have turned down the ad for CNN," said Media Matters spokeswoman Jessica Levin in an e-mail. "Time Warner (owner of CNN) allowed the ad to run on Fox News and MSNBC but turned it down for CNN."
The controversy hovers around a right-wing movement that’s come to be known as “birthers” because it’s adherents question whether Obama was born in the United States and whether he is a citizen who can legitimately serve as president.
Officials in Hawaii have confirmed multiple times that the birth certificate produced by the Obama campaign in 2008 is legitimate. Factcheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, has also seen the birth certificate and declared it legitimate.
