CNN is separating itself from the radio commentary of one of its lead hosts, Lou Dobbs.

The LATimes' James Rainey calls out Dobbs for a recent thread that's been coming up on his radio show, and that Dobbs has not, in Rainey's view, sufficiently shot it down: the validity of Barack Obama's birthplace. One caller to Dobbs' radio show said Obama would soon be exposed as having been born in Kenya. "Certainly your view can't be discounted," replied Dobbs.

Rainey points out, "cooler heads at CNN put some distance between themselves and their once star host, with fill-in Kitty Pilgrim using a segment of 'Lou Dobbs Tonight' on Friday to provide a substantially more skeptical look at the Obama-made-in-Africa claims. Pilgrim introduced the topic of Obama's alleged foreign birth as she sat in for Dobbs that night, calling it 'the discredited rumor that won't go away.'"

CNN has no involvement in Dobbs' radio show. A spokesperson tells TVNewser, "On CNN, Lou is an independent reporter who covers stories that people are talking about, and often showcases issues that aren't being covered by the mainstream media."

Yesterday on the radio, Dobbs kept up the drumbeat, but stated three times that he believes Pres. Obama is a U.S. citizen. "I think the president of the United States is a citizen," Dobbs said, adding "But what I don't understand is why he hasn't just produced [his birth certificate] to get this noise out of the way."

Interestingly, Dobbs' CNN show is preempted tonight as the network plans to air a pre-"Black in America 2" program live from Times Square at 7pmET.

Asked whether Dobbs' preemption has anything to do with his radio comments, the CNN spokesperson tells TVNewser, "Our special programming for Black in America 2 has been set for weeks now."