J. Matt Barber
Bigger liars than Brian Williams
By J. Matt Barber
This gem from John Nolte came across my Twitter feed the other day: "Met Brian Williams once in DC. Starting to wonder about that story he told me about saving all those hostages at Nakotami Plaza. Barefoot."
Brian Williams is a liar. I don't mean that as an insult. He seems nice. I feel sorry for the poor sap. People who lie are called liars. Once you're caught in a lie, or multiple lies as the case may be, your credibility is shot. You're now open to ridicule and scorn. You can, and should apologize, as Williams has done, but earning back the trust of those you have lied to takes time and is often never achieved. Actions have consequences. Forgiveness? Sure. Trust? Maybe, maybe not.
Like most in the media, Williams is also a hardcore liberal. While not all liberals are liars, lying is endemic to hardcore liberalism. It is a natural byproduct of moral relativism, the worldview from which liberalism derives.
The staff at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) are liberal liars. Again, I don't mean this as an insult. As we've thus noted, those who lie are, by definition, liars. I'm sure that many at this "progressive" outfit's multi-million dollar Montgomery, Alabama, headquarters are otherwise decent people who believe that, in an ends-justifies-the-means sort of way, their lies are excusable.
But liars they remain.
Which explains my surprise when, on Wednesday, the SPLC, like Williams, issued an apology of its own. The apology relates to the group's propagandist practice of smearing influential mainstream Christian organizations, such as the D.C.-based Family Research Council (FRC), as "hate groups," literally placing them in promotional materials directly alongside the KKK and violent neo-Nazi organizations, and otherwise consigning to its "Extremist Watch List" high-profile Christian ministers and pro-family advocates. This, of course, is done in a disingenuous effort to politically marginalize these groups and individuals. It's about creating a narrative, not about getting to the truth of the matter. In fact, the purpose of this cynical strategy is to subvert the truth, which is to say, to lie.
The need to apologize? Well, back in October the SPLC, whose activities have ironically been linked by the FBI to domestic terrorism (as I long ago predicted), placed famed pediatrician and likely 2016 GOP presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson (did I mention they hate Republicans – especially black ones?) on its "Extremist Watch List" for publicly expressing the objective reality that, as half of Americans and the vast majority of the world acknowledge, "Marriage is between a man and a woman."
From the SPLC apology: "In October 2014, we posted an 'Extremist File' of Dr. Ben Carson. This week, as we've come under intense criticism for doing so, we've reviewed our profile and have concluded that it did not meet our standards, so we have taken it down and apologize to Dr. Carson for having posted it."
The egg-faced group then rolled out a litany of excuses to blunt the embarrassing impact of its back-handed mea culpa.
I, like Carson, FRC's Tony Perkins and many other well-known Christian leaders effective in countering the left's cultural Marxist political agenda, have, over the years, become a favorite target of the SPLC.
In this I find great pleasure.
The "social justice" organization's most recent hit on me came this past Monday in the form of a "Hatewatch" report. While the SPLC's lies about me are legion, a shining example can be found in this particular report's claim that I have said, "HIV is a punishment from God for homosexuality." I have never said this, nor even remotely suggested it. Neither do I believe it. It's a lie.
In the same report, the SPLC attacked my good friend and former colleague Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel – a legitimate civil rights organization by contrast – absurdly asserting that as the judicial imposition of same-sex "marriage" becomes a widespread reality, Staver has said, "everyone will decide to be gay and society will 'cease to exist.'"
I kid you not. They actually wrote that and attributed it to Staver. Read it for yourself. Again, this particular whopper is so stupid that it strains credulity to imagine how they thought it would fly.
Apology? I won't hold my breath.
Still, the point of all this is that the Southern Poverty Law Center, as with Brian Williams or anyone else prone to pathological truth avoidance, can only get away with crying wolf so many times before nobody comes a-runnin'.
Back in 2011 I joined a coalition of black pastors and pro-family advocates at a press conference in front of the SPLC headquarters. While there, I made this exact point, noting, "In the past few years the SPLC has inexplicably chosen to lay on the line any credibility it once had as a serious civil rights advocacy group to, instead, push a left-wing extremist political agenda.
"The SPLC has moved from monitoring actual hate groups like the KKK and neo-Nazis to slandering mainstream Christian organizations with that very same 'hate group' label. By extension, the SPLC is smearing billions of Christians and Jews worldwide as 'haters,' simply because they embrace the traditional Judeo-Christian sexual ethic.
"It's a shame that an organization which once supported the noble vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would, today, engage in anti-Christian bigotry of a kind MLK would have, no doubt, detested. What's most troubling is that there are actually law enforcement agencies around the country that still use the SPLC's 'hate group' resources. I encourage all law enforcement to discard the SPLC as it has discarded any semblance of objectivity and usefulness."
And so the SPLC dupe rolls dwindle.
As for Brian Williams: I think I have a win-win. If NBC, which is already struggling with credibility issues of its own (MSNBC anyone?), decides to give Williams the boot, perhaps the SPLC can hire him as its new Minister of Propaganda. In a strange twist, this potential merger of truth-challenged yarn spinners might actually serve to improve the SPLC's reputation.
And NBC? Rumors are the network may be looking to hire a new anchorman.
Job description:
1.Ability to read teleprompter;
2.Can lie with air of contemplative concern;
3. Harvard degree preferred.
Hey, I've got the perfect guy!
© J. Matt Barber
February 16, 2015
This gem from John Nolte came across my Twitter feed the other day: "Met Brian Williams once in DC. Starting to wonder about that story he told me about saving all those hostages at Nakotami Plaza. Barefoot."
Brian Williams is a liar. I don't mean that as an insult. He seems nice. I feel sorry for the poor sap. People who lie are called liars. Once you're caught in a lie, or multiple lies as the case may be, your credibility is shot. You're now open to ridicule and scorn. You can, and should apologize, as Williams has done, but earning back the trust of those you have lied to takes time and is often never achieved. Actions have consequences. Forgiveness? Sure. Trust? Maybe, maybe not.
Like most in the media, Williams is also a hardcore liberal. While not all liberals are liars, lying is endemic to hardcore liberalism. It is a natural byproduct of moral relativism, the worldview from which liberalism derives.
The staff at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) are liberal liars. Again, I don't mean this as an insult. As we've thus noted, those who lie are, by definition, liars. I'm sure that many at this "progressive" outfit's multi-million dollar Montgomery, Alabama, headquarters are otherwise decent people who believe that, in an ends-justifies-the-means sort of way, their lies are excusable.
But liars they remain.
Which explains my surprise when, on Wednesday, the SPLC, like Williams, issued an apology of its own. The apology relates to the group's propagandist practice of smearing influential mainstream Christian organizations, such as the D.C.-based Family Research Council (FRC), as "hate groups," literally placing them in promotional materials directly alongside the KKK and violent neo-Nazi organizations, and otherwise consigning to its "Extremist Watch List" high-profile Christian ministers and pro-family advocates. This, of course, is done in a disingenuous effort to politically marginalize these groups and individuals. It's about creating a narrative, not about getting to the truth of the matter. In fact, the purpose of this cynical strategy is to subvert the truth, which is to say, to lie.
The need to apologize? Well, back in October the SPLC, whose activities have ironically been linked by the FBI to domestic terrorism (as I long ago predicted), placed famed pediatrician and likely 2016 GOP presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson (did I mention they hate Republicans – especially black ones?) on its "Extremist Watch List" for publicly expressing the objective reality that, as half of Americans and the vast majority of the world acknowledge, "Marriage is between a man and a woman."
From the SPLC apology: "In October 2014, we posted an 'Extremist File' of Dr. Ben Carson. This week, as we've come under intense criticism for doing so, we've reviewed our profile and have concluded that it did not meet our standards, so we have taken it down and apologize to Dr. Carson for having posted it."
The egg-faced group then rolled out a litany of excuses to blunt the embarrassing impact of its back-handed mea culpa.
I, like Carson, FRC's Tony Perkins and many other well-known Christian leaders effective in countering the left's cultural Marxist political agenda, have, over the years, become a favorite target of the SPLC.
In this I find great pleasure.
The "social justice" organization's most recent hit on me came this past Monday in the form of a "Hatewatch" report. While the SPLC's lies about me are legion, a shining example can be found in this particular report's claim that I have said, "HIV is a punishment from God for homosexuality." I have never said this, nor even remotely suggested it. Neither do I believe it. It's a lie.
In the same report, the SPLC attacked my good friend and former colleague Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel – a legitimate civil rights organization by contrast – absurdly asserting that as the judicial imposition of same-sex "marriage" becomes a widespread reality, Staver has said, "everyone will decide to be gay and society will 'cease to exist.'"
I kid you not. They actually wrote that and attributed it to Staver. Read it for yourself. Again, this particular whopper is so stupid that it strains credulity to imagine how they thought it would fly.
Apology? I won't hold my breath.
Still, the point of all this is that the Southern Poverty Law Center, as with Brian Williams or anyone else prone to pathological truth avoidance, can only get away with crying wolf so many times before nobody comes a-runnin'.
Back in 2011 I joined a coalition of black pastors and pro-family advocates at a press conference in front of the SPLC headquarters. While there, I made this exact point, noting, "In the past few years the SPLC has inexplicably chosen to lay on the line any credibility it once had as a serious civil rights advocacy group to, instead, push a left-wing extremist political agenda.
"The SPLC has moved from monitoring actual hate groups like the KKK and neo-Nazis to slandering mainstream Christian organizations with that very same 'hate group' label. By extension, the SPLC is smearing billions of Christians and Jews worldwide as 'haters,' simply because they embrace the traditional Judeo-Christian sexual ethic.
"It's a shame that an organization which once supported the noble vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would, today, engage in anti-Christian bigotry of a kind MLK would have, no doubt, detested. What's most troubling is that there are actually law enforcement agencies around the country that still use the SPLC's 'hate group' resources. I encourage all law enforcement to discard the SPLC as it has discarded any semblance of objectivity and usefulness."
And so the SPLC dupe rolls dwindle.
As for Brian Williams: I think I have a win-win. If NBC, which is already struggling with credibility issues of its own (MSNBC anyone?), decides to give Williams the boot, perhaps the SPLC can hire him as its new Minister of Propaganda. In a strange twist, this potential merger of truth-challenged yarn spinners might actually serve to improve the SPLC's reputation.
And NBC? Rumors are the network may be looking to hire a new anchorman.
Job description:
1.Ability to read teleprompter;
2.Can lie with air of contemplative concern;
3. Harvard degree preferred.
Hey, I've got the perfect guy!
© J. Matt Barber
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
