As a follow-up to the tragic shooting by a Klansman in Overland Park Kansas which resulted in the deaths of three innocents CNN.com asked "Can the Klan Rebrand?" The article interviews a number of marketing experts and asks them if the rebranding effort by some in the Klan leadership could succeed.

According to the experts CNN interviewed the answer is no, "What would you be left with? Benign racism?" asked Jelani Cobb, director of the Africana Studies Institute at the University of Connecticut.

Meanwhile, many Klan leaders complain that the shooting set back their attempts to rebrand the hate group.

CNN sought out "Imperial Wizard" Frank Ancona, leader of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, for his opinion on the Jewish center shootings. Ancona expressed his frustrations with the impact Cross's action would have on the image of the Klan, arguing that he had "set back everything I've been trying to do for years":

"I believe in racial separation but it doesn't have to be violent," he told CNN. "People in the Klan are professional people, business people, working types. We are a legitimate organization."

Cross, who founded the Carolina Knights of the KKK in the 1980s, went "rogue," Ancona said.

Atlanta-based brand consultant Laura Ries maintained that a KKK reboot is an impossible task:

"They stand for hatred; they always have, Maybe they don't believe in shooting up a center for Jewish people, but they still support beliefs that are beyond the scope of understanding for most people and certainly the freedom and equality our country believes in."

Ries also argued that, in contrast to the Catholic Church, the Klan lacked of a high-profile leader to be the face of a rebranded movement:

"The KKK doesn't have a Pope. Look at what that guy has done. You have to have a leader like that to make people believe a change has happened," she said.

Marketing expert Dan Hill also contended that there could probably never be a Klan rebranding:

"Disney is happiness. Nike is you're proud you ran the race. The Ayran Brotherhood -- that's somewhere on the spectrum of rage and outrage," he said. "We are talking about an emotion that leads to violence. If you use that rhetoric, you can't say you didn't expect that kind of reaction."

Not discussed is what a story like this does to the CNN brand.