Tracey McManus is on the ball again. Reporting on the ongoing efforts of Miscavige and Co. to fulfill their plans to make Clearwater the “first scientology city”. Her latest story covers a recent meeting between scientology’s capo di tutti capi and three non-elected city officials. Miscavige has had a long term relationship with City Manager Bill Horne and City Attorney Pam Aiken. It seems they brought along Michael Delk so he could be introduced to the big cheese. Miscavige first began schmoozing Bill Horne and Pam Aiken when he was here trying to keep his ass out of a sling in the Lisa … [Read more...]
The Clearwater PR Offensive
Immediately following the revelations in the recent Tampa Bay Times article by Tracey McManus, scientology launched their version of a campaign to convince the citizens of Clearwater they are in fact good for the city. They distributed Freedom magazines to people's doors in the dead of night to try to persuade them the reason downtown Clearwater looks like the set for the latest installment of the Night of The Living Dead movies is not because they bought it up and leave most of the properties empty or massively underutilized, it is because the big bad meanies at the Tampa Bay … [Read more...]
CNN on Clearwater & More from the Tampa Bay Times
Earlier today I chatted briefly with Michael Smerconish on CNN. Unfortunately, there is no embed code for the video so you have to click HERE to watch it. It was a VERY short piece, not really enough time to explain such complex issues, but it is good to see national media paying some attention to this issue. Hopefully more media outlets than just the Tampa Bay Times will want to dig in to this. Tracey McManus also published a new story concerning community reaction to middle-of-the-night distribution of Freedom magazines. As usual, the glossy hype of scientology's PR effort does nothing … [Read more...]
Scientology Attempting to Revise Clearwater History
After Tracey McManus' bombshell article dropped on 20 October, scientology immediately began their efforts to revise history. The next day, Freedom magazines started popping up all over the city. I wrote an article addressing some of the falsehoods Scientology BS Grows Deeper Then they began trying to make a dent in the social media world to cast the article as a bigoted assault on scientology and highlight the wonderful contributions they make to Clearwater. Freedom magazine has a twitter account @Freedommag and on October 21 they began sending out tweets. This is the tweet that is pinned … [Read more...]
Scientology BS Grows Deeper
Scientology had this 116 page "rebuttal" magazine ready to distribute in Clearwater on Sunday immediately after the Tampa Bay Times bombshell dropped. It had been prepared and printed well in advance, with staged photo shoots and 116 pages of PR fluffery and outright bs ready to drop without the inconvenience of having read the article. In fact, it arrived in Clearwater mailboxes Monday morning, so it was mailed even before the article was published. A large percentage of the magazine consists of flowery pages of "I am a Scientologist" stuff. This is basically a rehash of what is shown … [Read more...]
Clearwater Politicians Weigh In
An interesting follow up piece by Tracey McManus quoting reaction from members of the Clearwater City Government to her bombshell expose from yesterday. Unsurprisingly, the Clearwater politicos don't have much to offer in terms of how this happened to their city, what they think it means or more importantly, what they are going to do about it. They have been overwhelmed by a far more sophisticated and well-funded opponent that doesn’t care whether they hurt anyone’s feelings as long as they get their way. Politicians in Clearwater in the last couple of decades have been more concerned … [Read more...]
Scientology Has Bought Clearwater
Tracey McManus' meticulously researched article dominating the front page of this morning's Tampa Bay Times is a bombshell. I doubt many people in Clearwater realized just how complete scientology's takeover of the downtown is. This is why I have been supporting and promoting Mark Bunker for the city council. Scientology ALWAYS Comes First Why Elect Mark Bunker? And the urgency of this is further highlighted by a passage in the article. For the non-residents of Clearwater let me give you a little background that is explained in the article. It concerns the dispute … [Read more...]
Going Clear Emmy Sweep
It was a rough night for Dear Leader. First, Going Clear was presented an Emmy Award for best documentary, best director and best writer. Bam. Tons of media coverage about it. But I loved the quote at the end of this article: Regarding a possible followup, Gibney noted, “There’s a lot more material already that I’ve received, more to come out — and so far the IRS has not revoked its [tax-exemption] protection so there’s a lot more to be done.” Alex Gibney is a REAL champion of human rights -- not because someone handed him a certificate that says so after he … [Read more...]
Scientology Shitstorm
The Tampa Bay Times has just put on their website the latest story on human rights and disconnection written by Joe Childs. This is a must read for anyone interested in the subject of Scientology that puts the lie to the church PR that there is no such thing as enforced disconnection. It will appear as the feature story in the Sunday print edition, but went online just as the sheeple were filing into Ruth Eckerd Hall. You should also read the 25 page order from Judge Waldrip in the Monique Rathbun handed down today and now on Tony Ortega's site. Judge Waldrip hoisted the church on its own … [Read more...]
The Sad Story of David Miscavige’s Twin Sister
Joe Childs of the Tampa Bay Times filed a story about Denise Miscavige this evening. You can read it here. Perhaps more than anything, it exposes the hypocrisy of "true believers" who have absolute certainty that they KNOW the answers to all problems in society. The quotes from sworn testimony cited in the article highlight just how unreal this mentality is. I hope this is enough to wake Denise up. And I hope she comes through this OK -- she was the first auditor I ever had in the Sea Org at St Hill in 1973. Her brother (Dave, not Ronnie) is going to rain scorn and hatred upon her for … [Read more...]