John Stossel: Southern Poverty Law Center hate-mongering against conservatives to boost fundraising

Award-winning reporter John Stossel released a video exposing the Southern Poverty Law Center for targeting conservative groups, nicknaming it the “Southern Poverty SLANDER Center.”

The SPLC officially launched in 1971 with the ostensible goal of fighting hate groups wuch as the Ku Klux Klan and defending civil rights.

But its current form is almost unrecognizable, Stossel says.

“The Center’s become a hate group itself,” Stossel said in his video report. “It’s now a left-wing, money-grabbing, slander machine.”   

Some of SPLC’s conservative targets include the Family Research Council (FRC), the Ruth Institute – which promotes Christian family values – and even those who speak about the dangers of radical Islam. 

“When they don’t agree with you politically, they’re going to list you as a hater,” Jerry Boykin, executive vice president of the FRC, told Stossel.  

Ten years ago, a man even started shooting at FRC headquarters, claiming he saw it was listed as a hate group by SPLC and wanted to “kill as many as possible.”  

And when SPLC put the Ruth Institute on its hate map, the Institute’s bank dropped them, Stossel reported.  

Tyler O’Neil, author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center, added that SPLC gives the government an easy excuse to persecute conservative groups such as traditional Catholics, pro-life advocates, and even parent groups such as Moms for Liberty.  

“I think the SPLC is a useful tool for the federal government,” O’Neil explained. “[The Biden administration] can use the hate map and say, ‘Hey, look, these so-called parental rights groups, they’re really an anti-student inclusion movement and they’re hateful. They deserve government surveillance and whatever we can throw at them.’”  

What exactly does the “Law Center” get for all its alleged hate-mongering?  

The answer is simple: money.  

According to Stossel, SPLC has an endowment of over $730 million. 

Stossel also noted in the video that while SPLC labels parental rights groups as hateful, it overlooks left-wing extremists such as Antifa.  

On its infamous hate map, SPLC has a variety of categories of hateful groups, including Anti-LGBTQ, Anti-Muslim, Neo-Nazi, Neo-Confederate, Male Supremacy, White Nationalist, Radical Traditional Catholicism and “Christian Identity.” 

“[SPLC] is a left-wing smear factory,” O’Neil concluded. “One of its major goals is to go after and silence its political opponents.”