President of CNN Tells Lou Dobbs Birther Story "Dead"

I continue to be shocked by how untethered from reality the lunatic base of the GOP has become. Few things underscore the insanity that has become the hallmark of being a Republican than the myth among the far right that Barack Obama was not born in the United States and, therefore is not qualified to be president. Never mind that Hawaii is a state and a U.S. territory before that. Or that John McCain was born in the U. S. Canal Zone in Panama which is no longer even a U. S. Territory. Among those fanning the flames of the deranged "birthers" are naturally folks at Faux News and some others who ought to know better. Finally, CNN has put the kibosh on Lou Dobb's reporting on this fantasy of the irrational nativists and Christianists. Here are some highlights from Salon's coverage of the issue:

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Seems like CNN executives have finally spoken up on Lou Dobbs' embrace of Birtherism. TVNewser is reporting that CNN/U.S. President Jon Klein e-mailed some of the staffers from Dobbs' show before it aired Thursday night to say, "[I]t seems this story is dead -- because anyone who is not convinced doesn't really have a legitimate beef."
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I've contacted a CNN spokeswoman for comment, and will update this post if and when I hear back, but in the meantime the report looks trustworthy, as TVNewser has what it says is the actual e-mail from Klein:

----- 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.

*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.

The sad reality is that despite this information I suspect the far right extremists - a number of whom are less that thinly veiled racists will persist with this story no matter what evidence is given to them. Christ himself could appear and they'd ignore anything that contradicts their insane fantasies.