A stake in hate

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. 

I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

The Southern Poverty Law Center built its reputation exposing hate groups and extremists. Now, a federal grand jury has accused the organization of something very different.

EICHER: A superseding indictment last week alleges the SPLC paid sources inside white supremacist organizations, and in some cases, helped sustain the very movements it publicly condemned.

Yesterday, Congress had some questions.

Here is WORLD Opinions commentator Tyler O’Neil.

TYLER O’NEIL: On Capitol Hill yesterday, the acting head of the Southern Poverty Law Center was handed what should have been an easy opportunity.

A federal grand jury has accused the SPLC of helping sustain and grow extremist organizations through a network of paid field sources. The allegations strike at the heart of the SPLC’s mission and credibility.

So House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan asked a series of straightforward questions: Did the SPLC use donor money to place sources inside extremist groups? Did it use donor money to help grow those groups? Did it recruit members? Did it finance activities later cited as evidence of rising extremism?

More than five times in just five minutes, interim SPLC president Bryan Fair declined to address the specifics.

BRYAN FAIR: Mr. Chairman, the indictment will be managed and responded to by counsel...

Jordan tried again.

FAIR: Those issues will be resolved in the pending allegations against the SPLC.

And again.

FAIR: All of the allegations that you are referring to, Chairman Jordan, will be / Well how about this? / responded to by our counsel in the Middle District of Alabama.

And again.

FAIR: Chairman Jordan? / Yeah?  / Our counsel will respond to all the allegations in the indictment.

And still again...

FAIR: Our counsel will respond to all the allegations in the Middle District of Alabama.

To be clear, Fair also repeatedly stated that the allegations are false. 

But there's no doubt the SPLC paid sources inside white nationalist organizations. That fact alone is not necessarily scandalous. Journalists, law enforcement agencies, and advocacy groups all use confidential sources.

The deeper question is what happened next.

The indictment alleges that several members of extremist groups wanted out. Instead, prosecutors say the SPLC paid them to remain. 

If true, that would represent a stunning reversal of mission. An organization devoted to fighting hate would have acquired a financial interest in keeping extremists where they were.

The indictment goes further: Prosecutors allege that SPLC-funded sources used money connected to the arrangement to attend rallies, organize events, recruit members, and produce racist materials. One allegedly rose into a leadership role within a white nationalist organization.

Jordan highlighted one particularly striking allegation:

JORDAN: Who’s the president of the National Socialist Party? You know? You paid him $70,000. He was field source number 30. I just want to know who he is. Do you know who he is? 

FAIR: Mr. Chairman, that’s an allegation in the indictment that will be responded to by counsel in the Middle District of Alabama.

The Southern Poverty Law Center built its reputation fighting the Ku Klux Klan. Yet today it trades on its history of suing Klan groups into bankruptcy to smear mainstream conservative and Christian groups, placing them on a hate map with Klan chapters and claiming this map reveals the infrastructure upholding white supremacy in the United States today.

This strategy exaggerated hate and led the SPLC to be able to raise more money. 

As groups like the Klan declined, the SPLC expanded its definition of extremism and continued raising money by warning Americans about threats from hate groups. Critics have long argued that the organization has a vested interest in keeping those threats front and center. 

The indictment raises a more troubling possibility: What if the organization became dependent not merely on exposing extremism, but on sustaining it?

Imagine an exterminator who secretly releases rats into people's homes, or a firefighter who quietly sets fires and then rushes to the scene.

The question is not simply whether the SPLC monitored extremist groups. The question is whether it helped keep them alive?

The SPLC denies it, and the courts will decide. 

But Congress is asking reasonable questions, and so far, the answers seem to have been outsourced to counsel.

For WORLD, I’m Tyler O’Neil.

EICHER: Tyler O’Neil is a senior investigative reporter at The Daily Signal, and he's author of the book Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

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