Media Matters seems to really want to punish Lou Dobbs for his coverage of the Obama birth certificate issue. The organizaion has now bought advertising air time on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News to run a thirty second anti-Dobbs commercial. A video clip of the commercial can be seen below.
The television ad shows clips in which Dobbs continually brings up the birth certificate. The ad further goes on to say that CNN has approved of the coverage by calling it "legitimate." Finally, the advertisement calls on viewers to call CNN to let them know their disapproval of the Dobbs' coverage.
I understand where Media Matters is coming from as Lou Dobbs did a disservice to media and the country through his "legitimization" of the birth certificate issue. Dobbs claimed he was innocent in saying he "believes" Obama to be a citizen but in fact most of his coverage was slanted toward giving the birth certificate conspiracy some credence. Perhaps Media Matters is trying to make an example out of Dobbs to prevent other media figures from promoting such ideas.
At the same time I do not expect CNN to actually fire Dobbs. CNN's image has suffered from Dobbs' coverage as most see his continual questioning of the Obama birth certificate unbecoming for someone who is part of the "The Most Trusted Name in News." At the same time, firing Dobbs now may actually hurt the CNN image even more. The network would likely alienate whatever small conservative audience it has left as a result of the firing. In addition, the conservative media would paint CNN as a puppet to the "leftist liberal" organizations like Media Matters if CNN gave in by firing Dobbs. Unfortunately CNN finds itself in a catch-22 as it suffers from keeping Dobbs but also would suffer from ridding themselves of him.
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