Blind spot: Media amplified white supremacy narrative as SPLC funded Charlottesville organizer
Federal prosecutors say the Southern Poverty Law Center directed a source to promote the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally and coordinate transportation for attendees. Afterwards, the media cited one senior executive as an authoritative source on white supremacy.
By Steven Richards
Published: April 29, 2026 10:58pm
In the wake of the Charlottesville rally in August 2017, the media relied on Southern Poverty Law Center experts to explain an apparent rise in white supremacy in America after Donald Trump’s election.
But, while SPLC’s experts helped the media understand America’s racism problem after the rally, it was allegedly funding an organizer of the event, a member of a racist group prone to extremism. At the same time it was double-dipping, the Charlottesville rally launched SPLC’s credibility to new heights and boosted its fundraising hauls.
Throughout the last decade, SPLC also covertly funded members of racist groups prone to extremism, including the Aryan Nations, the Ku Klux Klan and the National Socialist Party of America, federal prosecutors alleged in a recent indictment, which charged the organization with 11 counts of wire and bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. In total, they allege SPLC funneled more than $3 million from 2014 to 2023 to individuals associated with these and other similar groups.
The “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was a major cultural touchstone in the first Trump administration that launched a resurgence in concern, especially in the media, over right-wing extremism and racist groups.
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https://justthenews.com/accountability/media/splc-blind-spot-medias-expert-white-supremacy-funneled-money-charlottesville
