{"id":3886,"date":"2010-12-21T16:52:14","date_gmt":"2010-12-21T21:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thedustininmansociety.com\/blog\/?p=3886"},"modified":"2010-12-21T16:52:14","modified_gmt":"2010-12-21T21:52:14","slug":"the-southern-poverty-law-center%e2%80%99s-partner-in-slime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/2010\/12\/21\/the-southern-poverty-law-center%e2%80%99s-partner-in-slime\/","title":{"rendered":"The Southern Poverty Law Center\u2019s Partner in Slime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Big Journalism<\/em><\/p>\n

Mainstream Media: The Southern Poverty Law Center\u2019s Partner in Slime<\/strong>
\nPosted by Izzy Lyman Dec 20th 2010 <\/p>\n

Stooping to a new low, even by Southern Poverty Law Center\u2019s standards, the SPLC recently smeared well-regarded family-values organizations as \u2018hate groups\u2019 for championing faith-based moral views, including opposition to gay marriage and support for the military\u2019s DADT policy.<\/p>\n

The Family Research Council (FRC) was among the insulted parties and decided to fight back, using the modern tools of intellectual warfare.<\/p>\n

On December 15th the organization launched StartDebatingStopHating.com, a website and newspaper ad (the latter appearing in Politico and the Washington Examiner) that denounced the speech-chilling \u201ccharacter assassination\u201d tactics of the SPLC, while supporting the \u201cvigorous\u201d and \u201cresponsible\u201d exercise of free speech. Those who sign an online petition show their solidarity with the FRC, American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, and others who are protecting the traditional family. Many heavy hitters signed the full-page ad including Michele Bachmann, Jim DeMint, Tim Pawlenty, Phyllis Schlafly, Frank Gaffney, Alveda King, and David Limbaugh.<\/p>\n

The Alabama-based non-profit, started by attorneys Morris Dees and Joseph Levin, Jr. in 1971, tracks the speech and conduct of those they dub as \u2018haters\u2019 (e.g. the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan), and champions the civil rights of destitute minorities. But in recent years the SPLC has become known for its aggressive campaign of slamming mainstream conservatives and independent thinkers by likening their views to, say, those of the National Knights of the KKK. In addition to the FRC, the SPLC has slimed Iowa Congressman Steve King, Indian-born writer Dinesh D\u2019Souza, African-American law professor Carol Swain, and prominent immigration enforcement leaders and writers, to name a few. Even the films \u201cGods and Generals\u201d and \u201cThe Lord of the Rings\u201d are suspect. The former is scorned because the Civil War flick \u201cis told from the Confederate perspective,\u201d and the latter is suspect because it is \u201cEurocentric.\u201d<\/p>\n

If that isn\u2019t ridiculous enough, consider that Richard Cohen, SPLC president even wrote a letter to CNN\u2019s president, last year, asking that newscaster Lou Dobbs be \u2018removed\u2019 from the airwaves, because Dobbs was promoting \u201cracist conspiracy theories\u201d (i.e. daring to have an open discussion about President Obama\u2019s citizenship bonafides).<\/p>\n

In 1998, Teaching Tolerance, a publication of the SPLC aimed at impacting public education, featured a friendly interview with commie-sympathizer Bill Ayers. No mention was made of his past as a violent Weather Underground member. Instead, Ayers was merely described as a \u201cradical anti-Vietnam War activist, teacher, and author.\u201d The SPLC also opposes the Arizona immigration law and can\u2019t be bothered to stick up for Americans who have been victimized by the heinous actions of repeat offender criminal illegal aliens or transnational gangbangers.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the money. With its net assets of nearly $200 million, Harper\u2019s has colorfully described the organization as having more wealth than the \u201cannual GDP of the Marshall Islands.\u201d Clearly, poverty and injustice are the last things on Dees\u2019 mind these days. But don\u2019t look to the MSM to expose such blatant hypocrisy. The SPLC wouldn\u2019t have come this far, this fast without a mountain of favorable words and pictures from the old guard and new vanguard media establishment.<\/p>\n

This past summer, the Montgomery Advertiser published, with a straight face, scores of photos of the house that Morris Dees shares with Susan Starr, his current wife. A suburban tract home it\u2019s not. Casa Dees, complete with guest quarters, features surrealistic decorations (a matador\u2019s costume hanging in an office bathroom and a rickshaw parked near the swimming pool). The pretty missus is an avant-garde artist who designs transparent coats and whose clientele is society\u2019s cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me.<\/p>\n

Mark Potok, an SPLC spokesperson and Huffington Post contributor, is frequently interviewed or quoted (as a credible authority on everything from right-wing \u2018extremism\u2019 to militias to racism) by NPR, the Associated Press, the Washington Post, the New York Times, cable show talking heads, etc. etc. Ted Koppel, former \u201cNightline\u201d anchor, has said that \u201cMorris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center has a long and distinguished record of fighting for civil rights.\u201d Newsweek notes that, \u201cTeaching Tolerance is a winner among programs providing moral education.\u201d While U.S. News and World Report thinks that the SPLC\u2019s Intelligence Project investigators have \u201cbested the nation\u2019s mighty law enforcement agencies.\u201d In 1991, NBC even showed a made-for-TV flick lauding Dees\u2019 legal accomplishments.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the positive publicity has brought the oily organization serious street cred. Among the FBI\u2019s recommended resources on its \u201chate crime\u201d page is a link to the \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 the Southern Poverty Law Center. Ditto for the U.S. Department of Justice.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s even a Morris Dees Justice [sic] Award at the University of Alabama law school.<\/p>\n

Go figure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Big Journalism Mainstream Media: The Southern Poverty Law Center\u2019s Partner in Slime Posted by Izzy Lyman Dec 20th 2010 Stooping to a new low, even by Southern Poverty Law Center\u2019s standards, the SPLC recently smeared well-regarded family-values organizations as \u2018hate groups\u2019 for championing faith-based moral views, including opposition to gay marriage and support for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}