When the Right accused Bill Clinton of using Arkansas state troopers to help him procure women, they at least had a couple of state troopers who were willing to back them up. And when they accused Clinton of running a cocaine ring out of the Mena, Arkansas airport, they were only half-wrong. The CIA/Contras, not the governor, probably were running cocaine into Mena, and weapons out…When they accused the Clintons of having their dear friend Vince Foster killed, they at least had a dead body. No matter how crazy their theories, in the Clinton Era they had some level of surface plausibility. Not so with the Birther Movement.
The State of Hawaii has certified that Obama was born there, and there was a birth announcement in the local paper. Obama has provided all the documentation it is possible for him to provide without actually having possession of his original certificate. Obama’s father was a student at the University of Hawaii at the time in question, He was a colleague of Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI). Obama’s mother was living in Hawaii at the time in question, and she never lived in Kenya. These facts are not preventing Lou Dobbs from treating the Birther Movement with respect by giving them a platform on radio and television to air their addled theories. I suppose that CNN is not really doing the Republicans any favors by promoting the views of their fringe-base. It’s a variant of the FOX News model, where the only liberals allowed are the ones with crazy beliefs. But spreading the idea that the president was not lawfully elected is dangerous because a certain small percentage of people believe anything they hear on television and because there is a certain logic that follows from believing the president is an usurper. That logic is that removing the president from his position through violence can be justified because he isn’t eligible to be president in the first place.
I’m not calling for the suppression of free speech. But I don’t think CNN should be promoting a meritless conspiracy theory that has marginal news value and that carries dark implications.
