The CBS Evening News has broken the proverbial ice, becoming the first broadcast network evening newscast to report on the Department of Justice’s indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center on multiple charges pertaining to financial fraud. And the report didn’t hold back.
Watch the report in its entirety as aired on the CBS Evening News on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026:
WATCH: CBS is the first broadcast network evening newscast to report on the indictment of the SPLC, and the report includes a mention of Charlottesville. Not so hard, was it?
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) April 23, 2026
TONY DOKOUPIL: The Southern Poverty Law Center made its name battling extremist groups, among them the… pic.twitter.com/L7E9A4RoSk
TONY DOKOUPIL: The Southern Poverty Law Center made its name battling extremist groups, among them the Ku Klux Klan. But tonight, it’s facing federal charges of fraud, accused of funneling millions of dollars into some of those very same hate groups. CBS News Chief Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford has more.
CRAWFORD: 40 years ago, the Southern Poverty Law Center bankrupted the Klan and later recovered millions from neo-Nazi groups, with lawsuits representing victims of violence. But Tuesday, the tables turned. The Justice Department charged the organization with fraud for allegedly misleading donors and lying to financial institutions by paying members of violent extremist groups millions of dollars to act as informants.
TODD BLANCHE: The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.
CRAWFORD: Including, the indictment alleges, a leader of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, who quote: “attended the event at the direction of SPLC…made racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC, and helped coordinate transportation to the event for several attendees.” But Law Center interim president Bryan Fair said the group had long used informants and called the indictment a political attack by the Trump administration.
BRYAN FAIR: They have made no secret of who they want to protect and who they want to destroy.
SCOTT FREDRICKSEN: You have to wonder...
CRAWFORD: Attorney Scott Fredericksen questioned the Justice Department's legal theories.
FREDERICKSEN: Can the federal government persuade a jury that the Southern Poverty Law Center was out there funding extremism for its own purposes? Manufacturing racism? That's hard to believe. Obviously, they'll have their day in court.
CRAWFORD: But there have been calls to investigate the Law Center for years. In 1995, the Montgomery Advertiser was the finalist for the Pulitzer prize for articles alleging that the Center was misleading donors and wasting their money, and more recently, critics say that its Hatewatch list of extremists includes many mainstream conservatives. Tony.
DOKOUPIL: Jan, thank you very much.
CBS’s Jan Crawford is known for her tough but factual reporting as pertains to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here, Crawford doesn’t blink and reports the story as it is in front of her- not as they would like it to be.
Crawford acknowledges the historic results of the SPLC but does not shy away from the material facts presented in the indictment. Specifically, Crawford mentions the coordination between the SPLC and a leader of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which spawned a million narratives and was the alleged moral reason for Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential candidacy. And, it appears that it was all a fraud.
Crawford airs the SPLC’s interim CEO as well as an attorney who is skeptical of the charges. Crawford then closes out the report by citing a prior report demonstrating financial malfeasance, and by noting the number of mainstream conservatives on the SPLC’s hate lists.
In addition to being a hate group, the Southern Poverty Law Center appears to have been exposed as a fraud. Given the SPLC’s role in the creation of narratives on matters of race, gender, religion, and their role in the ongoing censorship agenda, it is entirely proper to cover their indictment as CBS has. The rest of the Elitist Media are out of excuses.
