Why is the media crazy for birthers?

I haven't written much about the phenomenon known as the "birthers" - they're crazy, we all know they're crazy, let's move on. But it's precisely that craziness that's been on my mind. Last night on "The Colbert Report," Stevie interviewed Dr. Orly Taitz, a Soviet-born dentist who's been referred to as the steam driving the movement of people who insist that President Obama can't be president because he's not a natural-born citizen.


Now, Colbert's is a news/culture commentary program that's meant to be funny. But Taitz, who's filed several lawsuits against Obama and whose actions have attracted the attention of the California State Bar Association, makes frequent appearances in public and in the media, including with CNN and NPR. Taitz has repeatedly insisted that you can't be an natural-born citizen without two citizens as parents (not true) - and yet she's considered a valid media source.


Which begs the question - What would Walter Cronkite do? Since the "most trusted man in America" died a few weeks ago, the contrast between the retrospectives of his broadcasting career and what passes for TV journalism today is stark, and not very encouraging. I could never imagine Cronkite putting on the air some wingnut whose entire argument was based on documented lies. As Christiane Amanpour said in her talk here last year, there aren't two sides to a genocide. And there aren't two sides to a lunatic fringe conspiracy theory, either.


So, why are the media focusing so much on the "birthers"? The 9-11 conspiracy nuts didn't get this much airplay. I find myself sort-of agreeing with Ann Coulter, of all people, who said this week that keeping the story alive makes the movement seem bigger than it is, which allows the so-called liberal media to make all conservatives look as loony as Taitz and her ilk. but the rightward-leaning media haven't been silent, either. CNN's president had to remind Lou Dobbs to knock it off this week, too.

It's not idealogy. It's money. Sensational=ratings, as it always has since the days of Hearst and "Remember the Maine." The big media outlets - all controlled by corporations - play to their bases rather than doing the hard, sometimes thankless work of actual news reporting.

And it's getting REALLY old.