SPLC launches hit piece on Jack Posobiec, prominent Jews stand up for him

Originally published July 2020

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has recently taken aim at Jack Posobiec of One America News (OANN), charging him with ties to "far-right extremists" and targeting "Jewish journalists with antisemitic hate." In a series of responses to the article, prominent Jewish political personalities have stood up to defend Posobiec.

The SPLC wrote an article filled with guilt by association smears that claims: "Posobiec’s ties to far-right extremists travel beyond borders into Europe. His connections to white supremacy are too numerous to compile into one article, so Hatewatch is running a series of stories on the correspondent’s ties to the movement and promotion of it."

The SPLC "lays out how Posobiec rose from being a pseudonymous Game of Thrones blogger to linking up with such white supremacists as Richard Spencer and a neo-Nazi who endorsed terrorism while using the online handle @PureWhiteEvil."

In response, Posobiec has received a flurry of support from the Jewish community and others as they push back against the false accusation by the SPLC.

Founder of Americans Against Antisemitism, Dov Hikind tweeted: "Ever since I’ve followed @JackPosobiec, not once has he indulged in antisemitism, to the contrary, he’s been instrumental in highlighting the scourge of antisemitism the mainstream media is purposely ignoring! He’s owned up to his errors. He shall not be judged by them forever!"

Twitter user @TheAndrewMeyer tweeted: "I'm an orthodox Jew. @JackPosobiec is one of my biggest supporters."

Another prominent Twitter user, @Mostofsky, tweeted: "funny. @JackPosobiec is a friend of mine. I'm Jewish. Orthodox too. Yarlmuka & tzitzis. The other guy, an Orthodox Rabbi. Not too sure you understand how White Supremecy [sic] work."

Jewish-American journalist Yossi Gestetner pointed out the double standard in the progressive media's absolution of former US president Barack Obama's ties with racist hate-monger Louis Farrakhan.

Another Twitter user, @jason_meister, tweeted: ".@JackPosobiec is a good man. A family man. He is a tremendous reporter. I stand by him as an American and a Jew."

The SPLC, a once-respected, now-disgraced organization had previously smeared celebrated human rights campaigner Ayaan Hirsi Ali as an extremist and had to pay out $3.375 million as a settlement to Majid Nawaz, founder of Quilliam, for defamation.

Hirsi famously and accurately referred to the SPLC as a "scam."  

There is also a RICO lawsuit being brought against the SPLC by an immigration group over the "hate" label. Gavin McInnes, co-founder of Vice, filed a lawsuit at the beginning of 2019 against SPLC with regard to the Proud Boys. Shortly after McInnes filed the lawsuit, founder of the SPLC, Morris Dees, was fired, and the president stepped down, as did their top researcher in a scandal described as involving "workplace harassment, hostile workplace complaints and a lack of staff diversity."

In 2019, the SPLC failed to classify Antifa as a hate group—a loosely-knit group of violent street thugs that President Donald Trump said he intends to designate as a terrorist organization.