Over the last few weeks, Chris Owen (author of many insightful writings about Hubbard and scientology, including his excellent book, Ron The War Hero) has done a series of posts with Tony Ortega on Substack describing the history of the harassment campaigns carried out by scientology. As is always the case with Chris, he is a meticulous researcher and summarizes the information in a concise and accurate way. This is important information that should be as widely available as possible, so I am combining his 3 pieces into one longer article and reprinting it below. It's fascinating … [Read more...]
Best “Apology” Ever
This is perhaps the best "apology" ever issued to scientology, by an Irish satirical news organization Waterford Whispers News. I love the Irish, always have, but then spent some absolutely magical time in Dublin and my connection to the Irish became unbreakable. Their unique sense of humor and absolute "I don't give a shit what you think" attitude is so pervasive it could be called the national character. This piece illustrates everything I love about the Irish. If you have not seen it yet, enjoy! https://twitter.com/WhispersNewsLTD/status/1676186234152968192 … [Read more...]
People Magazine: Where’s Shelly? Scientology: You’re Bigots
Following the excellent and extensive reporting by Yashar Ali on the disappearance of Shelly Miscavige (I just updated my blog post about this to include the latest documents from Yashar), People magazine published a piece on the subject (shallow and revealing nothing new, I wish they had followed Yashar's lead and actually dug into this subject. But, the tremendous reach of People cannot be denied and serves to raise public awareness on the issue. You can read the People piece here. What is also interesting is the inevitable response from the scienobots on social … [Read more...]
What Happened to the Biggest Disseminator in History?
Remember when Tom Cruise was lauded with the Flavor Flav "Freedom Medal of Valor" for being the greatest disseminator in the history of scientology? The video went on and on about how he is relentless and unwavering in his efforts to get the word out about scientology. That he has "brought LRH tech to over 1 billion people on earth, and that's just the beginning..." Remember the stories about how he rounded up all the celebrities in LA and read them the riot act about not being dedicated enough and not doing their bit to expand scientology? Those days are long gone. He … [Read more...]
Simon Weisenthal Center Pandering to Tom Cruise, Anti-Semitic Sympathizer
Please watch the YouTube video I did on this subject with Marc Headley this evening. The fact that the Simon Wiesenthal center lauds Tom Cruise by having him be a co-chair of their "National Tribute Dinner" is puzzling if not disturbing. Back in 2011 they honored him with their "Medal of Valor" Tom Cruise is one of the recipients of the IAS Freedom Medal (he got a special one a "Freedom Medal of Valor" with a larger medal) -- this is what you see in the photo at the top of the post. Another recipient of this medal is Tony Muhammad, Western Regional Director of … [Read more...]
Alex Gibney Urges IRS to Revoke Scientology’s Tax Exempt Status
A recent interview with Alex Gibney in Rolling Stone where he was asked the following question, jogged my memory. I had the pleasure of seeing Going Clear at its Sundance premiere, which was pretty wild. Is Scientology still on your case? And I’ve done a lot of reporting on Scientology as well, so what’s it like to see Tom Cruise still be the king of Hollywood? It seems he hasn’t had to answer a single question about this stuff in the eight years since Going Clear. I agree. And I’m kind of surprised. I think he took a step away, so he’s not the kind of ambassador for Scientology … [Read more...]
#WheresShelly
https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1613000395605020673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1613000395605020673%7Ctwgr%5Eed5d4f99b49f9e0ad25e6c811877cd4922266193%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffpost.com%2Fentry%2Ftom-cruise-joke-golden-globes_n_63be312be4b0b2e1506c1ae3 Jerrod Carmichael's stunning bit at the Golden Globes last night set social media on fire. And subsequently is all over the media, bringing global attention to this issue. As readers of this blog know, Leah Remini famously filed a missing persons report concerning Shelly in 2013, detailed in … [Read more...]
Nazanin Boniadi
My friend Naz is a true champion of human rights. Long before her very vocal support of the brave protests in Iran following the death of a woman at the hands of the morality police, she was fighting for those who have no voice. I wanted to mention her here today, and encourage everyone to support and follow her on social media because she is doing such incredibly brave work. She is also a very talented actress and the nicest, kindest person who is yet incredibly strong. Follow Naz on social media and support the causes she is championing. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NazaninBoniadi FB: … [Read more...]
Thursday Funnies
What Deal!! 2 weeks in a motel, then a week on the Freewinds. And you get a webinar" that you could do from the comfort of your own home. And two people who are going to instruct you on how to get into Power as an artist and be on the comm lines of the world. Two people nobody has ever heard of. How to do everything at once seminar Wonder if this guy has ever read Problems of Work? Does he know what he is promoting is flat out off-Source? What? How does graduation equate to "Stronger together"? More … [Read more...]
Elisabeth Moss: Scientology PR 101
The recent New Yorker article piece by Michael Shulman has resulted in a ton of media pickups, mostly focused on her responses to questions about scientology. There have been a number of takes on this of interest: Martha Ross wrote an excellent piece in the SJ Mercury News Martha quotes journalist Yashar Ali who tweeted: And Tony Ortega added some thoughts from Geoff Levin who was extensively interviewed for the story, but little of it made it into print: Now, let me add some of my thoughts, as it was my job back in the day to … [Read more...]