In 2019, Ethics Alarms reported that the SPLC had fired Morris Dees, its founder, leader and face of the organization. Dees was a race-baiting progressive huckster. He came from the world of direct mail marketing and fundraising, and found the weepy Left perfect marks once he hit on the “anti-hate group” charity formula. Dees’s slimy character was becoming too hard to hide, and the public learning that the group’s creator was prone to staff mistreatment, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and racism wouldn’t be good for business.

Seven years later, the Axis media is shocked—shocked!—that anyone would impugn this saintly group. The agreed-upon spin, spun by the likes of MSNOW contributor and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance, is that “the use of paid informants was essential to the intelligence the Center was gathering on the groups they were members of, including intelligence that was shared with the FBI.” USA Today, absurdly, wrote, “FBI: SPLC paid informants without donors knowing. Feds pay them too: The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted for allegedly paying sources in hate groups without donors knowing. The FBI also pays informants.”

Yes, and the FBI is a law enforcement operation, and does not receive tax-deductible donations from suckers who want the group to fight “hate groups,” nor does it give the hate groups’ members and leaders millions in cash. Democrat Rep. Daniel Goldman chimed in, “The DOJ uses paid informants all the time —why is it OK for them but not the SPLC?”

Jeez, somebody explain it to him.

This is a ridiculous argument, but I’m sure the IQ 84 crowd will find it persuasive. According to the DOJ indictment, the SPLC paid far right extremists while posing as their nemesis to raise money. Among those who were allegedly paid: an organizer of the infamous “Unite the Right” neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville. I can see why the FBI would want to infiltrate that group, but how would paying a neo-Nazi benefit the SPLC, except to give the group an episode (and riot) to raise funds with?

The defense reminds me of the standard excuse offered by people caught with child porn on their computers: “I was doing research!”