Yes, Morris Deas who use to be part of the SPLC was a shakedown artist.
Jesse Jackson has been known to do this to major companies which are accused of racism and are willing to pay off someone high on the Social Justice Warrior pecking order.
Maybe make a few million dollars contribution to some left-wing or identity politics organization in order to get some temporary reprieve from the Angry Left.
Label everyone on the right as hate group.
Collect 100s of millions in donations from the left
Profit.
Such slander does devalue it, so you can see why people don’t care anymore what organizations or politicians say.