I sometimes take a look at the Amazon Alexa website rankings for scientology sites vs this blog and Tony Ortega's. You can see one example here from earlier: This topic came up in a recent interview, (in fact, the podcast episode for next week) so I checked in again. I was somewhat surprised to see scientology.org ranking steadily climbing. It makes no sense. Nothing in the world of scientology would indicate any increased interest in the subject.... Obviously things had been left adrift, as 90 days ago the site was ranked … [Read more...]
Defending the Indefensible: Scientology TV
Of all things, STAND is complaining about The Hollywood Reporter's "biased" and "bigoted" coverage of the dismal flop that is ScientologyTV They dredge up some old stuff they have used before about the founder of THR being a communist scare merchant in the days of McCarthyism to prove that the Reporter has a "history" of bias and bigotry and that somehow makes it so today... An interesting standard that they might want to think through a little better, given their illustrious founder's checkered history and the fact that 11 leaders (including his wife) went to Federal prison... I guess … [Read more...]
Scientology.org Not To Be Trusted
Scientology has invested tens of millions of dollars in creating and promoting their website scientology.org. They have a huge volume of content there -- all their hype videos of org openings, VM activities, education efforts etc etc as well as links to every other scientology related website and anything else they can find. A huge amount of effort has been expended to make this a success in this online age. (Though you will note the "Scientology News" second item is the last ribbon yanking ceremony they held -- more than a year ago, there is a not a whole lot of "news"). They are failing … [Read more...]
Scientology TV — What’s Missing?
Scientology is making a really big deal about their new episode featuring Chick Corea. Chick is an interesting story that has been mentioned before. He got into financial troubles when his wife was hammering his credit cards. David Miscavige had known Chick for a long time because his father, Ron, was good friends with Ron Moss, Chick's manager. (Ron Moss is father of Elisabeth Moss of Handmaid's Tale fame). Miscavige was alerted to the problem and not wanting a "flap" with one of scientology's longest term celebrities, brought in Lyman Spurlock as a CPA to look through his finances. … [Read more...]
Thursday Funnies
Free Ice Cream Apparently George is George is a whale who supports this mission. He is like the Good Humor Man... Really not looking good... Bobby Wiggins is sadly not much of an advertisement for "OT VII Super Power Completion" This their plaque? They can't even get the first name right? Such a terrible lie And they put it out every year around this time. Seriously? Now that's an offer you can't refuse... Worst photoshop ever Looks like a cardboard cutout pasted onto the … [Read more...]
Scientology.TV: Hit or Miss?
They are promoting "Season 4" of scientology.tv. Of course, their "seasons" consist of a few episodes of the same shows they have been airing since the launch of the "network". Meet a scientologist. Visit a city where a scientology org is. Wisdom from Ron. There are no audience figures available as the "network" has no advertisers and is not monitored by any normal tv audience monitoring system. So they claim it’s a roaring success. Like they know what the actual statistics of every ideal org is but because they keep those stats secret they simply claim they are all “expanding 10X” … [Read more...]
“Scientology wouldn’t be in the news so much…”
Here is some classic scientology “bubble-think”. It supposes that bad press equals interest in participating in scientology -- rather than the newsworthiness of exposed abuses. With this logic the Catholic Church should be excited about the “interest” shown in Catholicism with the coverage of the ongoing pedophile priest scandal. Not to be too logical about this -- if this was in fact true, how come Battle Creek is unable to renovate the building they have had for more than a decade? And have virtually no staff or public? Hubbard formalized this delusional mindset way back in 1958 in … [Read more...]
The Cult Shopping Network
Tonight is the big night! The long awaited, but not anticipated second "season" of the Cult Shopping Network. You can see the trailer here - though I can save you some time as it says absolutely NOTHING. From all indications, the new season WILL defy expectations. Of scientologists hoping for something new, different or effective. As for everyone else -- not so much. The CSN has been a magnificent flop. The REAL audience for this entire scam is internal. They are holding "watching parties" in every org and on L. Ron Hubbard Way. Yet, the public the CSN is NOT aimed at is existing … [Read more...]
CSN Desperate for Content
Apparently the CSN is short of content to put on the air. If you have ever tried to watch it, you will know this is true. They have about 24 hours of total programming that they repeat over and over. It's almost entirely the same stuff on today as was airing the day it launched. I know many cable stations repeat some programming, usually their hit/important shows. Not everything they broadcast. CSN should have a tag line — “Groundhog Day brought to life.” So, they are asking people to send them free stuff they can air. Sort of like a "Writers of the Future" for film and documentary … [Read more...]
Scientology TV Bombing Badly
While there is no way of getting actual audience figures for Scientology TV, there are some available metrics which give some idea. I did a recent blog post about this. Now here are some more unalterable statistical truths. Google tracks interest in websites and gives them global rankings, with #1 being the most popular site on the web, and higher numbers indicate descending volume of traffic. Scientology has spent millions and millions promoting "Scientology.org" -- on billboards, in online ads, TV ads and now featured prominently on "Scientology TV." Every infomercial and ad on … [Read more...]