***STATEMENT***

Center for Security Policy Applauds Washington Post Questioning of SPLC’s Authority as Arbiter of ‘Hate’

Washington, D.C.—The Center for Security Policy’s (CSP) today welcomes the cover story of The Washington Post’s Sunday Magazine that sharply questions the role being played by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which has “set themselves up as the ultimate judges of hate in America.” Specifically, the article spotlights the SPLC’s divisive “hate group” list, noting that it includes many mainstream conservative organizations that are highly regarded across America, including CSP.

David Montgomery, the author of the Post article, titled “The State of Hate,” provided a well-researched look into the SPLC and its rationale in designating groups like the Center for Security Policy as “hate groups.” To his credit, Montgomery both posed and sought to answer fairly the following question: “Researchers at the Southern Poverty Law Center have set themselves up as the ultimate judges of hate in America, but are they judging fairly?”

Montgomery concluded that, “For decades, the [SPLC] hate list was a golden seal of disapproval, considered non-partisan enough to be heeded by government agencies, police departments, corporations and journalists. But in recent years … the list has swept up an increasing number of conservative activists.” He observed, “The SPLC’s stated goal is to create an unbiased hate list, but forays into political activism by other parts of the organization could certainly hurt the list’s reputation.”

Montgomery personally interviewed a number of those smeared by the SPLC, including CSP President Frank Gaffney.

“As noted in this reasonably fair report, the Center for Security Policy’s work has nothing to do with hatred and everything to do with careful, fact-based analysis of real threats facing our national and homeland security,” Gaffney said following the article’s publication.

“As it has for 30 years,” he added, “the Center for Security Policy will continue working to inform Americans about the facts—however ‘disquieting’ they may be—concerning our nation’s security challenges, including: the Sharia-supremacism infiltrating our country, those seeking to exploit the vulnerability of our nation’s electric grid and the dangerous violations of our sovereign borders, among other very real and immediate threats.

“As the Center and others defamed by the SPLC have repeatedly made clear, it is not simply inaccurate, it is malfeasant for news organizations, social media platforms or others to rely upon an organization that serves as a vehicle for political warfare against conservatives as the arbiter of whether their work is hateful. We are appreciative for David Montgomery’s contribution to the opening of an honest conversation about this reality and what must be done to rectify the damage the SPLC has done to date.”

Gaffney will become the Center’s Executive Chairman in January 2019 when the former Chief of Staff of President Trump’s National Security Council, Fred Fleitz, becomes CSP’s President and CEO.

View the media page for the Center here or visit the Center for Security Policy website for more information on CSP, as well as on Twitter @SecureFreedom.

###