Brian Brown, president of NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, this morning on CNN claimed the man who shot a guard in the arm yesterday at the Family Research Council did so because the group has been labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). CNN attempted to do an admirable job in explaining why the SPLC  labeled the FRC a hate group, but missed one important point. The Southern Poverty Law Center labels groups hate groups when they demonstrate a consistent pattern of malicious lying, which FRC does.
For example:
Here again we have an excellent example of how NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, is using events — fraudulently — to change the conversation to one of their choosing. NOM has long hated the “hate group” label and has fought very hard against it, knowing full well their heightened rhetoric has now met the SPLC’s definition of a hate group.
The Family Research Council shooter — who was reportedly carrying Chick-Fil-A marketing materials — more likely was motivated by Chick-Fil-A’s funding of the Family Research Council than by the SPLC’s “hate group” designation. But, we don’t know — something the FBI said that NOM didn’t bother to respect.
Of course, no one at CNN bothered to make that connection, and thus let Brian Brown frame the conversation.
We need to stop letting our opponents do this.
http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=bestoftv/2012/08/16/exp-early-brown-frc-shooting.cnn