The indiscriminate classification of innocent conservative organizations as “hate groups” by the discredited Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has resulted in an open letter addressed to the media to stop presenting data from the SPLC as legitimate.
The Family Research Council announced yesterday that it joined a coalition of 47 conservatives leaders and organizations who are calling upon the media to stop relying on the SPLC's discredited “hate map” which includes groups espousing traditional family values alongside the KKK. The map has already been linked to at least one terror attack as well as to the attempted political assassination of House Majority Whip, Rep. Steve Scalise earlier this summer.
"We are writing to you as individuals or as representatives of organizations who are deeply troubled by several recent examples of the media's use of data from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)," they wrote in an open letter to the media.
"The SPLC is a discredited, left-wing, political activist organization that seeks to silence its political opponents with a 'hate group' label of its own invention and application that is not only false and defamatory, but that also endangers the lives of those targeted with it."
The letter continues: “The SPLC is an attack dog of the political left. Having evolved from laudable origins battling the Klan in the 1970’s, the SPLC has realized the profitability of defamation, churning out fundraising letters, and publishing ‘hit pieces’ on conservatives to promote its agenda and pad its substantial endowment (of $319 million). Anyone who opposes them, including many Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and traditional conservatives is slandered and slapped with the ‘extremist’ label or even worse, their ‘hate group’ designation. At one point, the SPLC even added Dr. Ben Carson to its ‘extremist’ list because of his biblical views (and only took him off the list after public outcry)."
It adds: "To associate public interest law firms and think tanks with neo-Nazis and the KKK is unconscionable, and it represents the height of irresponsible journalism to do so. All reputable news organizations should immediately stop using the SPLC descriptions of in individuals and organizations based on the SPLC's obvious political prejudices."
The letter goes on to challenge the media’s double standing by proposing the following scenario:
“We wonder how the media would react if a corresponding situation arose on the centerright of the political spectrum. For example, let’s assume that congressional debate were raging as to whether or not taxpayers should continue to fund Planned Parenthood, which receives about $500 million a year from Congress. If a national pro-life advocacy organization were to release a map with caricatures of abortionists and title it, ‘Here’s Where the Baby Killers are Located in Your State,’ would the media run the story? Would it reprint the map and discuss the location of these ‘pro-death’ doctors throughout the news day? Clearly, it would not.”
The letter was signed by dozens of prominent conservative leaders such Dr. Tom Benton and Dr. Michelle Cretella of the American College of Pediatricians, the Honorable Edwin Meese III of the Heritage Foundation, and Tim Wilmon of the American Family Association.
Other signatories included individuals and organizations that were unfairly maligned as “hate groups,” such as Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel and Michael Farris of Alliance Defending Freedom.
Dr. Jennifer Morse, of the Ruth Institute, a Catholic non-profit dedicated to combating the breakdown of the family, also signed the letter after being labeled a hate group which then caused the organization to be dropped from the Amazon Smile charitable giving program. Vanco Payment Solutions also dropped the ministry from its online donation processing service citing the SPLC’s specious designation as being a hate group.
As a result of this irresponsible targeting, the SPLC is currently facing a rash of lawsuits from conservation organizations and is raising the question of whether or not the group, which was originally founded for a good cause, has evolved into a hate group onto itself.
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