Tony Harris, Morris Dees and Heidi Beirich

Investigation Discovery presented a press conference about the series, "Hate in America" during the 2016 TV Winter Press Tour. Appearing were host Tony Harris, from left, Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center and Intelligence Project Director, Southern Poverty Law Center, Heidi Beirich.

(Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

PASADENA, California -- A session at the Television Critics Association Winter 2016 Press Tour here took a turn toward the serious during a press conference discussing the Investigation Discovery series, "Hate in America."

The series is hosted by Tony Harris, of Al Jazeera America, and features Harris working with the Southern Poverty Law Center and Morris Dees, its co- founder, to explore cases from the SPLC archives.

Its website describes the Southern Poverty Law Center as "the premiere U.S. non-profit organization monitoring the activities of domestic hate groups and other extremists - including the Ku Klux Klan, the neo-Nazi movement, neo-Confederates, racist skinheads, black separatists, antigovernment militias, Christian Identity adherents and others."

While "Hate in America" will focus on past cases that saw the SPLC going to court, working with law enforcement and taking other measures in support of civil rights, the conversation on Thursday turned briefly to the standoff in Oregon, where a group of anti-government armed militants are occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

The standoff in Oregon is reflective of the growth in self-styled militias, said Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project, which tracks extremist groups. Beirich referred to the recent SPLC annual count of militias, which showed that SPLC-defined far-right, anti-government militia groups numbered 276, a jump over 202 in 2014. The growth represents a 37 percent increase.

In an interview after the TV Press Tour panel, Beirich and Dees said that the Oregon situation wasn't surprising, in light of the federal government not holding members of the Bundy family accountable after another standoff between rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters in 2014. Leaders of the Oregon confrontation include two of Bundy's sons.

"It's a really dangerous situation," Beirich said of the group occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. "They've got a person up in a tower, with a rifle."

Federal officials holding off on making aggressive moves against the militants has a lot to do with a reluctance to put federal agents in the line of fire, said Dees.

The Investigation Discovery series, "Hate in America," premieres February 23.

-- Kristi Turnquist

kturnquist@oregonian.com

503-221-8227

@Kristiturnquist