PBS, backed by your tax dollars, hosted the leader of a group that compares conservatives to the KKK, and she used the opportunity to demonize President-elect Donald Trump. Then PBS hosted one of her close allies who suggested that America’s failure to elect Vice President Kamala Harris emboldens misogyny.
The two segments make a rather eloquent case against continued public funding for PBS.
In late November, PBS reporter Stephanie Sy interviewed Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center, about a series of racist text messages under investigation by the FBI. Sy noted that “we have no clearer sense of who sent” the text messages, but Huang—whose organization keeps mainstream conservative and Christian nonprofits on a “hate map” with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan—immediately connected the text messages to “hate groups” and Trump’s election victory.
“It’s really clear to us that hate and extremist groups are using the election of Donald Trump as an encouragement to cause fear and anxiety in communities of color, in religious communities, and in the LGBTQ community,” Huang said. “Because of his use of racist, sexist, and other discriminatory rhetoric on the campaign trail, he has essentially encouraged his followers to spew hateful rhetoric and he’s emboldened them to embrace this hateful ideology.”
Huang’s attack on Trump should surprise no one. As I wrote in my book, “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” the SPLC weaponized its history in bankrupting Ku Klux Klan groups to demonize conservatives.
Its “hate map” plots chapters of the KKK alongside parental rights groups like Moms for Liberty, immigration groups like the Center for Immigration Studies, groups of doctors who dissent from gender ideology like Do No Harm, and conservative Christian groups like Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Research Council. Some of these groups advised Trump during his first term.
The Family Research Council, a policy nonprofit in Washington, D.C., faced a terrorist attack in 2012 inspired by the SPLC’s “hate map.”
Amid a racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal at SPLC in 2019, a former employee called the “hate” accusations a “highly profitable scam.” After that scandal, SPLC staff formed their own union. Earlier this year, the union accused SPLC leadership of union-busting amid a restructure.
The Dustin Inman Society, a Georgia-based group that supports the enforcement of immigration law, sued the SPLC for defamation after the SPLC branded the society an “anti-immigrant hate group.” While a few of SPLC’s targets have sued for defamation, the SPLC often weasels out of being held accountable. The Dustin Inman Society’s lawsuit made it past SPLC’s motion to dismiss last year, marking a key step forward in holding the smear group accountable.
Despite all this, PBS decided to invite Huang on “PBS News Hour” to lecture viewers on “hate.”
To her credit, Sy briefly pressed Huang about Trump’s gains among Latinos and blacks in the 2024 presidential election.
Huang didn’t budge on her suggestion that Trump inspired racism, but she did acknowledge that some voters might have wanted a change “for economic reasons.”
“I think that many people who supported the president-elect did so because they share his rhetoric and ideology, but many other people did not,” she said. “Many people voted for him for economic reasons.”
She warned that Trump may treat his victory as “a mandate to embrace racial hatred or misogyny.”
Later in the interview, Huang attributed a reported rise in white supremacist incidents to Trump’s rhetoric.
“I think, again, so much of that was heard on the campaign trail from candidate Trump himself,” she said. “I think that’s what spurs so many other people to feel emboldened to embrace that rhetoric, and I think we’re going to see more of it for a time, particularly as Trump nominates people for senior-level positions in his administration who also echo that hateful rhetoric. We’re going to see more and more people openly embracing it.”
Huang mentioned that violence took place “on the campaign trail” and attributed the violence to organizations that support Trump.
“I think that is, in fact, the intention of these organizations,” she said. “They hope that this rhetoric and these hateful acts will actually encourage individuals to take action.”
Huang did not mention what “violence” took place on the campaign trail. Two particular moments of violence stand out—the two assassination attempts against Trump—and it seems rather peculiar for Huang to blame Trump supporters for inspiring these attacks on their candidate.
“PBS News Hour” ended the segment with this message: “The Southern Poverty Law Center documented 1,430 hate and antigovernment extremist groups in 2023.” PBS did not bother to note the loud criticisms SPLC has faced over the years—including from its own former employees—that these hate tallies are biased and inflated.
Two weeks after the segment, PBS featured a key SPLC ally and mentioned her work with the SPLC.
Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a professor at American University’s School of Public Affairs and director of the school’s Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab, spoke about a reported increase in misogynistic attacks online after the 2024 election. PBS also asked her about a report the Innovation Lab produced with the SPLC.
“PBS News Hour’s” White House correspondent, Laura Barrón-López, asked Miller-Idriss to “unpack” the “rise in misogynistic attacks online after the election.” Miller-Idriss mentioned posts with the terms “your body, my choice” and “get back in the kitchen.”
“First, we have been seeing that increasing trend for probably something like 18 months to two years over the last period of time on many social media platforms,” Miller-Idriss said. “And what we saw right around the election, leading up to the election with a candidate who was a woman, a woman of color, and then the reproductive rights that were also sort of at the heart of the election in many ways, was a celebration … by some young men … of this reclaiming of power over women and power over women‘s bodies.”
Miller-Idriss did not mention that many Americans opposed Harris for reasons that have nothing to do with her sex or her skin color. She also declined to note that Trump and others who oppose gender ideology fight for the protection of women from men in sex-segregated spaces like restrooms, locker rooms, and prisons.
Barrón-López went on to ask Miller-Idriss about a report the Innovation Lab released alongside the SPLC titled, “Not Just a Joke: Understanding and Preventing Gender and Sexuality Based Bigotry.” While most Americans oppose bigotry, that report demonizes any dissent from gender ideology and lumps it in with “male supremacy.”
“Further, at the crossroads of pseudoscience and male supremacy, anti-LGBTQ+ adherents seeking to maintain rigid gender expectations allege that gender-affirming health care is dangerous,” the report states. This echoes the SPLC’s previous rhetoric attempting to demonize any dissent from experimental transgender medical interventions that leave kids stunted, scarred, and infertile.
The SPLC is far outside the mainstream when it suggests that Americans who back the deportation of illegal aliens or who want to ban transgender medical experiments on kids are hateful supporters of white supremacy. It is high time PBS paid a price for promoting this morally bankrupt organization.
Tyler O’Neil is managing editor of The Daily Signal and the author of two books: “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” and “The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.”
Reprinted with Permission from The Daily Signal – By Tyler O’Neil
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
Cut the funding, let the viewers support it.If there aren’t any shut it down.
PBS should not get Govt. funding because they are very biased. I stopped watching them because of that. They are pro Democrats and all they do is promote divisiveness. They are getting funding from our tax dollars and yet they are lying and deceiving us, to protect the Democrats, that is not right. Pres. Trump should cut their funding off if they do not change. They are worse than traitors to our CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT.
It would seem to me that any taxpayer supported media should not be able to be partisan. Maybe defunding the PBS would be a good place to start for DOGE.
PBS used to broadcast useful programs that were enjoyable, entertaining and informative. I remember the show “The Electric Company” where they used letters and numbers in the opening monolog. Today’s PBS is brought to you by the letters “C” for corruption and “I” for indoctrinate. Paid for by taxpayers like you.
PBS has become a HATE organization from the sounds of this! In my opinion, and I’ve lived a LONG time (80 yrs), Trump is the most non-racist person I know! Racism was almost gone until Obama became president, and it started all over again!
Hopefully DOGE will see fit to remove any federal funding from PBS, and also colleges such as Princeton that continue with gender studies, etc.
Definitely not a healthy use of our tax dollars.
Glad I haven’t watched PBS for several years . I quit NPR also.????
It remains to be seen if no further taxpayer funding of NPR is considered by the incoming administration, and acted upon. This would be a great way to trim the federal budget by eliminating “storytellers”! (Perhaps Stephanie will end up “eating crow” like George Stephanopoulos)! I’m sure she can always find work as a barista at Starbucks!
No taxpayer dollars should be wasted on this biased propaganda filled station. Time, we get a list of all their salaries so we can see just how much taxpayer money is being wasted for all the misinformation they spread. IMO
I quit watching PBS a long time ago. Cut their funding ASAP.
UNLIKE BIDEN, President Donald Trump has NEVER shown any racism and, in fact, has been honored by diverse racial groups over the years. Biden, on the other hand, embraced KKK leader KKK Senator Byrd and even spoke at his funeral. Biden is known for his racial comments and for snide racial “jokes” throughout his pubic life as well as his lies about being in the forefront of civil rights protests. He is full of you know what whereas Donald Trump has always been fair and open and embraced employees of diverse backgrounds. During his presidency, Pres. True p did more to improve minority lives — can you name even one thing that Biden/Harris did for minorities?!
AMAC needs to institute a campaign to have our members write to our senators and representatives to request that PBS no longer receive any funding from the federal treasury.
God is a just God!! And they will answer for this smear campaign. 1 of the 10 commandments says “Thou shall not LIE”!!
Lets get rid of PBS. It has had a bad reputation for years.
PBS – Propaganda and Bull Sh*t. Enough said.
The SPLC is a far left hate organization that consistently libels anyone who is not a fellow left wing advocate. Citing the SPLC means that PBS is part of the left wing hate machine. I support freedom of speech, but that does not include me paying for PBS hate propaganda.
I think that George Soros has a hand in PBS and has turned it to the lying left. I sure don’t want my tax dollars used to fund this trash.
PBS and PBR ned to be DOGE’d
The world would be a better place if supporters of this nonsense spent more time doing something worthwhile for the community or impressing the boss with their productivity. If this is the only way to get noticed, they are very fragile people
These organizations cannot define what is a woman but can tell you what a Republican is. I wish a bunch of us supporters of Trump long time and recently would sit down with these people on PBS and have an open exchange of vision. They always throw things out there as so much rhetoric but never have an explanation that even has an ounce of truth in it. They should sit down with Trump and debate him one on one. They would loose so big. These organizations came into power through lies and hatred on the left for this country. Obama knew how to organize the people at the neighborhood level. And now we see the results of the hatred and division it has created in this country. Only the 2024 election has rejected all these groups. And the left don’t know how come they lost, including these extreme organizations. Look inward onto yourselves. The hatred in your heart for this country is there for all of us to see. Even yesterday Biden gnashed his teeth over decency. His decency. There is none. Jan 20th can’t get here fast enough.
This is blatant misuse of a resource funded by the taxpayers. PBS used to be a valuable source of educational and international programming. Had it not been for PBS, I would not have been able to watch Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos”, which inspired me to go back to college and pursue a degree in the sciences. I would not have seen “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, as no commercial channel would air such things at that time. Our First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, and people of the far left have a right to voice their opinions. That said, PBS is funded by ALL of the taxpayers. Equal time MUST be provided for conservative points of view to be expressed, or the PBS platform should be removed entirely.
It’s time for PBS and NPR to stand on their own, or not. Using my tax money to spread the hate they spew, while calling everything they don’t agree with “white supremacist,” is clearly robbing me of my free speech to designate where my money supports speech I agree with.
These are the people who wished to elect a woman of color to the white house but can’t define what a woman is. Who scream misogyny then support a trans man beating a woman in sports as though that was a normal thing.
The simple fact is this is a load of vile crap that should not be funded by my, or your, tax dollars. Let’s ween the fools off of the government tit and see if they can survive on their own while emitting such putrid sewage.
This is one entity for the Musk/Ramaswamy ax. Let them compete as all other network must do.
PBS used to show useful information and objective articles. Seeing it today is a prime example of the destruction caused by the radical Left and fanatic Woke culture.
How can I help in fighting back against allowing PBS public funding? What they allowed is just plain dumb. They obviously are a left wing supporting organization.
DOGE has so many opportunities! PBS has not contributed to the welfare of the nation for a long time.
OK DOGE SIC EM, DEFUND
DEFUND PBS
We don’t need PBS and it should be shut down. I doubt it’s viewership numbers warrant funding it.
SPLC is as bad as the NAACP. Their only purpose is to act as smear merchants against Republicans for the Democrats and to raise money off of ignorant fearmongering.
Defund PBS – it should have been defunded years ago as they haven’t been “neutral” on issues for some time. May that will be on DOGE list of wasteful government spending…
PBS needs to go along with 90% of the unconstitutional alphabet agencies. Energy & Education, are two obvious candidates. Just invoke the 10th amendment and go for it. The only good thing on PBS was New Yankee Workshop but Norm retired.
CONgress SHOULD IMMEDIATELY STOP FUNDING FOR THIS SOCIALIST, ANTI-AMERICA COMMI NETWORK. IF THEY DON’T OR WON’T, TRUMP SHOULD ON DAY ONE.
SPLC is itself a hate group. I looked at their “hate wall” and while some groups listed on there are legitimate hate groups others are conservative groups trying to help Americans. Trump ought to sue them. As for PBS I don’t even watch it.
PBS is no longer necessary. with the rise of social media and streaming people have more than enough choices. Cut the funding. If they wish to continue broadcasting let them raise the revenue necessary.
Get rid of this worthless PBS platform and save us millions in wasted funding.
No taxpayer funding!
SPLC is the hate group with millions in offshore accounts. Former boss Potok was thrown out for his shenanigans. Both PBS and NPR will attach liberal politics to EVERYTHING. They should be financed by the left-wing millionaires, not the taxpayers!
Congress needs to stop funding PBS, NPR and Planned Parenthood. If Soros and the rest of the billionaire cabal want to pony up let them do so ——but not on my dime.
Consumer Cellular is a major funding source for PBS. Time to let them know you do NOT support this!!
PBS is proof of the deep state. How un- American can you get? Common sense is not any where near PBS, nor is any down to earth value of right and wrong. Nothing is adult about them. They a bunch of radical left wing anti-Christian, anti-American wokists. I do not approve of my tax dollars being wasted on this biased garbage. Shut it down.
Why are our taxs dollars still paying for propaganda at PBS??? This group should be cut amedeletly!!!
PBS & NPR are nothing more or nothing less than the propaganda wings of the progressive/socialist party and should under no circumstances receive Taxpayer funding. Let the progressive/socialist support it.
No more donations to PBS!
Defund PBS
I was disgusted with the presentation of a so called “biography” of Trump’s life on November 4th, election eve. I’m watching this pointedly biased diatribe thinking – “this is my tax dollars being perverted by a communist cause”. I haven’t seen Ms. Huang’s perverted rendition of the cause of Trump’s successful election and wouldn’t watch it if they paid me! Get’s my dander up seeing their commercial endeavors to solicit “public support” and seeing how many truly wealthy donors they have. It’s worse than watching the lies profited by CNN!
PBS stations way over funded by rich liberal donors, they do not need taxpayer money as well. This need to end along with taxpayer funding of murder in the form of Planned Parenthood. Margaret Sanger , who started Planned Parenthood, met with Adolph Hitler to talk about the most efficient way to get rid of unwanted people.Her 1st Planned Parenthood offices were in black neighborhoods ion New York because she hated blacks . . . all of this is true, but liberals love her. Don’t forget it was the democrat party that gave the world the KKK
PBS broadcasts in it’s own, not the public’s interest. It has lost whatever objectivity it had years ago. It once was able to broadcast programs of interest to a broad spectrum of the American people, but now it peddles mind candy to the left, providing red meat “journalism” to those who hold a substantial portion of our populace in utter contempt. It is most certainly not worthy of OUR government’s tax dollars. It should be funded by the audience it solely caters to. It could be funded handsomely by that demographic. Maybe it would help to reduce the immense sums they throw into our elections to advance the unelectable buffoons they put up for office.
Further proof of the Socialist Communist philosophy of the Dems!