As Dobbs digs in, CNN rebuts, ridicules, distances itself from birth certificate claims

clipped from mediamatters.org CNN/U.S. President Jon Klein told staffers of "Lou Dobbs Tonight" on Thursday that the controversy regarding the legitimacy of President Obama's birth certificate -- a topic Dobbs has avidly pursued on the air -- is a "dead" story. But in an interview, the cable news chief left open the possibility that Dobbs may continue to raise questions about why the president has not produced a long-form birth certificate. The absence of such a record has spawned rumors that Obama was not born in the United States, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. "He's got more than 30 years as a television journalist, and I trust him, as I trust all our reporters and anchors, to exercise their judgment as various stories evolve," Klein said of Dobbs, whose daily CNN program is a mix of news and opinion. Hawaiian officials discarded paper documents in 2001 Obama's long-form birth certificate no longer exists and a shorter certificate of live birth that has been made public is the official record,

The Southern Poverty Law Center has taken this up with CNN, calling for the ouster of Mr. Dobbs from the airwaves.