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Scientology Photoshops Audience for Miscavige Event

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Scientology-photoshops-attendance

 

When you try to claim that a crowd of 400-500 is actually a crowd of 2,500, Photoshop is your best friend.  The Radical Church of Scientology is no stranger to photoshopping audiences and their “man with no head” audience member went viral after the 1999 New Years Event. Scientology Audience Doctored.

However with all the attention on the Portland (“Scientology City”) opening and the months of pressure to have Scientologists from all over the world fly in to puff up the crowd at the event, apparently the disappointment of unused chairs and low attendance was too much. 

So when the obligatory PR WEB paid press release was put together they doctored the main crowd shot. And not very well either. If you look closely under the confetti you will the the entire crowd there is on a slightly different perspective than the rest of the photo. Photoshopping in an audience  and then covering them in confetti to hide the low quality work – what is vulture culture coming to? 

Or perhaps this is a brilliant strategy to get media coverage — the headless man went viral. Is it a sneaky guerilla marketing campaign?

You can see the actual image live on PR WEB with this link: doctored scientology audience photo published on PR WEB

The massive, straight up and vertical international expansion of Scientology, greater than at any point in history, also seems to be passing Portland by…. In fact, it seems to have circumvented the entire United States if Dear Leader could only pull 500 people to his biggest Grand Opening with heavy pressure from every OT Committee, Idle Org, management and even WISE to attend.

 

Comments

  1. The group always was at the forefront of trying to apply technology. Witness the “Vocoder lectures”. But when every body is somewhat conversant with it, a badly done job just stands out all the more. It’s not so bad that the pic is photoshoped. It is just done so badly — and sadly…

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  3. I moved to Clearwater with my husband in summer 2016… He warned me about downtown and the church. I had to see it to believe it. I thought it was really interesting, I study religion daily, it keeps me “grounded”.

    I haven’t been around town, I’m still very young and building stable income, but there have been events I skipped out on going to because I notice “Event organized by Church of Scientology” in the fine print.

    What is most interesting to me is that they have beer at some events they organize for the whole city? While passing out “sobriety” pamphlets?

    I’ve been super into your show since I moved here, VERY HELPFUL information. Keep going, I noticed “James Bell” is not a doctor in pinellas county, I hope your children and ex-wife realize the power and impact of enabling the church to lie. God Bless you Mike.

    Reply

  4. Hillary Clinton did the same with her crowd photos, during her bid for the Presidency. Both are corrupt beyond any kind word, and both use the same tools to reinforce their lies. No surprise here; moving on…

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  5. My favourite part of the Ideal Org Openings are the theme-stages. Who designs these monstrosities? I even check out Miscavige’s facebook fan page for them. For some reason he always puts on matchy matchy ties. Or does he have the stage built to complement his tie? Anyway, he looks like an accessory to these Waldorf stages in hausfrauian crochet club style, all dusted with a little Tertium Imperium. Apart from that, the man is a sartorial masterpiece but someone should intervene!

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  6. I’ll just point out that while I still think it looks like the pic was altered, its not as bad as its being made out to be. The supposed line where the trees are supposed to be that the explanatory picture shows is actually way out of place. looking at the pic from above, it shows that the line of trees along the side of the crowd is a good 10-15 feet further out from the edge of the screen yet the picture shows that the line of trees should have been right at the edge of the projector screen. I’m not at all in favor of scientology, just pointing out that this is a lot of hubub over nothing. I do think the 2,500 people in attendance claim sounds hilarious.

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  9. I am now of the mindset that the Church is doing everything they can to cover up that no one is left, and I mean no one. They had to get the whole US to arrive in Portland as if the grand opening was Portland public only, they would have had only 19 show. I know that at my org, there is no one left. I get no calls anymore from Flag, well maybe one per month. And what happened to the May 9 event.

    It is like a big and continuous scramble to cover up the truth…no on left. Literally

    Reply

  10. Yet another example of appearance over substance. It’s how it “looks” is what is important. This weaves its way through virtually everything DM touches. IAS honorary status holders “appear” important. Ideal Org “look” impressive. Super Power “sounds” impressive. Whether there is any substance or import to any of this is secondary. It is shallow. DM operates like a flim-flam man.

    Reply

    • There is no substance anymore. Scientology is not being delivered anymore, in any volume that the Dwarf could even admit, let alone brag about. So style, appearances, are all he has. He’s done for and he knows it but as long as he can still brazen things out, he will. He’s being “last ditch right”. He’s insane.

      Reply

  11. I see! This the “Ideal Event“ by the “Ideal Leader“ with the “Ideal Propaganda“ with the “Ideal Abwehr (defense)” and the “Ideal Photo-shop”!

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  12. Dave, guess what? In this day of high definition photography and video ya just can’t get away with this shit. . You may THINK you can, but you can’t. People SEE this shit. Even a kool-aid drinker who has dabbled at Photoshop at home can see it. They don’t WANT to see it, but there it as plain as the scowl on your face.
    You can’t lie. And you obviously can’t tell the truth. So, now what?
    …..I know! Even MORE Ideal buildings that are not functioning Orgs.
    But this time …..COMPLETELY computer generated ideal orgs! Computer generated audiences, computer generated staff, computer generated students and PCs, computer generated local officials, computer generated press, computer generated everything!!
    You could supervise and direct every detail personally. It would be perfect down to the very last detail.
    You could beat up virtual staff and f up the cases of any number of virtual people with impunity. You could write numerous accolades and commendations to yourself!
    Yes, you could finally be a legend in your own mind!!!!

    Reply

  13. We in RTC launched an investigation into this matter.

    We have discovered that SP photo editors in Golden Era altered photos from the opening of the Portland Org.

    Accordingly,. we will be reissuing corrected new photos in a special RTC approved binder. The donation for these binders is $4950 each. IAS members are expected to donate for ten binders or else.

    In happier news, the first Ideal Org Gas Station has been opened.: http://otviiiisgrrr8.com/2013/05/09/grand-opening-of-ideal-org-gas-station-los-angeles/

    Reply

  15. Keep on exposing the Ideal Org scheme. Current members always point to the ‘expansion of new churches’ as their answer that all is well in lala land.

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  16. Daily Mail: Church of Scientology accused of photo shopping the crowd at recent event in Portland to make it seem like more people attended
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2323609/Church-Scientology-accused-photo-shopping-crowd-recent-event-Portland-make-like-people-there.html

    Excerpt: “The picture they posted on their website to accompany the event appears to have been hugely doctored.

    The entire right side of the image contains people who were not actually at the event because in real pictures, you can see there is a line of trees there.

    The other side of the crowd is also believed to have been photoshopped and again, other images taken show a line of tress where the official Church of Scientology image seems to have added in more people.”

    Reply

  17. What does Miscavige fear more,
    1) being mocked at the “event”

    or

    2) being mocked afterwards with a shooped up PR photo that was made, evidently, during amateur hour at Golden Era.

    6 of one . . . .

    Reply

  18. http://youtu.be/z6PgkX7cxjI

    “Published on May 12, 2013
    David Miscavige had his underlings frantically trying to stop me from filming him speak in Portland. While I got video of his address, he turned the speakers down really low so I couldn’t get good sound.”

    Reply

  21. More from “AnyOldName” on WWP:

    https://whyweprotest.net/community/threads/portland-ideal-morgue-opening-may-11-2013.109245/page-6#post-2306373

    “The shoop job for the Italian Idle Org was better. Guess the only ones with skills blew.

    Even more obvious the really bad shooping:

    1. People on right (shooped audience) are facing the main group (real).
    2. Real audience on right is watching Jumbotron b/c they can’t see stage.
    3. Did they use 3×5 cards for confetti? Totally out of proportion to people and balloons.
    4. Camera focus changes
    5. Lighting direction wrong
    6. the list goes on…….”

    Reply

  22. No wonder they didnt want mark bunker there. Any amount of exposing the truth would not be acceptable.

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  23. I’ve thought, more and more, as the frantic pace increased each day, DM is working on an agenda of which we have no clue. That doesn’t make the agenda sane or logical but I doubt we’ll ever find out the Why for all the crazy, illogical activity behind this Portland project. Is DM under the gun? What’s the gun? Many guns come to mind and have been mentioned but I don’t think that’s all of the guns. Maybe the Whales are ganging up on him. A dropped innuendo or two. An ‘external influence’ warming his toes?

    Well, what the hell. This whole thing sure didn’t warrant so much attention. Crazy is as crazy does.

    Reply

  24. I sense that Davey is very, very unhappy with the turnout and outcome of his “first Clear City”. And, I’m sure the various staff members are hearing about all they did wrong and receiving his wrath. More and more parishioners are waking up and at the very least not cooperating as evidenced by the low turnout after much promotion and push to get people there from all over. I wonder what he will do next since this proved to be a failure.

    Reply

    • If he admits failure on this, which, given the Toxic Midget, might not happen, then the next step seems obvious: release GAT 2, the dissemination of which will be somehow connected to the opening of Super Power, thus preserving the one line of donation income that still seems to be working for him (Garcia lawsuit notwithstanding) while opening up another one that’s worked twice in the past (with GAT and the Basics). Plus, what are the chances that someone’s scoured the archives and found something of LRH’s that can be turned into L13? The clubbed seals still go bonkers for the Ls.

      The sad part is that if this degraded wog can think of this, so can Slappy.

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  27. Additional analysis courtesy of “degraded being” on ESMB:

    http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?31570-Portland-Ideal-Org-opening-up-May-11!&p=805540&viewfull=1#post805540
    “It’s not just the crowd on the right…on the left side the crowd has also been added. Actually, a lot more have been added on the left than the right as far as I can see.

    The perspective is distorted too, to create an impression of more distance into the background, thus allowing to shoop in a lot more people. That’s what it looks like to me.”

    Reply

    • They always use wide-angle shots to distort the view and make the area and crowd look larger. The left side has a definite shoop. In real life, there’s a line of shrubbery at the far edge of the building, crossing the street. It’s gone from their PR shoop.

      Reply

  28. It’s getting to be slim pickings in the vulture culture. As time goes by less and less people are willing to be vulture bait.

    Reply

  29. According to the newsroom section on the church website, dm was accompanied on stage by some major political players in Oregon.
    “Welcoming the new church were Cornelius city manager”…(Cornelius, Oregon population 11,869. 2010 census).
    “Former mayor of Beaverton, Oregon” was also there (no officials from the city of Portland itself?).
    And the Executive Director of the Washington County Marathon also spoke. The marathon came from ancient Greece. Maybe that has something to do with that new $25,000 Alexander the Great donation status for the Portland event.

    Reply

  32. What? The Church of Scientology false reporting to it’s members and to the rest of mankind?

    I just don’t think that is remotely possible Mike. There must be some mistake.

    Reply

  33. Seriously: how did this happen?

    Not the bad photoshopping — I mean the total lack of bodies, local or bused-in or paid-for or otherwise. If this event was so important to David (for whatever inscrutable reason), why didn’t anybody make sure there were enough bodies on hand, by any means necessary, to fill the seats and make photoshopping unnecessary?

    I’m truly puzzled about this. Earlier events of this type do seem to have been respectably attended, even though we know many of the crowd was shipped in just for the occasion. Also, earlier events have usually managed to snare a couple of local officials to add to the veneer of … well, I’m at a loss to describe it, but Dave seems to like it.

    Portland just looks like a total bust. David’s best-laid plans fizzled. So I’m guessing

    • Dave is so detached from reality that he actually expected a real-life throng to materialize, or
    • There is no longer anyone around Dave who is competent enough to pull off a public event of this type, and/or
    • Recent bad news plus Dave’s growing desperation are pushing things ever closer to the final collapse.

    Reply

    • I think it’s all 3. Also a possible explanation is that the bus drivers accidentally took the guys to the Dalai Lama event…

      🙂

      Reply

  34. The skill level is definitely going in the toilet. They did a much better job Photoshopping the Italian Idle Org opening. This was amateur work.

    The good news is that it IS so obvious even without knowing the tree line. You can see where the crowd ends and the shoop begins. The camera focus changes, lighting direction is all wrong and last but not least why are the people at the bottom of the shooped audience (lower right corner) facing the back of the (real) audience members and not the stage?

    Reply

  35. The Road to Freedom, paved with lies for the greater good. Yeah, that’s the ticket! LRH said that lying was a form of creativity, and he wasn’t above telling a tall yarn himself on occasion, but the one area where he said you must never lie was in PR. So where does little Davey insists on the biggest whoppers? What a maroon!

    Reply

  36. Haaa! I remember well the ‘Man with no head’ fiasco back in 2000! It was hilarious. I can’t believe they’d try the same stunt again, and expect a different outcome. I guess someone thought that time had passed, so no one would check.

    Very Well done!!!

    Reply

  37. The culture of lies within Scientology Inc continues, not merely unabated, but with more audaciousness than ever.

    A sane person might, when he knows the cameras are on him, when he knows there’s people reporting the facts about him openly publishing them…that person might be uber-careful to tell the truth.

    We published truths about the Phoenix Idle Org Grand Opening…including the difference between the actual attendee head count and the church’s reported head count…and also published that the rent-a-cops and jack-booted OSA operatives did everything they could to stop non-church personnel from filming the event from adjacent properties…and yet Miscavige-Allender, et al still tried to STOP THE TRUTH FROM BEING RECORDED FOR INDEPENDENT DISSEMINATION.

    Bunker, being much better at this game than our own neophyte videographers actually recorded the attempts to get the truth suppressed and the people who were engineering the suppression.

    I loved the fact that the Dalai Lama held an event in Portland THE SAME WEEKEND with about 20x the attendance, coverage by mainline news outlets, un-photoshopped crowd shots, no forced bussing of toady attendees, and actual uplifting messages being spread to people who were thirsting for a sip of theta in a worldwide desert of chaos and evil.

    The compare-and-contrast between Miscavige and the Dalai Lama couldn’t be more revealing.

    Reply

  38. The photo appears to have been doctored at the far end as well.

    In Jeff Hawkins video, at :38 to :46 you can see that area, and note that the line of trees is perpendicular to the end of the org’s building. In their photo, this line of trees has been pushed back to the very end of the block and the trees in the line are now with greater separation between them. We know that tree line just can’t be as if would defeat their purpose to be totally enclosed in a bubble.

    Reply

    • They’d only be Ideal if dozens of credit cards could be created and maxed-out in their name.

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    • And of the mere 500 that came, how many were bussed in from CA? I know they had busses in CA taking our locals there to pad the crowd. And people who couldn’t pay the bus fare to go were taking up donations from others in the fold to get money with which to pay it and go. So if you subtract all the Non Portland Scns, how many are left? Not many. Photoshopping, busing, oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.

      Reply

      • 500 is a generous estimate, and a fair percentage of those were required to be there because they were staff, dragged in from all corners of the compass. At the same time, in the same city, the Dalai Lama drew a crowd of about 20,000.

        Hey Davey, remember when you said “power is when people will listen to you”? Well, guess who’s got it and who ain’t!

        Reply

      • Davie and minions have had many years of practice at deception. It hasn’t gotten any less tangled. (Dear RCS, on the Internet, Web untangles YOU!)

        Reply

Trackbacks

  1. […] Why do I say this?  Because they still call me for these Scientology events — and I’m a known SP (suppressive person), one of the people they’re supposed to shun.  Yet they call me — in a desperate attempt to get one more warm body into a seat, to look good for their cameras.  Like everything else they do, it’s all a photo op for them.  They used to Photoshop people into their pictures of events.  But the internet got wise to that and blew them out of the water. […]

    Reply

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