'Birther' coverage hits fever pitch: Politico

Quoted via Politico:

When Candy Crowley mentioned "birthers" on CNN one night last week, she was careful to tuck the word between "wackos" and "crazy people." But Lou Dobbs wasn't taking any chances. "Don't say 'birthers,' whatever you do," he implored Crowley. "Not on this broadcast."

Dobbs had reason to be on edge; the CNN host has come under fire from Media Matters, liberal bloggers and rival cable hosts for playing footsie with the conspiracy theorists who insist that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya.

But when it comes to keeping the "birther" questions front and center, Dobbs can't hold a candle to his mocking competitors at MSNBC.

On the same day that Dobbs was shushing Crowley, MSNBC was covering the "birther" issue on "Hardball," "Countdown," "The Ed Show" and "The Rachel Maddow Show." All four shows had touched on the issue the day before, too, along with dayside hosts David Shuster and Tamron Hall, who devoted about six minutes - an eternity in TV news - to an interview with birther movement leader Dr. Orly Taitz, beamed in by satellite from Tel Aviv. more