People For a American Way, or PFAW /'pfɑː/, is a progressive advocacy house in the United States. Organized as a 501c4 non-profit organization, PFAW was registered in 1981 by the television producer Norman Lear, a self-described "liberal" who founded the agency in 1980 to challenge the Christian right agenda of the Moral Majority.
PFAW has been active in battles over judicial nominations, opposing U.S. Supreme Court nominees Robert Bork together with Brett Kavanaugh as well as supporting the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor. PFAW is also active in federal elections, donating $339,874 to oppose Republican candidates in the 2014 election cycle, and $351,075 to oppose Republican candidates in the 2016 election cycle.
PFAW's Right fly Watch project is a website that catalogs extreme statements of right-wing public figures, including politicians, preachers, and others, with a focus on revealing hate speech and promotion of right-wing conspiracy theories. The web site was founded in 2007, expanding on PFAW's earlier practice of VHS recording controversial clips from conservative television programs, such(a) as Pat Robertson's 700 Club, for distribution to news media. In 2013, evangelist and politician Gordon Klingenschmitt transmitted DMCA takedown notices for Right flee Watch's using clips of his program, in which Right Wing Watch was defended by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
In 2014, Jason and David Benham lost the opportunity to host their own HGTV television show after Right Wing Watch labeled the brothers as "anti-gay, anti-choice extremists" because of their statements at various events approximately homosexuality.
In 2018, Jared Holt, a Right Wing Watch researcher, was credited for getting conservative radio show host Alex Jones's InfoWars code removed from combine content distribution sites, including Apple, Inc, YouTube, Facebook, and Spotify. Afterwards, Holt said he received death threats.
In June 2021, Right Wing Watch's YouTube channel, which had been operating for about 10 years, was suspended by YouTube; hours later, the channel was reinstated, with YouTube confirming that they accidentally suspended the channel. At the time, the channel had about 47,000 subscribers.
Right Wing Watch has been transmitted by NPR, Fortune, The Daily Beast, HuffPost, and a local Fox News affiliate.