CNN’s Lou Dobbs dove back into the issue of whether President Obama is a United States citizen on Tuesday, shortly after the president of CNN’s United States news operation repeated his contention that there is, in fact, no question to debate.
On his nightly show on CNN, Mr. Dobbs said Tuesday that CNN was incorrect when it previously reported that Hawaii had discarded paper copies of birth records when it went to an electronic records storage system in 2001.
“Yesterday a spokeswoman for the Hawaii Department of Health said, in fact, that paper birth records have been retained in addition to the department’s electronic records,” Mr. Dobbs said on his show.
He reported that the director of the department had said she had seen a “long-form birth certificate” for Mr. Obama and had stated “her opinion” that the president was born in Hawaii. Mr. Dobbs went on to say that while he has repeatedly stated his contention that Mr. Obama is a citizen, “my question is simply, why not provide the long form birth certificate and end all of the discussion?”
During a presentation to television reporters in Pasadena, Calif., on Tuesday afternoon, Jonathan Klein, the president of CNN/U.S., said that Mr. Dobbs was simply reporting on the debate, not advocating a position.
Responding to questions from reporters after the presentation, Mr. Klein said that the network had no influence over what Mr. Dobbs says on his radio show, where he has also frequently discussed the issue in recent days. Asked whether he would prefer Mr. Dobbs to drop the issue, Mr. Klein was noncommittal.
“I would rather all of our leading journalists rely on their best judgments and instincts and our guidance about them,” Mr. Klein said. “We believe in the editorial compass of all of our people. It’s going to be different according to the individual. But that just makes us a more interesting and vibrant place. Lou is listening to a certain segment of the population all day long on his radio show so naturally that’s going to inform some of the decisions that he makes. But, again, to be clear: He is not exploring the question of whether Barack Obama is an American citizen. That is settled. It is a dead issue as far as CNN is concerned.”