It is well-known that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) — fast becoming America’s premier leftwing smear group — is a darling of the mainstream media. Whenever the media seek to undermine a conservative group or person, they trot out a quote from the SPLC labeling the respective group or individual a “hate group,” as if their assessments are unbiased and accurate.
Moreover, the SPLC is not fond of the American Freedom Law Center; indeed, their website has a profile of AFLC Co-Founder & Senior Counsel David Yerushalmi which labels him as one of “30 New Activists Heading up the Radical Right.” And we’ve noted before that the SPLC partnered with the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Center for American Progress in a teleconference last month aimed at addressing “Islamophobia” in the U.S., which highlighted several leaders connected to AFLC, including Yerushalmi, AFLC Advisory Board Member Frank Gaffney and clients, Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller.
Although the SPLC enjoys credibility among the liberal media, it has recently faced increasing scrutiny over its brazen attacks on free speech as well as its ties to radical Leftists. Indeed, the Capital Research Center, a top guide to philanthropy, has recently released a comprehensive report which points out that the SPLC has “become more of a threat to free speech and civil debate than a defender of the weak or a foe of violent extremism.” The report also notes that the SPLC is primarily a fundraising vehicle that uses the themes of “tolerance” and “anti-hate” to raise money for its already significant coffers.
You can read the report in full here.