Ahead of the conference, Americans generally support some sort of agreement on emissions, with a plurality hoping congress ratifies a binding treaty. Ahead of the health care debate, Americans broadly supported health care reform, too.

The wheels of disinformation are already spinning. Lou Dobbs went fucking nuts on his radio show today while talking with complete loon Jim Inhofe. The idea of the President attempting to win support for international emissions reductions by promising that the US will attempt to meet similar targets drove Dobbs over the edge.

DOBBS: Who the hell does this president think he is?

INHOFE: I don't know, because you can't do that. And I think it's certainly disingenuous to mislead countries into thinking that a president … You know, this is not a kingdom. He's not able to do that.

DOBBS: Not yet!

If there's one thing repressive, autocratic monarchs are known for, it's attempting to cede their nation's sovereignty to a world government, or something.

Inhofe, of course, believes that global warming is a great big hoax. And here he is commenting on Obama's trip:

"I suspect President Obama is making the trip to Copenhagen in order to ‘save' the climate conference," Sen. Inhofe said. "Yet no amount of lofty rhetoric or promises of future commitments can save it. This is due in large part to the fact cap-and-trade legislation in the Senate is dying on the vine, and, as important, recent revelations of leading climate scientists who appear to have manufactured the climate ‘consensus'-revelations that cast doubt over the entire global warming enterprise.

Right. Those emails. Those fucking emails. You can argue that the emails reveal improper behavior (if you suspect a casual reference to "throwing out the peer-review process" is actual proof of any sort of wrong-doing) but there's actually not anything in any of the emails that suggests that anyone manufactured any data, at all.

But it doesn't matter. The "story," in its easy-to-digest form, is that secret emails prove climate scientists made up global warming.

Naomi Klein's recent Harper's story on the 2001 UN conference on racism was, you know, typical Naomi Klein-in-Harper's stuff (long), but it did brilliantly illustrate how these lies endure: they start with a modicum of truth and then, through enough repetition and distortion, they become ingrained "knowledge" that is wholly wrong.

That conference, popularly referred to as Durban, was supposed to be about Africa. But ahead of the conference, a few Islamic countries asked to include anti-Israel language that also downplayed the Holocaust. That language never had a chance of making it into a final UN document, but it gave the Bush administration a convenient excuse to avoid a conference that they didn't want to participate in in the first place. Then the offending language was removed, a nice little document about how bad racism is was produced, and everyone was happy.

Moreover, Southwick was quite right: after he left, all of the offending language was excised in the final round of negotiations. Which is why, in a detail conveniently excluded by Durban's critics, Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres praised the Durban Declaration at the time as "an accomplishment of the fi rst order for Israel" and "a painful comedown for the Arab League."

Then, in the post-9/11 recollection of Jewish politicians in America and the right-wing press in Israel, the conference suddenly became an Israel-bashing antisemitic festival of hatred. The genuine anti-semitism on display by some protesters and the legimitate criticisms of Israel's security and citizenship policies were conflated, and "Durban" became both a dirty word and a rousing reminder that threats to the Jewish people were real and pervasive. The story of what happened at Durban spun out of control, with right-wing academics and journalists publishing dozens of stories repeating and exaggerating the myths.

But the worst distortions were in Bayefsky's bellowing full-page ads, which appeared in the Washington Times, the New York Sun, and other papers, and were signed by a long list of notables including Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, orientalist Bernard Lewis, former New York mayor Ed Koch, and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel. In big bold letters the ads claimed that the final Durban Declaration stated "That ISRAEL, and ONLY ISRAEL, is guilty of racism." Never mind that nowhere in the document was Israel accused, let alone convicted, of racism.

Yes, right. It all got so ridiculous that a spokesman for Israel's foreign minister said the conference's final report called Israel "the most racist state on Earth. When a BBC interviewer read him the actual Durban Declaration, which, of course, did not say any such thing, he was baffled: "even though I don't have the text in front of me, I remember quite precisely some quotes that were completely contrary to those that you've just quoted. So we must be speaking about two different documents." Indeed!

Obama avoided Durban 2, because it was already too poisoned. Here's hoping he can bring a truthful version of what happens at Copenhagen home with him, but we're not holding our breath.

If only we had news of an old white man in the media (THEME)... Hello, Lewis Lapham! The NYT checks in on him, just because, and finds him still wearing nice suits and putting out Lapham's Quarterly, which is still a going concern. Here is pretty much everything about Lewis Lapham in one single anecdote, in which, fresh out of Yale, he interviews for a job with the CIA:

The first question he was asked in the interview was, "When standing on the 13th tee at the National Golf Links in Southampton, which club does one take from the bag?"

"They wanted to make sure you were the right sort," Mr. Lapham recalled. He found the question off-putting and dropped his spy ambitions for journalistic ones (although he points out that he knew the right answer - a 7-iron).

What the hell is Lou Dobbs doing now? He is reportedly talking to CNBC, about maybe having a show there? Lou Dobbs and Sheriff Joe in 2012!


And speaking of old TV guys doing things: Charlie Rose is going to be writing a column for the new Bloomberg-ed BusinessWeek! Strange, since they canned Maria Bartiromo and all her famous cronies already. Anyhow Charlie's column will "offer insights into and takeaways from" things, which is how he hits you from two angles.


More college kids out of control, when it comes to journalism! The Arizona State J-School invited Sheriff Joe "Crazy Racist Xenophobic Joe" Arpaio to come talk, but he "was cut short Monday night when a group of protestors broke into song." Hopefully that song was Reggaeton.


And finally: National Geographic Adventure is for sale.

Well. What a fast turnaround, right?

"Whatever you have thought of me in the past, I can tell you right now that I am one of your greatest friends and I mean for us to work together," he said in a live interview with Telemundo's Maria Celeste. "I hope that will begin with Maria and me and Telemundo and other media organizations and others in this national debate that we should turn into a solution rather than a continuing debate and factional contest."

Mr. Dobbs twice mentioned a possible legalization plan for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., saying at one point that "we need the ability to legalize illegal immigrants under certain conditions."

It's great that Lou Dobbs saw the light, and that he now favors liberalization of our broken immigration and naturalization process.

But—and, you know, we hate to do this two days in a row—fuck you, Lou Dobbs.

Mr. Dobbs couldn't be reached Tuesday. Spokesman Bob Dilenschneider said Mr. Dobbs draws a distinction between illegal immigrants who have committed crimes since arriving in the U.S. and those who are "living upright, positive and constructive lives" who should be "integrated" into society. He said Mr. Dobbs recognizes the political importance of Latinos and is "smoothing the water and clearing the air."

The funny thing, Lou, is that you were the one who attempted to create the impression, without evidence, that all illegal immigrants were criminals. You know-nothing prick.

You made your name on one issue, Lou, and one issue alone: that there are too many Mexicans, that the Mexicans are scary, and that they should all go back to Mexico, because they are disease-ridden criminals. You lied about how many immigrants there are, you called them "an army of invaders," you said they wanted to reannex the Southwestern United States, you claimed they were spreading leprosy, you spent hours of airtime openly, blatantly lying, in order to inflame anti-immigrant hysteria. That is what you did. For years. You doughy, lying, sack of shit.

Video via Anyguey.

Original Video- More videos at TinyPic

The extremely excited immigrant-suspecters explain their love for Dobbs thus, in a press release:

...his show was one of the few national media shows that continued to broadcast accurate information about illegal immigration and America's broken borders

The organization aims to raise over $1m by the end of the year, and will consider turning pledges to the political action committee over for a Senate campaign too. A spokesman ended a press release on the topic looking towards the future. Except for his choice of media on which to present Dobbs with their immigrant-bashing achievements:

I look forward to a day when I can hand Lou Dobbs a maximum donation from our PAC, a maximum donation from my family, and a CD Rom disk with a list of donors and our URL for his campaign.

Fred Thompson had Dobbs on his radio show today, and asked him if he'd given thought to a presidential run. Dobbs said "yes," adding that he's engaging the services of all sorts of experts to give him the best advice.

Which means that the 2012 primaries—even if Dobbs runs as an independent, his campaign will be perceived as an adjunct of the festival of white rage that will determine the GOP's standard-bearer—will, god willing, be nothing short of a phantasmagorical Hunter Thompson-esque fever-dream populated by snake-handlers, idiots, Mormons, and fat, chain-smoking television hacks. Between Dobbs, Sarah Palin, and whatever Glenn Beck's 100-year-war "plan" has in store for us, the wingnut beat will be a life-changing event for those reporters lucky enough to chronicle it in 2012. The New York Times' David Kirkpatrick famously pioneered the paper's "conservative beat" in 2004, but it was largely a survey of the intellectual undercurrents of neoconservatism and seems to have been abandoned. Whoever picks up the mantle from him in two years will be richly rewarded. It's never too early to start strategizing.

Richard Miniter, the editorial page editor of the Moonie Washington Times, is suing the paper for "being forced to attend a Unification Church mass wedding," and also because he says they made him work while he was sick, even though, according to TPM, "During a health scare earlier this year, Miniter was brought out of the newsroom on a stretcher." Who would have expected this at the Moonie Washington Times, of all places?


The (unprofitable) New York Daily News is investing $150 million in a new printing press . Buyers of print ads in the Daily News love it; everyone else thinks it is stupid.


Hey, Lou Dobbs is very interested in Bill O'Reilly's offer of a "semi-regular contributor" position on O'Reilly's show. Bill O'Reilly and Lou Dobbs, together, on the same show. That would be something. Something evil.


Ah, here's a fourth item on this day of layoffs and only layoffs, as far as media "news" is concerned: Samir "Mr. Magazine" Husni has named Hearst's Food Network Magazines as the Most Notable Launch of 2009. Americans can no longer tolerate any aspect of their daily reality that is unconnected to television. What an apocalyptic future we all face. Thanks, "Mr. Magazine."

When O'Reilly asked Dobbs, who quit CNN unannounced last week, whether he was considering a Senate run, Dobbs said, "A lot of things are on my mind. I'm not going to be coy about this." He then proceeded to be very coy. Did you see Dobbs' little head bob when O'Reilly lists off his possible future moves: TV, Radio, and "run for office?" If that wasn't "marked by cute, coquettish, or artful playfulness," then I'm going to have to reevaluate a lot of the things women do around me that I previously thought of as coy.

Anyway, if nothing else we learned that Bill O'Reilly would seriously ask the question "Barack Obama, is he the devil?" and that Dobbs will be a "semi-regular" guest on the program to further dissect the degree to which Obama is or is not satanic. It's good to hear that Dobbs won't be sitting around just counting his $8 million severance package.

Here is a potential campaign poster and slogan for Dobbs' future political campaign, based on his claim that someone shot at his house in retaliation for his support of the Birther "movement" (sorry, can't think of a good synonym for "crazy people" right now):

King, a former Associated Press reporter, is a devotee of the old school. He once freaked out on CNN management after Larry King hosted an inaugural event for George W. Bush and hugged him on the air. It's kind of quaint, really. Replacing Dobbs' xenophobic self-regarding bluster with King's reasonable, if horserace-obsessed, demeanor is a conscious effort on CNN's part to distance itself from cable demagoguery. From CNN chief Jon Klein's conference call with staffers, via the New York Times:

"John doing that show is obviously a statement about the importance of real nonpartisan news to CNN, and also the importance of political coverage to CNN," Jonathan Klein, the president of CNN/U.S., told employees on a conference call Thursday morning.

We don't really know what to say about CNN. This is the right strategy, but it's a losing strategy. And it can't last long.

Fox Business Network
Pro: Fox has been wooing Dobbs for months; TV chair Roger Ailes reportedly wined and dined him in September. Between the additions of mustachioed libertarian John Stossel and ebullient racist cowboy Don Imus, FBN's on a hiring spree. Dobbs would be a perfect fit; one mere lifetime ago, he was a well-respected business reporter, after all. The fact that he went off the rails into right-wing demagoguery will only sweeten this deal.
Con: Dobbs' intense xenophobia forces him to break from the pro-business pack's love of cheap immigrant labor. They'd bond over their mutual revulsion for Barack Obama, though.
Odds: 1:100

Presidential Run
Pro: Conservative columnist Robert Novak was the first to float Dobbs' name for a third-party presidential ticket. The self-proclaimed "independent populist" has a diehard fanbase in politically sought-after middle America, and is himself from Idaho and Texas. Though bashful about his political prospects, he said in January, "I cannot say never."
Con: He also said this: "I haven't got the personality or nature to be a poitician."
Odds: 10:1

His One True Love: Astronaut Media
Pro: Last time Dobbs cut and ran from CNN, it was to be CEO of Space.com, a start-up venture that indulged his unabiding passion for deep space and extraterrestrials. Space tourism is heating up, and the leap from birther to earther isn't so far...
Con: Space.com is doing just fine without Dobbs—even finagling a content-sharing deal with CNN. Also, it'd be totally insane.
Odds: 40:1

CNBC
Pro: During Dobbs' Space.com phase, he worked closely with the very network that had undermined his business news show on CNN. At the time, CNBC's aggressive formula of stock tips and financial advice was ratings gold. Now, whatwith the financial collapse and all, it's just embarrassing.
Con: Going to CNBC would break Dobbs' trajectory of moving away from his actual area of expertise (finance, economics) and towards his imagined one (the president's birth certificate). That's the kind of momentum that's hard to stop, but if all he wants is a job and a platform, CNBC will probably be willing to listen.
Odds: 5:1

Dobbs would fit much more snugly into the right-wing stable of shouting heads over at Fox than he did at CNN, where he made an awkward lie of the cable network's attempt to position itself as a non-partisan straight-news alternative to MSNBC on the left and Fox News on the right. But Dobbs hasn't exactly been a ratings dynamo: He was recently losing not only to Shep Smith at Fox but Chris Matthews at MSNBC and even Jane Velez Mitchell at CNN's HLN (formerly Headline News). Burn.

Maybe once Dobbs is unshackled from his CNN overlords he can finally make a bright future for himself in a foreign TV land, one that believes in true opportunity for downtrodden and wandering émigrés like himself.

UPDATE: Video of the announcement is above. Dobbs' comments have observers speculating he'll make some kind of political move.

UPDATE: Maybe not; a CNN statement says "Lou has now decided to carry the banner of advocacy journalism elsewhere."

Another Conde Nast mag lines up for its 25% budget cuts: A tipster tells us that Teen Vogue had about six layoffs today in the sales and marketing departments, including, they say, a pregnant woman. We also hear rumors of editorial layoffs at Details today, although we have no...details. Know more? Email us.


Elsewhere in magazine layoffs: The long-awaited Forbes layoffs are coming down this week. Keith Kelly says 30 to 40 layoffs there this week. And WWD says that Time Inc. is "expected to make staff reductions across the board next week." That follows the 600 layoffs there one year ago. Damn.


What horrible things are going on at the San Francisco Chronicle? The paper lost more than 25% of its circulation in the latest report. Which is great news, according to the publisher! "Frank Vega, publisher of The Chronicle, said the newspaper's loss in circulation was an expected result of moving away from a business model that depends mainly on advertising and instead relies on readers for a greater share of revenue." Ah yes: Now that your model relies on readers for revenue, you'd expect readers to flee from your paper in record numbers. Naturally. Also: "Starting next month, the paper will become the first in the country to use glossy, magazine-style paper in its daily editions, although not for every page." Um, just what the public's been waiting for? Even Romenesko is totally making fun of you, SF Chronicle.


Looks like Wonkette will be resuming its boycott of Politico, after discovering Politico is still way dumb.


There's a little war of words going on between "xenophobic" xenophobe Lou Dobbs and "self-important ass" Fox Biz mustache-haver John Stossel. Hopefully this will end with both men tearing each other limb from limb.

Why, it's this Lou Dobbs fellow, a famous host on the CNN network!

Kevin Jennings holds a Bush administration-created post overseeing a Reagan administration-created department dedicated to keeping schools safe. This makes him one of Obama's unconstitutional Czars. Whereas Reagan wanted to keep them safe from drugs and Bush wanted to keep them safe from, uh, terror or something, Obama's hire would like to keep them safe from harassment and bullying. Also—did we mention?—he's a gay.

Noted execrable piece of shit Dobbs is not even creative enough to come up with his own smears. The immigration hysteria he stoked for a brief period of attention has died down, so he's reduced to borrowing Sean Heannity's crusade, which was itself stolen from Beck.

Here is the case against Jennings, again:

• He is a gay.
• He got mad at God, once, because he was a gay teenager.
• He got stoned.
• He is a gay.
• He thinks gay kids—and kids who aren't gay but who are called gay slurs—should not be beaten, murdered, or driven to suicide.
• He tries to educate kids on the importance of not abusing one another.
• He is a gay.
• This one time this troubled, suicidal, closeted teenager told him he met an older man and maybe had sex with him and Jennings sympathized with him and then said "I hope you know to use a condom."

It is that last story, of a troubled student confiding in a sympathetic teacher and receiving sensible and important advice that allowed that problem student to grow into a satisfied and happy adult, that has made right-wingers apoplectic. In order to make their rage at that successful show of liberal compassion sound less like hysterical homophobia, they have been saying that Jennings "failed to report" "statutory rape." Even though Jennings never explicitly said the kid had had sex with anyone yet and also, much more importantly, the kid was sixteen years old, which is the age of consent in Massachusetts.

Does that seem like a problem? That they can't spin this into a horrible act because no crime was committed? So in fact they're just mad that Jennings didn't destroy this kid's life by telling his parents or something about the kid's gross gay sex with a gross old gay guy? Here's what you do: you repeatedly and shamelessly lie, even when the reporters on your own network correct your lying with "reporting."

On October 2, Lou Dobbs repeated the "statutory rape" thing. He was corrected by Joe Conason. And if he watched his own network he would've seen Jessica Yellin correcting Fox's reports the same day!

Which means, of course, that yesterday Dobbs repeated a thing he knew to be untrue because Gay Immigrants Are Going to Turn Your Children Into Well-Dressed Mexicans.

Here's a whole article by the LAT's media critic about how Meghan McCain is the next big media superstar. I mean look, she has the famous name, the Twitter, the opinions about issue things, the TV shows, the internet, the tattoo, the youth, the rebel, and the politics stuff. Downside, she's dumb.


Your daily BusinessWeek update, whether you like it or not: With Wasserstein out of the running, looks like Bloomberg's gonna get it. Stay tuned for more daily BusinessWeek updates!


Now that Glenn Beck has been eradicated from the face of television through ad boycotts, some other non-Republican people are organizing a boycott of Lou Dobbs. Good luck to you haters.


The Atlantic's launched a new site that ranks the top 50 political pundits, making it the Mediaite list of drab political punditry, and equally useful. In a review, David Carr says he "generally gets his fill of opinions from his cab drivers." Well so does Thomas Friedman, and he's #4 on The Atlantic's list, so this site is still useful.

Ha: CNN prez Jon Klein, who lately has been seeming like a pretty okay dude, has told his producers to stop booking radio talk show hosts as guests, because they are "too predictable," meaning "wingnutty." Admirable! Lou Dobbs is himself a radio talk show host, btw.


Tina Brown is launching a British version of The Daily Beast "within months." Truly, Barry Diller's fortune is bottomless. But not growing.


Turn that frown upside down: some magazines actually managed to raise their ad pages in the first half of this year, as compared to last year. They include Fitness, Cooking With Paula Deen, The Week, OK!, Family Circle, Scholastic Parent & Child, Organic Gardening, Sports Illustrated for Kids, Country Weekly, and Muscle & Fitness. The clear formula for magazine success now: Target America's stupidest readers.


MTV is moving out of its famed Times Square studio because its famed Times Square studio has raised the rent 1000% over the past decade. Now you'll all have to find somewhere else to stand and wave your testicles at the Jonas Brothers.

Earlier this week, Bill O'Reilly announced on the air that he was trying to get Dobbs to appear on The O'Reilly Factor in the wake of Dobbs' defense of the birthers, but it never happened. It turns out that the outside, non-CNN PR firm that promotes Dobbs' radio show had actually reached out to Fox News to try to get Dobbs on the show, and Fox bit. Now Mediaite has the e-mail exchange between O'Reilly's producer and Dobbs' flack setting up the booking, with Dobbs' publicist writing "I sat with Lou last week and he is very interested in coming on so if Bill is into it, it would be a solid." O'Reilly's producer wrote back on Tuesday, "we will take lou dobbs on the factor tomorrow."

Of course, O'Reilly did not "take" Lou Dobbs on "the factor," leading to the conclusion that CNN put the kibosh on it. Which makes sense to the extent that it would be insane for CNN to let one of their top personalities (hey, we're not the ones who gave him an eponymous show) appear on the top-rated show of the network they've been in a personalized, insult-riddled death-match with for more than a decade. Dobbs' appearance would provide ample opportunity for TV writers to point out that he tripled his audience by going on O'Reilly's show, and for Fox's flacks to repeat ad nauseum that the only way CNN's lineup can get any traction is to go on Fox. It would be utterly humiliating. Not to mention the fact that Dobbs wanted to talk about how he's not sure the president of the United States is an American, a story that CNN is embarrassed about and wants to shut down.

So, mystery solved as far as we're concerned. Also: Fox's flacks—hi Irena!—leaked the e-mails to Mediaite in order to embarrass CNN by making them look like they can't control their talent, are scared to let their people "get taken" on "the factor," and are generally a no-talent shit-show run by desperate and unprofessional executives—the latter of which, to the extent that they employ Lou Dobbs, is indisputably true. We don't know that, but we still know it.

CNN didn't respond to our inquiry.

Reports the Observer:

Mr. Dobbs' first began reporting on Obama birth certificate conspiracy theories on the night of Wednesday, July 15. In the roughly two weeks since then, from July 15 through July 28, Mr. Dobbs' 7 p.m. show on CNN has averaged 653,000 total viewers and 157,000 in the 25-54 demo.

By contrast, during the first two weeks of the month (July 1 to July 14) Mr. Dobbs averaged 771,000 total viewers and 218,000 in the 25-54 demo. In other words, Mr. Dobbs' audience has decreased 15 percent in total viewers and 27 percent in the demo since the start of the controversy.

A 15% loss in total viewers in just two weeks! Well done Lou, well done. Just go ahead and fax your resume over to Fox News now, because you've probably alienated the average CNN viewer to the point of no return, and, try as you might, the average Fox News viewer isn't going to flip the channel over to CNN ever, even when Shep Smith is on the air.

Controversy Surrounding Lou Dobbs Has Failed to Increase His Ratings [Observer]
Pic via

Competing for the crown were three Gawker favorites—Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs and, of course, Glenn Beck. As you can probably imagine, this was indeed a contest for the ages, but alas, only one Douche King was left standing in the end. Long live the Douche King.

The incident in question occurred this morning on Fox & Friends when Beck made his weekly drop-in on the folksy vegetables who host that show. In the course of discussing the controversy surrounding the arrest of Henry Louis Gates and Barack Obama's subsequent comments on the matter, Beck said that Obama has a "deep-seeded hatred for white people and white culture...I'm not saying he doesn't like white people...this guy is, I believe, a racist."

So in response to the uproar over this, Fox News gave the following statement to TV Newser this evening:

During Fox & Friends this morning, Glenn Beck expressed a personal opinion which represented his own views, not those of the Fox News Channel. And as with all commentators in the cable news arena, he is given the freedom to express his opinions.

So in other words, Fox News said this: Glenn Beck is free to use our airwaves to say whatever the hell he wants, no matter how baseless and irresponsible the things he says may be, and will you now please leave us the hell alone.

Contrast this with the way CNN handled the ridiculous Lou Dobbs' Birther story-pushing, which was to basically tell Dobbs to shut the hell up and stop being an irresponsible prick by working America's vast dipshit population into a frenzy (UPDATE: As a commenter below pointed out, CNN caved on their stand). Well, at least we all now definitively know where Fox News stands on their village idiot: He can do and say whatever the hell he wants, they don't really care as long as he continues to bring the ratings.

Here's the clip of Beck's Fox & Friends visit this morning in case you missed it.





FNC Responds to Glenn Beck Calling Obama a Racist [TVNewser]

A few days ago the Southern Poverty Law Center called on CNN to fire Dobbs. In a letter to the cable news network, SPLC President Richard Cohen said that "respectable news organizations should not employ reporters willing to peddle racist conspiracy theories and false propaganda," so O'Reilly invited Cohen on his show to discuss the issue. After attacking Dobbs for peddling the widely dispelled conspiracy theory in the segment's opening, O'Reilly vigorously defended Dobbs for what he sees as merely "bloviating" to "stir the pot" on a hot-button issue to improve his crappy ratings, something O'Reilly has no ethical issues with, as we're all too well aware.

So to summarize: O'Reilly is disgusted with Dobbs for giving credibility to the insane Birther movement, but he has no issue with Dobbs flying the Birther freak flag on the air to spark controversy and enhance his ratings. Are you as confused as we are?

What's funny about this clip is that Cohen kind of kisses O'Reilly's ass in a "I know you'd never do such things for ratings Bill" sort of way, and we can't tell if his comments were laced with sarcasm or if he's just never watched O'Reilly's show before. You decide.

TVNewser notes that Klein sent the email just as Dobbs' show was starting last night, and that Dobbs did indeed say: "Meanwhile, the state of Hawaii says it can't release a paper copy of the president's original birth certificate because they say the state government discarded the original document when the health department records went electronic some eight years ago." [Related: The president of the Southern Poverty Law Center today sent a letter to Klein asking CNN "to remove Mr. Dobbs from the airwaves" because of his support for birthers.]

—-— Original Message —-—
From: Klein, Jon (CNN)
Sent: Thu Jul 23 19:00:44 2009
Subject: Important re birth certificate

I asked the political researchers to dig into the question "why couldn't Obama produce the ORIGINAL birth certificate?"

This is what they forwarded. It seems to definitively answer the question. Since the show's mission is for Lou to be the explainer and enlightener, he should be sure to cite this during your segment tonite. And then it seems this story is dead - because anyone who still is not convinced doesn't really have a legitimate beef.

Thx

*****************

*In 2001 - the state of Hawaii Health Department went paperless.*Paper documents were discarded*The official record of Obama's birth is now an official ELECTRONIC record Janice Okubo, spokeswoman for the Health Department told the Honolulu Star Bulletin, "At that time, all information for births from 1908 (on) was put into electronic files for consistent reporting," she said.

[TVNewser]