Walter Weber '81 states that the Southern Poverty Law Center "has been convincingly charged with being a scam operation by articles in numerous media outlets," including, he says, Philanthropy Magazine, The Washington Post, the Weekly Standard and National Review. The latter two are well-known right-wing journals whose attitude toward the SPLC is unsurprising. I am not familiar with Philanthropy Magazine. But here is what The Washington Post actually said about the SPLC: (It is) "one of the best sources of empirical data and information about extremist political activity in the United States." No one has ever "convincingly" called the SPLC a scam. They do exactly what they claim to do: They research, inform the public about and take legal action aginst extremist, racist organizations.

By spreading lies about the SPLC, Weber is defending right-wing hate groups.

For a more nuanced examination of this subject than space permits here, see an article in the Post by David Montgomery on Nov. 8, 2018, in which he raised the question of whether the SPLC's designation of something as a "hate group" was always entirely fair. That prompted a vigorous reply from Bruce Bartlett, who was a senior economist in the Reagan and G.H.W. Bush administrations but has since criticized overzealous conservatives. The gist of his reaction was, the country is being torn apart by "a gazillion" right-wing hate groups spreading poison, and yet the Post had chosen to attack "the one organization that is not afraid of them, calls them out and labels them as hate groups." Montgomery responded with a thoughtful essay. That conversation can be found here:
(https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/a-writer-denounced-our...)

Edward Groth III ’66
Boston, Mass.