Earlier this week, Tony Perkins of the hate group Family Research Council and leaders of other hate groups sent a letter to media outlets asking that their groups not be referred to as “hate groups” and tried to delegitimize the Southern Poverty Law Center, which gave them that label.
Perkins appeared on Tucker Carlson's FOX News show to discuss the letter, and Carlson was more than willing to defend Perkins and the FRC, even though they have advocated, as Media Matters notes, for criminalizing homosexuality.
Said Carlson:
“Well, to call someone a hate group is to lump them in, in the popular mind, in my mind anyway, with like Nazis and crazy people, violent people, truly scary people….You would think that any normal reporter, no matter how liberal, would be looking through the list of hate groups, so-called hate groups, and say, “You know, OK, some of them are clearly hateful and crazy.” And then they get to the Family Research Council, and you say, “I may not agree with their agenda, but they are not a hate group.” Why does nobody at say CNN or The Washington Post ever think this is overreach? It is not a hate group. It is a Christian group.”
Watch: