This video of Mr. Farrakhan opens with his indignant declaration that he “didn’t get a dime from Dianetics or Scientology.” In fact, he recalls, the Nation of Islam had to spend a lot of money to buy the books for Dianetics.
Mr. Farrakhan then goes on to defend Dianetics by arguing that it will help members of the Nation of Islam overcome the trauma of sexual abuse. However, what Mr. Farrakhan ignores is that the Church of Scientology covers up rape, sexual abuse, and even pedophilia.
This begs the question: Why is Mr. Farrakhan looking for help with sexual abuse from a group that covers up sexual abuse? Mr. Farrakhan should demand that the Church of Scientology first cleanse its own house and expel all known rapists, child molesters, and those who have committed spousal abuse or domestic battery. The Minister should demand that Scientology stop covering up these crimes and sheltering the criminals simply because they are Scientologists.
Where Mr. Farrakhan is to be commended is that he, unlike the Church of Scientology and the Catholic Church, acknowledges that sexual molestation exists as a problem. Pope Francis, to his disgrace, has gone the way of John Paul II in attempting to cover up and protect pedophile priests. The recently published paper entitled The Testimony by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has served to intensify the pressure on Pope Francis by calling for him to resign. Archbishop Viganò claims that Pope Francis knew about and covered up the sexual crimes that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick perpetrated upon his subordinates and seminarians.
By contrast, Mr. Farrakhan has acknowledged that spousal abuse and sexual abuse exist. Accordingly, he incorporated both into the pledge that Black Men signed at his now legendary 1995 Million Man March. This section of the pledge reads:
I pledge from this day forward I will never abuse my wife by striking her, disrespecting her, for she is the mother of my children and the producer of my future.
I pledge that from this day forward I will never engage in the abuse of children, little boys or little girls for sexual gratification. For I will let them grow in peace to be strong men and women for the future of our people.
Again, we ask the question: Given the Nation of Islam’s decades-long willingness to forthrightly acknowledge the problem of sexual abuse, why does Mr. Farrakhan turn for help to a group that will neither acknowledge the problem nor punish the perpetrators?
WHITE JESUS
Even as Mr. Farrakhan warns the Nation of Islam that they were given a white Jesus to keep them enslaved, he leads the Nation to uncritically embrace and accept a white Savior named L. Ron Hubbard. NOI Western Regional Representative Tony Muhammad has called Hubbard, “an angelic messenger sent from God.”
Scientology leads to slavery. That is how the system is designed. L. Ron Hubbard wrote in his Admissions:
All men shall be my slaves. All women shall submit to my charms. All mankind shall grovel at my feet.
— Scroll down to the bottom of this page to read the Admissions of L. Ron Hubbard–
The Nation of Islam is focused on the 400 years of slavery, brutality, and injustice Black people in North America have suffered at the hands of the White man. And yet it seems Mr. Farrakhan is taking the Nation back into the bondage of Egypt when he submits the Nation to L. Ron Hubbard, the white man whose stated Magickal goal was to make all men his slaves.
We wonder if Mr. Farrakhan is cognizant of the Master Race ideology at the heart of Scientology or if he is simply dazzled by the auditing experience? Many public Scientologists such as Mr. Farrakhan are so dazzled by auditing and the wins they get from auditing that they just do not care to know what Scientology actually is at its core. Most Scientologists are not aware of the deliberately calculated and methodical ways in which the Church of Scientology traps them legally, psychologically, and spiritually.
Mr. Farrakhan publicly stated that any member of the Nation of Islam who refused to do Dianetics would never have a place of leadership in the Nation. Instead, he said, “they will be thanked for their labors and asked to step aside.” This is called an “enforced reality” in Scientology and that is what Mr. Farrakhan is doing: He is enforcing his reality upon others. In doing so, he is taking away their self-determinism. To take away the self-determinism of another unless they comply with your demands made under threat or duress is itself a form of slavery.
In the video, Mr. Farrakhan repeats his long-standing rationale that because Scientology is useful and can help the Nation of Islam, all criticisms of Scientology should be ignored. Farrakhan says, “They’ve beaten the hell out of Scientology now so everybody wanna run away. Farrakhan not that kind of man.” Farrakhan’s comment that “everybody wanna run away” is quite revealing. What group of persons is the everybody who wants to run away because of Scientology’s reputation? It appears there are cracks in the Nation of Islam over Scientology.
The Church of Scientology has been exposed and called to account due to its inhumanity; greed; lies; Fair Game attacks on former members, journalists, and critics; breaking up families by Disconnection; and its cynical exploitation of Sea Org members — and this includes the use of child labor in the Sea Org. If Mr. Farrakhan willingly chooses to ignore the evil, malice, abuses, greed, and lies at the heart of Scientology then that’s all on him. Farrakhan can “not is it” all he wants, but his not-isness doesn’t change reality.
“Not-isness” is a Scientology word for denial. To “not is” something is to pretend it doesn’t exist or deny its existence because you can’t confront it. Our critique of Mr. Farrakhan is that he wants the best of what Scientology has to offer and will “not is” the rest.
Many Scientologists have used this approach and it typically ends in failure when Scientology’s brutality suddenly and utterly destroys one’s ability to remain in a state of denial. It is an overwhelming experience that shatters all hopes and dreams. There is usually a triggering event in which all of the years or decades of repressed and pent up frustration, anger, and pretending break the dam and it all floods into full awareness. This necessary crisis is one way out. The easy way is to just leave Scientology.
TO WHOM DOES THE MONEY TRAIL LEAD?
Mr. Farrakhan specifically rebuts the oft-heard claim that he personally makes money from Dianetics and Scientology. The basis of his denial refers to the fact that the Church of Scientology pays a 10% commission to its salespeople — who are called Field Staff Ministers (FSM’s) or registrars — whenever they sell Scientology goods and services to others.
This raises the obvious question: Given the fact that the Church of Scientology is a business based solely upon the payment of money in exchange for overpriced goods and services, who then is paid commissions on the monies generated by sales to the Nation of Islam? While we welcome any information, here is our short list of three obvious candidates:
Tony Muhammad — Nation of Islam
Jim Mathers — Scientologist
Alfreddie Johnson — Scientologist
L-R: Tony Muhammad, Jim Mathers, Alfreddie Johnson
Jim Mathers is a white Scientologist who is seemingly omnipresent at Nation of Islam events related to Scientology. Mathers’ presence at NOI events since the beginning of the Nation’s involvement with the Church of Scientology has been left completely unexplained. Aside from Jim Mathers, white Scientologists are seldom ever seen at NOI events.
Mathers is frequently photographed in the company of Tony Muhammad and Alfreddie Johnson. Does Jim Mathers make money as an FSM to the Nation of Islam? Or does he serve another purpose?
Do Tony Muhammad and Alfreddie Johnson make money as FSM’s to the Nation of Islam? Nation of Islam members have never been told who gets the 10% Scientology commissions. This lack of financial transparency naturally creates questions.
Mathers recently donned the garb of a clergyman to appear at the Ebony Awakening event held in the ballroom of Scientology’s Fort Harrison Hotel located at Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida. The available literature gives no explanation for his appearance at the event which was largely attended by members of the Nation of Islam who are also Scientologists.
WE KNOW WHERE SOME OF THE MONEY DIDN’T GO
When Scientologist Alfreddie Johnson brought Nation of Islam Western Representative Tony Muhammad into Scientology, there was one problem: Tony Muhammad didn’t have the money to begin his Bridge.
Word went out to the Celebrity Centre that money was urgently needed to get Minister Tony Muhammad onto the Bridge. Leah Remini, who was then still in the Church, stepped up and loaned Minister Tony a good amount of money to begin his Bridge.
Tony Muhammad has never paid Leah back, this despite the strict Islamic teaching that a Muslim may not enter Paradise until all of his or her debts are paid:
Muhammad ibn Jahsh said: ‘We were sitting with the Messenger of Allaah (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam) when he raised his head towards the sky, then he put his palm on his forehead and said: “Subhaan-Allaah! What a strict issue has been revealed to me!” We remained silent and were afraid. The following morning I asked him,
“O Messenger of Allaah, what is this strict issue that has been revealed?” He said, “By the One in Whose hand is my soul, if a man were killed in battle for the sake of Allaah, then brought back to life, then killed and brought back to life again, then killed, and he owed a debt, he would not enter Paradise until his debt was paid off.” (Hasan-al-Nasaa’i).
When will Minister Tony Muhammad correct the stain upon his honor as a Muslim by repaying this debt? Or has Minister Tony embraced Scientology to the extent that debts to SP’s do not have to be repaid? This is how the Church of Scientology actually views the matter.
Leah publicly chided Minister Tony about his unpaid debt as these two tweets show:
THE TRUE HISTORY OF JESUS BY THE HONORABLE ELIJAH MUHAMMAD
Mr. Farrakhan is quite correct in stating that Jesus was not white. One widely-held opinion is that Jesus was most likely an olive-skinned, black-haired, Jewish Palestinian. Nevertheless, Jesus is rendered in white Christian art as a white man. The Mormons, for example, depict a clearly out-of-place white Jesus preaching in Mesoamerica:
In his 1959 sermon The True History of Jesus, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that Jesus was a black man. The question of Jesus’ color has therefore been long established in the Nation of Islam:
Below is a PDF transcript version of The True History of Jesus as Taught by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Please hover your cursor over the document to invoke the page up/page down controls at the bottom of the page frame.
The Affirmations of L. Ron Hubbard are next. Again, please hover your cursor over the document to invoke the page up/page down controls at the bottom of the page frame:
Los Angeles, September 5, 2018: A woman dropped by our house in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz and asked to speak to my wife, Karen de la Carriere. Karen was busy, so I talked to her.
She handed me her card, which identified her as a private investigator named Rebecca Dobkin.
I asked her who she was working for, and she told me she was working for an attorney named Amanda Touchton. I asked her to spell it.
She said that Touchton represented Heber Jentzsch.
Heber is Karen’s ex-husband. He has also been, since the 1980s, the nominal president of the Church of Scientology International. I say “nominal,” because it was always little more than an honorary title — the real power to run Scientology was invested in founder L. Ron Hubbard and then, after his death in 1986, current leader David Miscavige.
Heber was well liked by Scientologists and also got along with reporters — for a while, at least, he was the person Scientology sent out to handle questions about the church, and he was pretty good at it. He was also frequently on stage at Scientology’s major events. But then, in the 1990s, his role seemed to get smaller and smaller, until he vanished pretty much altogether.
When Miscavige’s bizarre jail for upper level management was created at Scientology’s secretive management compound Int Base in 2004 — it eventually became known as “The Hole” — Heber was one of its prisoners, which we know from multiple witnesses. Heber has been out of sight almost entirely since then.
One exception was when Alexander Jentzsch, the only child that Karen and Heber had together, died in 2012 at the age of 27. Karen by then had left the church and wasn’t allowed to see her son’s body (he had died of pneumonia, exacerbated by a pain medication he was taking, according to the LA Coroner), and at first she was told that Scientology planned to have no memorial at all. But after the media made a stink about it — including Tony at the Village Voice — the church did hold a ceremony (Karen wasn’t invited) and Heber showed up for it, the first time we’d seen a photo of him in years.
[Last known photo of Heber Jentzsch, center, at the 2012 memorial for his son Alexander at the Scientology Hollywood Celebrity Centre with Stan and Phillipa Gerson.]
Tony has reported in the past how Heber, who is from a huge Mormon family, has been missed by his relatives, who want to hear how he’s doing.
Dobkin told me that Amanda Touchton was representing Heber “in a matter related to Leah Remini’s reality TV show.”
She mispronounced Leah’s last name as “Reh-MEENIE.”
She said that she was investigating an incident that had happened at Int Base, which is near San Jacinto, about 85 miles east of Los Angeles. Apparently, someone had asked law enforcement to make a welfare check on Heber at the base.
I knew nothing about it, I told her.
She claimed that Heber had been thrown into the back of a police car during the welfare check, which I found hard to believe. Law enforcement officers checking on an 82-year-old’s welfare aren’t likely to treat them like a dangerous criminal.
The red arrow points to Scientology Operative Taryn Teutsch who attended the recent NACW 2018 conference in Los Angeles. Taryn is now using photos from the conference on Twitter to imply that NACW supports her baseless Fair Game attacks against her father Mike Rinder.
The goal of Scientology operative Teutsch is to get her father Mike Rinder fired from Leah Remini’s show. Mike was the third-highest ranking official in Scientology for three decades before he escaped and began speaking out. Mike’s expertise gained from serving in Scientology at the highest levels is a key part of what makes Leah’s show incredibly powerful, accurate, and insightful.
Taryn is attempting to get her father fired by promoting an old and thoroughly discredited narrative of domestic violence (1). Taryn shared this manufactured narrative with unwitting NACW attendees as her photographer snapped photos. Taryn then posted these photos on Twitter in a way that implies NACW endorsement:
More of Taryn’s photos with unwitting attendees were posted on Twitter to imply NACW endorsement:
TARYN TEUTSCH — REPEAT OFFENDER:
GRETCHEN CARLSON & THE YWCA OF GREATER LOS ANGELES
Scientology operative Teutsch used the exact same tactics when she attended the YWCA of Greater Los Angeles “Phenomenal Woman” award ceremony earlier this year. Teutsch had her photo taken with honorees including Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey and Gretchen Carlson. Teutsch then used these photos on her blog and on Twitter to imply that Lacey and Carlson endorsed and approved of her attacks against her father.
Scientology operative Teutsch with Gretchen Carlson:
Jen Hanson Gruber, one of our readers who is absolutely not afraid of Scientology, informed Gretchen Carlson that her name and image had been misappropriated by an operative of the Church of Scientology. Jen also sent the official police reports and other documents to show that Taryn was lying:
Gretchen Carlson texted back to ask how she could her photo taken down from Taryn’s Twitter page:
Scientology operative Teutsch also used the YWCA GLA event to have her photo taken with Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey:
We contacted the YWCA of Greater Los Angeles and they issued a statement distancing themselves from Scientology and Taryn Teutsch.
Taryn Teutsch spoke at the Leila Grace Foundation. This foundation is a, “is a non-profit organization that provides sexual assault awareness for college students across the country. It’s main focus is to provide education, which can reduce the risk of sexual assaults on college campuses.” Taryn’s eight year old “fake news” story has nothing to do with rape or sexual assault. Why did Taryn exploit the Leila Grace Foundation?
The Church of Scientology’s goal is to infiltrate women’s groups using Taryn Teutsch’s manufactured and false narrative in order to, ultimately, stop Leah Remini’s show. That Scientology would use such treacherous and underhanded means to accomplish its ends is nothing new.
While Scientology seeks to exploit women’s groups, it is instructive to note that L. Ron Hubbard’s wife Mary Sue Hubbard went to prison for crimes her husband ordered in Operation Snow White. Hubbard himself went into hiding after the FBI raid and remained an unindicted co-conspirator.
Likewise, Scientology leader David Miscavige’s wife Shelly Miscavige has been locked away for at least twelve years. The most dangerous job in Scientology is being the wife of the leader.
For more information on how Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard viewed women, please read:
Teutsch’s conduct in spinning a web of lies about her father is consistent with Scientology’s decades-long pattern of lying to destroy those people whom it deems enemies. Indeed, after the journalist Paulette Cooper wrote a book which was critical of Scientology, the Church succeeded in getting Cooper charged for making a bomb threat. When the FBI later raided Scientology facilities, the records obtained showed that Scientology had orchestrated the entire affair. The charges against Paulette Cooper were dropped and Scientology had to pay Paulette Cooper what we imagine was a substantial legal settlement.
(1) The Evidence Discrediting Taryn Teutsch’s False Narrative Against Mike Rinder:
Leah Remini’s response to Scientology’s many vitriolic attacks on her is easily summed up in this short video clip:
MIKE RINDER
Mike Rinder was born into a Scientology family. He joined the Sea Org as a teenager and worked as a messenger for L. Ron Hubbard aboard the Apollo, the vessel Hubbard called his flagship. Mike rose through the ranks and eventually became the third highest ranking official in the Church of Scientology.
When Mike escaped from Scientology and began speaking out publicly against Scientology leader David Miscavige’s culture of violence, lies, and greed he was declared a Suppressive Person and became a target of Scientology’s doctrine of Fair Game. Essentially, Scientology Fair Game is designed to utterly destroy a person. As L. Ron Hubbard wrote:
Hubbard’s call to destroy those people deemed to be enemies of Scientology explain Taryn Teutsch’s actions and conduct.
Scientology and Taryn Teutsch will cynically exploit anyone and any group in their ruthless pursuit to destroy those who speak out and expose Scientology.
Scientologist Stacy Francis and one of her fake Twitter followers named Shahd Abdelgawad. The clickfarm from which Scientology purchased this follower was too lazy to even post a photo of the nonexistent follower. This fake follower joined in July 2018, a date coincident with Stacy Francis’ Fair Game attacks on Leah Remini.
Scientology TV is a failure.
With Leah Remini’s show Scientology and the Aftermathgoing into season 3, Scientology dictator David Miscavige and his followers are panicked and have kicked their sleazy Fair Game campaigns into high gear on “wog” social media.
What this amply proves is that Miscavige’s $100 million dollar Scientology TV has no actual reach or audience. If Scientology TV had an audience then Miscavige would not be forced to use secular social media to press Scientology’s Fair Game attacks.
In the Cult’s latest social media attack on Leah Remini, Scientologist Stacy Francis has been deployed. Francis made an extremely disgusting and dishonest attack video about Leah. This is not surprising as Scientologists blindly obey and do whatever Scientology orders them to do. This blind obedience is one of the reasons Scientology is considered a Cult.
STACY FRANCIS?
If you’ve never heard of Stacy Francis you’re not alone. Like her fellow Scientologist Jim Meskimen, Stacy never made it into the big leagues of celebrity. The 49 year old Francis is best known for her 2011 appearance on X Factor where Simon Cowell praised her initial signing audition. However, Simon later cast the deciding vote and sent Stacy Francis home. Stacy placed 10th overall in the competition. In an elimination round, Stacy Francis lost to a 14 year old prodigy named Brian Bradley whose stage name is Astro.
Whitney Houston (1963-2012)
Stacy Francis is infamous for having gotten into a heated fight with legendary pop signer Whitney Houston at a nightclub two days before Houston’s tragic and untimely death in 2012. Whitney’s fans have never forgiven Stacy Francis for belligerently attacking Whitney when the singer was obviously in very bad shape two days before her death.
Stacy Francis is an angry person and Scientology seems to have not helped her at all her with her anger issues.
After X Factor, Stacy Francis continued singing but she never got a big record deal. X Factor was the height of Francis’ career and her fortunes declined thereafter. Stacy Francis seems to have been largely relegated to singing at Scientology events. She sang at Tom Cruise’s birthday on The Freewinds and has sang at the Celebrity Centre International in Hollywood numerous times.
Left: Even in Scientology circles Stacy Francis does not enjoy any real popularity. Her recent April 29, 2018 appearance at Scientology’s Hibiscus Restaurant in Clearwater only drew 21 people who showed any interest.
After X Factor in 2011, Stacy Francis’ next foray into the spotlight was in 2017 on the UK’s Celebrity Big Brother (CBB) television program. Whitney Houston’s fans vociferously objected as a 2017 story in the Daily Mail reported.
Celebrity Big Brother did not go well for Stacy Francis and she was evicted from the Celebrity house. This series of clips from her appearance on the show displays the angry and profanity-laden outbursts that led to Stacy’s eviction from the Celebrity House:
STACY FRANCIS THE FLIP-FLOPPER
In 2016, Francis sang for Hillary Clinton at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. Her over-singing and lackluster performance there failed to get the singer any traction or record deal.
In this same period of time Joy Villa was a Bernie Sanders supporter. Everything changed for Joy when she wore Andre Soriano’s MAGA dress to the 2017 Grammys. Suddenly, Scientologist Joy Villa was thrust into the spotlight and jumped on the Trump Train to ride it for all it’s worth.
In 2018 Stacy Francis followed Joy Villa and jumped ship. She abandoned Hillary and crossed over to the Trump-Evangelical Christian-GOP side of things in hopes that she would fare better there. And so we saw Scientologists Joy Villa and Stacy Francis showing up to sing and speak at Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition “Road to Majority” Event in June 2018.
Stacy Francis suddenly transformed from a Pro-Abortion Hillary Democrat to a Pro-Life Trump Republican who wants to Make America Great Again. In Scientology, this is called being a flip-flopper. Stacy Francis can’t “hold a position in space” as Hubbard admonished his followers to do.
Like Joy Villa, Stacy Francis is a Scientology opportunist who will be whatever she needs to be to get an audience and safepoint Scientology: Democrat; Republican; Evangelical Christian; LGBTQ supporter; Hillary supporter; Bernie supporter; Pro-Abortion; Pro-Life; Trump supporter, etc. Whatever it takes. But underneath it all, both Joy and Stacy’s real loyalty is to the Church of Scientology.
STACY FRANCIS’ PHONY TWITTER FOLLOWERS
Stacy Francis has purchased fake Twitter followers for herself as her page shows:
The reason we know these are fake followers is that Stacy’s pinned tweet only has 10 likes. It is impossible to have 269,000 real followers and have your pinned tweet that’s been up for two weeks receive only 10 likes:
Due to Stacy Francis’ relative obscurity as a celebrity, Scientology’s Office of Special Affairs has had to purchase additional fake followers for Stacy. Most of Stacy Francis’ fake followers are factory fresh and were created in foreign clickfarms within the past two months.
In three of the fake profiles shown below, the first comment is written in Russian on July 3rd by the same fake person named Daria Stepanova. There is no quality control at work in Scientology’s social media fraud. This is sloppy work that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. Here are a few of Stacy Francis’ fake followers:
Scientology’s Damage Control Team: L-R: Stacy Francis, Taryn Teutsch, Joy Villa
As season 3 of Leah Remini’s Emmy winning show Scientology and the Aftermath approaches, David Miscavige and the Church of Scientology have gone into an apoplectic foaming-at-the-mouth hysteria of rage. This rage betrays the intense fear of exposure at the core of Scientology.
In response to the upcoming third season of Leah Remini’s show, Scientology’s Office of Special Affairs has conducted an erratic and schizophrenic damage control campaign that is quite transparent.
Even as OSA wages a malicious campaign of Fair Game against Leah Remini, Mike Rinder, and the brave guests who appear on Leah’s show, OSA has also fielded Scientology operatives Joy Villa and Stacy Francis in an attempt to convince Christian Evangelicals that people can be both Christians and Scientologists.
Scientologists Joy Villa and Stacy Francis have promoted themselves as ardent Christians and Donald Trump supporters in what appears to be a desperate attempt to pander to the Trump Administration. Given that Scientology’s long-time Washington D.C. lobbyist Greg Mitchell is involved behind the scenes, we consider that OSA is orchestrating this in a frantic hope of staving off an inevitable IRS investigation into Scientology’s tax exemption.
From our perspective, Stacy Francis and Joy Villa are trying to “safepoint” Scientology in Washington D.C. However, when one contrasts this with the 1990’s and 2000’s when Scientology was able to deploy John Travolta and Tom Cruise to D.C. to influence President Clinton and the Bush 43 Administration, it becomes apparent that OSA is scraping the bottom of the barrel with Villa and Francis.
LOVE YOUR ENEMIES
One of the central contradictions with Scientologists pretending to be Christians is that Jesus commanded his followers to love their enemies. We read the words of Jesus in Luke 6:27-36:
But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Christ’s commandment that Christians are to love their enemies is directly antithetical to L. Ron Hubbard’s incredibly violent policy of Fair Game in which he calls for the literal bodily injury and destruction, or death, of Scientology’s enemies:
“ENEMY SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.”- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 18 October 1967
Joy Villa and Stacy Francis have never publicly disavowed L. Ron Hubbard’s Fair Game doctrine. This fact alone puts the lie to their claims to be Christian.
Scientology wants to portray itself as religious even as it continues to savagely attack those it deems enemies. Scientology’s three main actors in its recent psychotic soap opera are Scientologists Stacy Francis, Taryn Teutsch, and Joy Villa.
JOY VILLA & STACY FRANCIS
Scientologist Stacy Francis singing at Ralph Reed’s Faith & Freedom “Road to Majority” event in June 2018. Along with her fellow Scientologist Joy Villa, Stacy Francis also passed herself off as a Trump supporter and a Christian at this event.
Joy Villa and Stacy Francis showed up last month at Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” event. We covered this in a previous article, Ralph Reed, the Faith & Freedom Coalition, and Scientology. Despite her claims to be a Christian, when Stacy Francis appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2017 she showed her true colors:
That Ralph Reed and his people were taken in by these two Scientology charlatans who claimed to be Christians is not surprising: Villa has been taking advantage of the trust of Evangelicals for the past eighteen months. Villa has falsely claimed to Evangelicals that Scientology is merely a set of self-help tools. She has also said that a person can be both a Christian and a Scientologist. However, this is demonstrably false from a biblical perspective. See our essay: Why You Can’t be a Christian and a Scientologist.
SCIENTOLOGY & THE NATION OF ISLAM
Scientology’s efforts to position itself as a Christian-friendly organization is completely exposed as a lie given Scientology’s partnership with the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam. Louis Farrakhan’s account was decertified by Twitter for his recent incendiary tweet and video in which he railed against the Jews:
Thoroughly and completely unmasking the Satanic Jew and the Synagogue of Satan.
— MINISTER FARRAKHAN (@LouisFarrakhan) June 7, 2018
We note that the Church of Scientology never publicly censured nor rebuked Mr. Farrakhan for his incendiary anti-Semitic tweet. We are therefore forced to conclude that the Church of Scientology condones Mr. Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism and that of the Nation of Islam. To this point, Stacy Francis certainly appears to have no problem with Mr. Farrakhan’s views and seems quite fond of him as can be seen in this photo taken at a Scientology event:
Scientologists Stacy Francis, Alfreddie Johnson, and Louis Farrakhan
Long-time Farrakhan supporter Congressman Danny Davis (D) of Illinois recently took the extraordinary step of publicly disavowing Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism. Congressman Davis issued a statement on his official Congressional webpage in which he unequivocally stated, “I reject, condemn and oppose Minister Farrakhan’s views and remarks regarding the Jewish people and the Jewish religion.”
That Scientology leader David Miscavige refuses to make a comparable statement shows the Scientology leader’s apparent tolerance of, or even agreement with, Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism. David Miscavige has long claimed to be a “global ecclesiastical leader” and yet shows no moral leadership whatsoever on this issue.
Joy Villa and Stacy Francis claim to be enthusiastic supporters of President Trump. However, Mr. Trump has unequivocally stated his support for Israel and the Jewish people. Given the President’s position here, it would seem incumbent upon Joy Villa and Stacy Francis to fall in line with the President’s position, and particularly as they claim to be Republicans and Evangelical Christians, and publicly condemn the anti-Semitism of Mr. Farrakhan.
TARYN TEUTSCH
Over against Scientology’s incursions into pro-Trump Evangelical Christian circles, Scientology has been engaged in an absolutely hellbent non-Christian Fair Game campaign against Mike Rinder.
As we documented, Taryn Teutsch outrageously tried to link her sleazy Fair Game campaign to the #MeToo movement. This is an utter disgrace and a deep insult to the women who are the actual victims of sexual harassment and rape.
We must point out that this attempt to link Taryn’s Fair to Game attacks to the #MeToo movement was ordered by none other than Scientology Cult boss David Miscavige — the man who has kept his own wife Shelly Miscavige locked away in a high security Scientology facility for over ten years.
Below are links to our continuing coverage of Taryn Teutsch and Scientology’s Fair Game attacks on Mike Rinder. We plan to continue our coverage of this Scientology Fair Game campaign in order to document the exact conduct of Scientology.
Scientology leader David Miscavige has panicked with the approach of Season 3 of Leah Remini’s Emmy-winning program Scientology and the Aftermath. Eager to discredit the show, Miscavige has ordered an all-out Fair Game attack against Mike Rinder. Miscavige has even resorted to calling in Kirstie Alley for help.
Spearheaded by Mike’s daughter Taryn, this Fair Game campaign has been exposed as a Scientology social media fraud held together by a tissue of lies. Of course, this latest Scientology pack of lies is paid for with tax-exempt dollars courtesy of Scientology’s IRS 501(c)3 tax exemption. Please help by signing our petition asking the IRS to open an investigation into revoking Scientology’s tax exemption for fraud, malfeasance, and material misrepresentation of facts.
CATHY BERNARDINI
In this article we examine the claims made by Mike’s ex-wife Cathy Bernardini. Specifically, Cathy claims that Mike assaulted her during an episode in a Florida parking on March 23, 2010. Cathy further claims that the assault resulted in permanent and crippling injury to her right shoulder. This is the story that “Clickfarm Taryn” Teutsch has been unsuccessfully trying to peddle with the help of fake social media followers purchased by Scientology.
THE PARAMEDICS REPORT
Scientology used its own website to place the Pinellas County Emergency Medical Services Patient Care Report on Cathy Bernardini into the public domain. As a public domain document we are free to examine and repost it here.
A paramedics report is colloquially known as the “paramedics run sheet” or just the “run sheet.” In this article we look at the paramedics run sheet to get the facts. We begin with the first page of the run sheet. We use red arrows to draw the reader’s attention to two pertinent areas we cover in this article.
In the upper right hand corner we learn that the Paramedics were called at 12:28 PM on March 23, 2010 and arrived on scene at 12:34 PM. The paramedics examined Cathy Bernardini and applied a gauze dressing to her right forearm.
The Paramedics were then available for another call at 12:58 PM. The actual time the paramedics spent on scene was 24 minutes. Over against this, Scientology claims that Cathy Bernardini was severely injured. Scientology asks us to believe that the paramedics spent only 24 minutes on scene treating a severely injured person. Read on as the Scientology saga becomes more absurd and breaks down upon examination.
RATE YOUR PAIN ON A SCALE OF 0-10
The paramedics asked Cathy to rate her pain or distress on a scale from 0-10. Cathy Bernardini told the paramedics that her pain or distress level was 2. The paramedics recorded the Pain or Distress Level on their run sheet and noted that the patient herself was the “history source” of the pain or distress level of 2:
In Cathy Bernardini’s Fair Game video on Mike she describes an excruciating and vicious attack during which she could hear bones crunching. This contradicts her telling the paramedics on scene that her pain level was 2 on a scale of 0-10. Indeed, the run sheet shows that Cathy had only a “skin tear” on her right forearm:
Nowhere in the above diagram did the paramedics note any problems with Cathy’s right shoulder. Cathy’s claim to have heard her “bones crunching” does not jibe with the paramedics reporting only a skin tear and Cathy herself reporting her pain level as 2. Moreover, Cathy did not tell the paramedics that her right shoulder had been injured.
THE GREEN ZONE
Based upon Cathy Bernardini’s own statements, the paramedics rated the severity of Cathy’s injury in the Green Zone:
In the Pinellas County Medical Operations Manual, paramedics rate a patient’s condition as follows:
If Cathy had been “severely injured” as she claimed, she would have minimally been rated in the yellow zone. But no. Cathy’s condition was Green Zone: “Non-Urgent; requiring care in a reasonable amount of time, but will likely not suffer adverse effects from a limited delay in definitive care.”
SOFT TISSUE INJURY
The paramedics run sheet shows Cathy to have a soft tissue injury on her right forearm and nothing else. There is no mention of a crippling shoulder injury nor did Cathy Bernardini report such an injury at the scene. The evidence is completely at odds with Taryn Teutsch’s and Cathy Bernardini’s manufactured tale of a crippling assault that permanently disabled Cathy’s shoulder.
To this point, paramedics are legally obligated to report all criminal assaults to the police. The paramedics at the scene made no such report to the police. This is corroborated by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department report that dismissed the matter as “incidental contact.”
It is crucial to note that Pinellas County Sheriff’s deputies were at the scene. The deputies had been called after the Scientologists attempted to forcibly enter a doctor’s office in order to follow Mike Rinder into the office — this in an attempt to continue their screaming and profane-laden harassment of Mike. Mike had entered the doctor’s office to escape the mob and get to his fiance Christie Collbran who was being treated in the doctor’s office. When the doctor’s staff ordered the unruly Scientology mob leave the office — which office was private property — the mob refused and the police had to be called.
The Sheriff’s deputies arrived on scene, interviewed all parties, and examined Cathy Bernardini. The deputies conferred with the paramedics. A deputy on scene even signed Cathy’s medical release as one of the two required witnesses. The deputies concluded there was no assault and wrote in their official report that the matter was non-criminal in nature. Taryn and Cathy’s story falls apart on this point alone.
We note that Cathy Bernardini never filed a personal injury lawsuit against Mike Rinder. Cathy had five people with her in the Scientology lynch mob that day and they were all eyewitnesses. Except for Cathy and Taryn, none of the other Scientologists present that day have made videos corroborating Cathy and Taryn’s claims.
TRANSPORT TO THE NEAREST EMERGENCY ROOM
Under Pinellas County law, paramedics are required to transport all patients to the “closest appropriate hospital emergency department.” Here is the text from the manual:
The paramedics run sheet notes that Cathy Bernardini was ambulatory at the scene. After evaluating Cathy the paramedics, per policy, presumed that Cathy needed transport to closest appropriate hospital emergency department.
As we read in the run sheet, however, Cathy Bernardini twice refused transport to a hospital emergency department:
Cathy (Rinder) Bernardini also signed the run sheet section to indicate her individual refusal for ambulance transportation. Bernardini further signed the Release of Medical Assistance on the run sheet. Cathy refusal’s to be transported to an emergency room and her Release of Medical Assistance were witnessed and signed by a Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) deputy and a member of the paramedics (EMS) crew:
The evidence on the paramedics run sheet and Bernardini’s signed refusal to be transported and signed Release of Medial Assistance leads us to ask two key questions: If Cathy Bernardini was the victim of vicious and crippling assault as she and her daughter Taryn so dramatically claim, then why did Cathy report a pain level of only 2 and twice refuse to be transported to the nearest hospital emergency room? Certainly an actual victim of a brutal and crippling attack would report a very high pain level and would want to be rushed to the nearest emergency room for emergency treatment. The glaring discrepancies between what Cathy Bernardini claims now in her Fair Game attacks in 2018 versus what actually happened in 2010 are extremely significant.
Taryn Teutsch was present at the scene. However, she did not insist that her own mother be transported by paramedics for examination in the nearest emergency room. In her Fair Game attacks on her father, Taryn demands justice. And yet when her own mother allegedly suffered a crippling assault and injury Taryn did nothing. Where is the justice and moral responsibility on Taryn’s part if Mom was so gravely injured? We take Taryn doing nothing to mean that nothing more needed to be done: Mom had a scrape on her arm and the paramedics applied a dressing. End of story. What likely happened next is that Taryn and Cathy left the scene and drove away — presumably to debrief OSA on the ambush.
HYSTERICAL SCIENTOLOGY MELODRAMA
Scientology’s hate website spins the same bogus story in a melodramatic video. In these next two screen shots we are told that “A team of paramedics rushed to treat his severely injured wife.” Right. Cathy was so “severely injured” that her pain level was 2 and she refused transport to an ER. This is complete and utter nonsense.
Cathy was so “severely injured” that the paramedics did not need to put Cathy in a cervical collar and place her on a backboard. Emergency transport by helicopter was not needed. An IV was not started. No pain medications were administered. All the paramedics actually did was apply dressing to the abrasion on Cathy’s forearm. Gauze and antiseptic ointment. That was the extent of the medical treatment as shown in photos of her arm Cathy Bernardini herself posted.
Taryn and Cathy are telling a fake story. Worse, the two are trying to inject their fake story into the #MeToo movement, this in an attempt to get Mike fired and discredit Leah’s show. This transparent Scientology fraud is disgusting — particularly when we consider L. Ron Hubbard’s absolutely disgusting view of women.
DR. JAMES BELL
Dr. James Bell has been dragged into this Scientology Fair Game campaign. Dr. Bell was not an eyewitness to what happened in the parking lot. Therefore, it appears he accepted Cathy Bernardini’s version of the events at face value. Having accepted Cathy’s account at face value, Dr. Bell agreed to make a video for Scientology detailing Cathy’s claimed injury:
Were Dr. Bell to be put on the stand in a court of law and asked if Cathy’s shoulder problem could have been caused by age-related degeneration, a repetitive motion injury, or a prior injury or accident related to a dislocated shoulder or a broken arm what would he say? Has Dr. Bell seen all of Cathy’s prior medical records?
Dr. Bell has no firsthand knowledge of what actually happened in the parking lot whereas the actual audio recording of the event is on YouTube. The paramedics run sheet and the Sheriff’s report are also in the public domain — and neither of these official documents corroborate Taryn Teutsch’s story. Is Cathy Bernardini withholding something?
David Miscavige toady Kirstie Alley jumped into Taryn’s Teutsch’s Fair Game campaign. By doing so, Kirstie became what Scientology calls a “malicious rumor mongerer” and a “false data spreader.”
WHY DIDN’T DIANETICS OR SCIENTOLOGY HELP CATHY BERNARDINI?
The fact that Cathy Bernardini and her doctor state that she has a permanent injury requires us to ask why the technology of Dianetics and Scientology was unable to help Cathy alleviate the pain of her injury or otherwise help her in any way. Does Cathy’s injury negate the claimed efficacy of Dianetics and Scientology since neither have apparently helped her? Cathy Bernardini has never once made a statement that she resorted to Dianetics and Scientology for help. Instead, we hear her recite her litany of medical treatment and surgery. L. Ron Hubbard derided medical doctors as “medicos” and yet Cathy needed the medicos.
Below is the paramedics run sheet. Please hover your mouse over the document to invoke the page up/page down controls at the bottom of the page.
When the stories of Harvey Weinstein perpetrating sexual assaults and rapes began to surface in 2017, Weinstein retained the services of Sitrick & Company. We cover the story of Weinstein here as Mike Sitrick and his firm have represented the Church of Scientology. Sitrick’s business of “crisis management” apparently has an Ecclesiastical Division in the company as Sitrick did work for the Los Angeles Archdiocese as it fought law enforcement and victims for decades under the leadership of the now disgraced Cardinal Roger Mahony.
Scientology’s disastrous 2013 advertorial in The Atlantic created a big PR blowback for the Church of Scientology:
While we don’t know if Sitrick was behind the advertorial; what we do know is that he took calls in response to David Miscavige’s self-aggrandizing advertorial. In these calls Sitrick stated that he had been working for the Church of Scientology for three and a half years. That would take us back to 2009 time frame. This was a crucial period in Scientology’s history. Anonymous had taken on the Church in 2008. Other than Scientology creating a laughably fake anthrax threat and accusing Anons of being the terrorists behind it, Scientology showed a complete inability to handle Anonymous.
For new Scientology watchers, a bit of history is in order to show why Anonymous choose to take on the Church of Scientology in 2008. Part of the story goes back to 2005 when South Park famously lampooned Scientology, Tom Cruise, and John Travolta.
SCIENTOLOGY, TOM CRUISE, SOUTH PARK, CAA & ANONYMOUS
Ronan Farrow, the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist at the center of the Harvey Weinstein story, is represented by Creative Artists Agency. CAA is worth noting here as Tom Cruise’s agent Kevin Huvane is a managing partner at the Hollywood powerhouse CAA. Cruise’s long-time production partner Paula Wagner, who had helped Cruise launch the lucrative Mission Impossible franchise in 1993 when Cruise/Wagner Productions began, was a former CAA agent. Wagner’s husband Rick Nicita was a partner at CAA through 2008.
When South Park episode 912 “Trapped in the Closet” — an episode that satirized Scientology, Cruise, and Travolta — was set to air in November 2005, Cruise and Scientology called upon their contacts at CAA for help. A meeting was set up to see what could be done to stop the South Park episode from airing . Mike Rinder, who was then in charge of Scientology’s Office of Special Affairs, was dispatched to CAA along with other Scientology execs to ask for CAA’s help in stopping the broadcast of the South Park episode.
Jacob Siegel’s 2015 story in the Daily Beast Why Scientology’s Cone of Silence Shattered offers a revealing insight into Scientology’s attempt to stop South Park episode 912 from airing:
“When South Park did their program, I went to CAA,” said Rinder, using the abbreviation for Creative Artists Agency, a top Hollywood talent agency that represented Cruise.
Rinder said this is what happened next:
“The Tom Cruise card was played with CAA to get them to put pressure on Comedy Central and Viacom. Ultimately, it really backfired.
CAA was opposed to Scientology’s attempt at censorship. Scientology failed in getting South Park episode 912 from airing in the United States. However, South Park did not rebroadcast the episode due to pressures exerted by Scientology. Moreover, Scientology and Cruise succeeded in getting the episode stopped in England due to that country’s medieval libel laws. This Scientology act of censorship was widely reported. The young people who were avid fans of South Park took notice. Many of these young people were members of 4chan, the online bulletin board whose members called themselves Anonymous.
Scientology’s next major act of censorship was in 2008 when the Church got a leaked Tom Cruise video taken down from YouTube. This video was an internal Church of Scientology video in which a very radicalized Tom Cruise exhorts his fellow Scientologists to “go to guns” against Scientology’s enemies. It was Scientology’s takedown of this video that triggered Anonymous to launch its Project Chanology campaign against the Church of Scientology. The campaign began with a stunning video that is a masterpiece of psychological warfare:
INDEPENDENT SCIENTOLOGY
In 2009 the Independent Scientology movement followed on the heels of Anonymous and Scientology proved equally inept at handling the startling revelations of former high level Scientology executives. The Tampa Bay Times series called The Truth Rundown was devastating in its exposure of Scientology leader David Miscavige and his physical violence. The Truth Rundown chronicled the stories of former high level Scientology Sea Org executives who had lived through the hell of David Miscavige’s dystopian nightmare at the International Base located in San Jacinto, California. The seminal Truth Rundown series is now available as an e-Book for Kindle.
Bringing in Mike Sitrick at this time of crisis for Scientology would be a move David Miscavige would make. But what else could Miscavige do given that he had decimated the executive strata of Scientology? In 2009, Scientology’s remaining execs were either locked up in the SP Hole while others were secretly planning their escapes.
David Miscavige responded to the Independent Scientology movement with the Squirrel Busters. This proved to be an epic PR and legal disaster for Scientology. Miscavige also deployed the angry Tommy Davis as Scientology’s spokesman. Davis’ public behavior was an embarrassment. Accordingly he became a PR liability and was either placed on, or took, a leave of absence from the Sea Org whereupon he disappeared off the radar for some time. Other PR disasters for Scientology ensured. Scientology very publicly attacked, in no particular order, Lawrence Wright, Paul Haggis, Alex Gibney, Leah Remini, my dear wife Karen de la Carriere, Mike Rinder, CNN, Anderson Cooper, Vanity Fair, The Tampa Bay Times, and dozens of other people and media outlets that exposed this greedy, lying, and vicious cult. The world watched and saw Scientology Fair Game at work.
Due to the Church of Scientology’s own malicious behavior it had become a walking PR disaster, a self-destructive and disgusting mess.
What does a Cult with a toxic reputation and an uncontrollable need for revenge do?
Scientology did what Harvey Weinstein, Michael Vick, Cardinal Mahony, and numerous other miscreants have done and that is to call Mike Sitrick for help with a self-inflicted disaster. Mike Sitrick shamelessly boasts about the horrendous clients he’s represented. This appears on his company’s own website:
Sitrick boasting about having worked for the Los Angeles Catholic Diocese when it was engulfed in covering up child molestation is extraordinarily disturbing; the boast seems to be a very naked solicitation to do business with the worst scum of society. For an alleged PR genius to brag about helping a Church engaged in protecting pedophile priests is bizarre. One would think Mr. Sitrick would be more discreet about such matters: Halle Barry, Ron Burkle, Roy Disney, and Rush Limbaugh would certainly not like knowing they had been lumped in with pedophile priests on Sitrick & Company’s website.
SITRICK & COMPANY: THE INITIAL HARVEY WEINSTEIN DENIAL
When the call for help came in from Harvey Weinstein, Mike Sitrick’s mother had just passed away and Sitrick was in Chicago making final arrangements. Accordingly, Sitrick assigned the Weinstein case to his employee Sallie Hofmeister. She issued a completely tone deaf denial on Weinstein’s behalf:
Any allegations of nonconsensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances. Mr. Weinstein obviously can’t speak to anonymous allegations, but with respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr. Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual. Mr. Weinstein has begun counseling, has listened to the community and is pursuing a better path. Mr. Weinstein is hoping that, if he makes enough progress, he will be given a second chance.
This press release shows Sitrick & Company at its worst: The firm appears to have such contempt for Hollywood and the general public that it actually believed it could portray Weinstein as a contrite figure who “has listened to the community” and deserved a second chance. Sorry, Sitrick & Company, Harvey Weinstein is not Mel Gibson. Gibson made stupid drunken anti-Semitic comments; he did not rape women.
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Read Geoffrey Pullum’s brilliant linguistic takedown of Harvey Weinstein’s denial as written by Sallie Hofmeister: The Strange Language of Harvey Weinstein’s Denial
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PROVEABLE BULLSHIT
Two years before Harvey Weinstein was engulfed in a firestorm of his own making, Scientology leader David Miscavige was likewise caught in a maelstrom of horrendous PR of his own making. In 2015, the Los Angeles Times broke the story that Miscavige had hired a father-son team of armed private investigators to secretly follow his own father for two years, this after Ron Miscavige Sr. and his wife had escaped Scientology’s Sea Org. When Ron Miscavige Sr. appeared to be having a heart attack in the parking lot of a Wisconsin supermarket, the PI’s called and asked David Miscavige if they should intervene and call for help. David Miscavige cold-bloodedly replied, “If he dies, let him die.” Outraged by the story going viral, the Church of Scientology issued an angry denial to The Hollywood Reporter that was unique in the annals of ecclesiastical denials:
As for the purported emergency incident involving an investigator and the second-hand account of an alleged conversation containing a despicably false quote, Mr. Miscavige’s attorney, Michael Lee Hertzberg, is on record stating that Mr. Miscavige does not know the investigator, has never heard of the investigator, has never met the investigator, has never spoken to the investigator, never hired the investigator and never directed any investigations by him.
So let me be clear: No such conversation with Mr. Miscavige ever took place and any claim that one did is provable bullshit.
David Miscavige’s belligerent denial mirrors that of Harvey Weinstein. As reported by AV Club, Weinstein disrupted group sessions when he was going through the charade of sex therapy in 2017:
According to sources at the outpatient clinic—where Weinstein, committed to changing his behavior patterns, drops in after spending his nights in a luxury hotel—Weinstein has been derailing group therapy sessions with his belligerent rants about “how this is all a conspiracy against him,” insisting “he never raped or assaulted anyone, and that all the encounters were consensual.” That Weinstein continues to downplay or outright dismiss the more than 40 women who have now accused him of sexual harassment or assault isn’t a surprise to anyone who’s followed this story, or are generally familiar with sexual abusers.
What Harvey Weinstein and David Miscavige have in common is that both are sleazebags who, when cornered, angrily protest that there is a conspiracy against them and that the bad acts of which they stand accused are baseless, i.e. “proveable bullshit” in the shrill argot of Scientology.
WEINSTEIN’S BOGUS CONTRITION
One of Sitrick’s textbook plays is to paint a miscreant client as a sincerely contrite person who seeks repentance by performing good acts. Thus, in a desperate and phony gambit that reeked of trying to buy his way out of what was shaping up to be a future prison sentence, Weinstein announced that he wanted to donate $5 million dollars to USC to fund to female filmmakers. USC wanted nothing to with Weinstein’s inept pandering and sleazy attempts at damage control into which he had dragged his own mother:
As allegations of sexual harassment against embattled film mogul Harvey Weinstein continue to unfold, the USC School of Cinematic Arts said Tuesday that it is rejecting a $5-million pledge Weinstein had made to fund a program for female filmmakers.
Weinstein referenced the pledge last week in a statement to the New York Times in response to the paper’s exhaustive story detailing accusations of sexual misconduct against him going back decades. “It will be named after my mom, and I won’t disappoint her,” he wrote.
TIME TO DITCH THE CLIENT
Abby Aguirre’s recent New York Times story about Mike Sitrick is aptly entitled He Fixes the Worst P.R. Crises Imaginable. Then Comes Harvey Weinstein. In her insightful article Aguirre shows that Mike Sitrick’s vaunted grasp of a situation seems to have failed him in the case of Harvey Weinstein:
As the #MeToo dam broke, the allegations against Mr. Weinstein multiplied. So did Sitrick and Company’s rebuttals… Sitrick and Company issued what would turn out to be one of its final statements to USA Today, for an article on March 22: “Mr. Weinstein categorically denies ever engaging in any non-consensual sexual conduct with anyone.”
Two months later Mr. Weinstein was arrested. His lawyer is Benjamin Brafman, whose clients have included Martin Shkreli, Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Vincent Gigante, known as “The Chin.”
Only when it became inevitable that Weinstein was headed for felony charges did Sitrick & Company drop Weinstein. The Hollywood Reporter carried the headline:
THE COLLAPSE OF THE GOOD OLD BOY’S NETWORK
Harvey Weinstein’s arrest draws attention to the ability of wealthy and powerful evildoers such as Harvey Weinstein, the Church of Scientology, Enron and other Sitrick clients to spend lavish sums of money to spin the story in an attempt to redefine, deny, and portray themselves as something other than deviant individuals and organizations.
We view Sitrick & Company as a part of the larger ecosystem of corruption where monied elites are able to use their power and wealth to distort the news by using carefully crafted spin, cover ups, fake news, lies, threats, and denials. As we see it, Mike Sitrick and his firm are quickly becoming dinosaurs in the rapidly collapsing American “Good Old Boy’s Network.”
If Harvey Weinstein had owned a crystal ball in 2016, he could have skipped paying Sitrick & Company and conserved his funds for the large and expensive criminal defense team he will need. Inasmuch as Sitrick, like Scientology, cannot guarantee any particular result, wealthy people facing serious accusations in the post Harvey Weinstein era need to ask themselves if premium-priced “crisis management” is a form of wishful thinking or denial. Indeed, can any crisis management firm head off the inevitable where criminality can be proven to exist? The lesson to be learned here is ancient: Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
SITRICK AS THE FIXER
The title of Sitrick’s new book The Fixer: Secrets for Your Reputation in the Age of Viral Media is a self-admission of how Sitrick views himself: He is a fixer. The notorious private investigator Anthony Pellicano was formerly a part of this system of high-priced “fixers” until he was taken out by the Feds and sent to prison along with attorney Terry Christensen, another pricey Hollywood fixer.
A fixer is someone who makes very ugly problems go away. Typically, a fixer works in such a way that his client has complete deniability and knows nothing about how the very ugly problem was made to go away. Fixers like Mike Sitrick work to simply spin, distort, and try to create a different perception of their clients. Fixers and the particular sort of work they do are central to the Good Old Boy’s Network. However, Fixers are no match for great journalists who see right through their machinations.
RONAN FARROW
As Weinstein’s denials were issuing forth from Sitrick & Company, NBC Today Show contributor Ronan Farrow took notice of Harvey Weinstein and put together a blockbuster story. NBC execs, however, infamously passed on the story and urged Farrow to take it elsewhere. Farrow did just that; his subsequent articles in The New Yorker earned both himself and the magazine the 2018 Pulitzer Prize gold medal for public service. Farrow is an attorney and a member of the New York bar. His skills as an attorney were evident in the way he investigated Weinstein.
Kara Swisher’s interview of Ronan Farrow on Recode Decode is outstanding. Parts of it sound like Farrow is talking about Scientology Fair Game when he describes the depredations of the wealthy and powerful:
Recode Decode says of Swisher’s interview with Ronan Farrow:
On the new podcast, Farrow explained how he convinced Weinstein’s victims to talk to him for the story; he credited his sister Dylan Farrow, ex-Fox News host Gretchen Carlson and Bill Cosby’s myriad accusers with proving that women could relive the trauma, come forward with their stories and be okay in the end.
“I think the world changed,” Farrow said. “There was a progression of brave women and also, of course, eventually men — I don’t want to discount the importance of male survivors of sexual violence and how much we need to hear their voices. But at the time, it was mostly women coming forward and chipping away at the culture of silence.”
He reiterated that the focus should be on these survivors and on the ways in which the justice system and the media failed them — not on predators like Weinstein. Many of the systems that preserved the status quo of silence are “still thriving,” he said.
While Ronan Farrow astutely saw the world changing as women came forward and chipped away at the Hollywood Culture of Silence that protected Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and other sexual predators, Mike Sitrick saw a chance to make a big payday spinning for Harvey Weinstein. However, nothing Sitrick did, or could have done, would have helped Harvey Weinstein.
TheWrap noted that Sitrick & Company stayed on helping Weinstein while others were dropping Weinstein in order to prevent further damage to their reputations for having represented him the first place:
Crisis public relations firm Sitrick and Company is no longer representing disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein, the company told TheWrap on Tuesday.
Weinstein has been accused of rape, sexual assault and harassment by nearly 90 women in in various cities around the world. The producer has consistently denied any nonconsensual sex through his former Sitrick spokesperson, retained shortly after articles containing early accusations were published in the New Yorker and the New York Times last October.
Sitrick has been a surprising holdover for the past five months as Weinstein watched several key crisis players bail as the accusations piled up and the national conversation became consumed by the #MeToo movement sparked by Weinstein’s alleged misconduct.
Sitrick held on for too long in defending Harvey Weinstein. So did Los Angeles attorney Lisa Bloom who was widely criticized for both taking on Weinstein as a client and attempting to minimize his conduct by saying that he was “an old dinosaur learning new ways.” Bloom admitted to BuzzFeed News that her representation of Harvey Weinstein was “a colossal mistake.”
Another loser who got a big black eye from the Harvey Weinstein story is NBC. Many predict that there is fallout still to come for the peacock network having killed Farrow’s story. Farrow will tell his side of the story when Little, Brown and Co., releases his upcoming book Catch and Kill. A press released said of Farrow’s book, “the project will address the “conspiracy of silence around Weinstein and other men in power.”
SITRICK IN 2018
Mike Sitrick is no match for Wikileaks, the Panama Papers, and crusading journalists like Ronan Farrow, and the courage of women speaking out against their abusers. In this day and age when the US Congress and federal agencies are setting up to take on Google and Facebook’s massive invasions of privacy and selling private data, Sitrick’s skills no longer seem formidable against the vast oceans of social media, high level leakers, and even network and cable news. Indeed, the high-speed downfall of Harvey Weinstein showed the powerlessness of Sitrick & Company to fend off the inevitable by the use of old school tricks.
Weinstein’s arrest makes the case that “crisis management” is quite different than “trying to counter horrendously bad PR for high profile sleazebags who have crossed the line into criminality.” It is one thing to for Johnson & Johnson to handle the nightmarish PR issues related to Tylenol tampering in 1982; it’s quite another for Sitrick & Company to issue blanket denials on behalf of Harvey Weinstein or work in the background for the Church of Scientology even as Scientology works to destroy former members, journalists, and critics who expose its depravity.
This leads us to ask: When does “crisis management” cross the line into complicity?
SCIENTOLOGY & FAIR GAME; MIKE SITRICK & THE WHEEL OF PAIN
Abby Aguirre’s recent New York Times story on Mike Sitrick and Harvey Weinstein offers an illuminating look at what Sitrick & Company did for the disgraced Hollywood mogul. Aguirre notes that in 1998 Sitrick coauthored a book with Allan Mayer. Entitled Spin: How to Turn the Power of the Press to Your Advantage, Aguirre comments on the book:
In Chapter 4, “News Media Abhor a Vacuum,” Mr. Sitrick lays out one of his key tenets: that strategic press representatives must engage the media; “no comment” should never be a first resort. “If you won’t talk to them, they’ll simply find someone else who will,” he and Mr. Mayer write, “which is to say, if you don’t tell your story, someone else will tell it for you.”
In a press release concerning Scientology TV, David Miscavige quoted Mike Sitrick verbatim when he said:
If you don’t write your own story, someone else will. So, yes, we’re now going to be writing our story, like no other religion in history. And it’s all going to happen right here from Scientology Media Productions.”
Miscavige’s verbatim quote of Sitrick suggests that Sitrick still has Scientology as a client. If so, Scientology and Sitrick appear to think alike in terms of Fair Game; Sitrick just phrases it differently. Example: In Sitrick’s new book The Fixer: Secrets for Saving Your Reputation in the Age of Viral Media he advises his clients to “Put Your Opponent in the Wheel of Pain.”
For Mike Sitrick to advise someone like Harvey Weinstein to put his opponents “in the wheel of pain” is beyond comprehension. Are we to take Sitrick’s admonition to mean that Weinstein’s victims were to be put in the wheel of pain by Sitrick & Company? Were Weinstein’s victims to be caused pain? While a clarification from Sitrick & Company on this point seems in order, Sitrick’s advice to cause your opponent pain shows the utter cynicism at Sitrick’s core: He is not afraid to hurt people in the defense of a client.
Attorney Lisa Bloom was also apparently not afraid to attack Weinstein’s accusers as Lloyd Grove’s story in The Daily Beast made clear:
Ronan Farrow was stunned and disgusted early this year when famed feminist lawyer Lisa Bloom phoned him, in the midst of his investigation for NBC News of widespread allegations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein, and offered to share opposition research on one of Weinstein’s accusers.
“I don’t know if you’ve talked to Rose McGowan, but we have files on her and her… history,” Bloom told Farrow, according to knowledgeable sources inside and outside NBC.
To what extent, if any, Bloom was coordinating with Sitrick remains a mystery. Nevertheless, the question remains: When does crisis management become complicity?
The efforts of Sitrick & Company and Lisa Bloom on behalf of their client Harvey Weinstein resemble Scientology’s practice of Fair Game in certain aspects. Grove’s story in the Daily Beast details just how ugly the Hollywood Good Old Boy’s network became when Harvey Weinstein learned that Ronan Farrow was writing a story about him. Weinstein called in all his markers in Hollywood and his very powerful allies tried to kill Farrow’s story. The Good Old Boys Network in Hollywood had much to lose if Weinstein went down. Worse, some of the Good Old Boys knew they too could be dragged down with Weinstein. It was time to circle the wagons.
FOCUS ON THE FIX
Mike Sitrick advises his clients to “focus on the fix.” Scientology TV is obviously Miscavige’s attempt to focus on the fix. We know that Scientology TV is Miscavige’s attempt to “normalize Scientology.” How Miscavige thinks this is possible is quizzical: One cannot normalize that which is inherently deviant. For instance, how does one “normalize” child labor in the Sea Org or exploiting Sea Org members by paying them .10 cents per hour while inflicting sleep deprivation on them? Sleep deprivation is classed as a form of torture by the United Stations. Defined as “the intentional infliction of physical and psychological pain” sleep deprivation as torture cannot be normalized.
Mike Sitrick calls for an organization in crisis to exercise a strategy in which “strategic press representatives must engage the media.” How has David Miscavige translated this advice into action?
David Miscavige has his OSA “press representatives” engage the media in two ways. First, in terms of responding to Leah’s Remini’s A&E show Scientology and the Aftermath, Miscavige has his people in OSA Legal engage the media and the public by issuing a series of angry and unconvincing written denials. From a legal perspective, A&E prudently airs these denials so as to foreclose any Scientology protest that it was not given a chance to respond.
Miscavige apparently feels that he is telling his story by compelling A&E to broadcast Scientology’s written denials. However, Scientology’s denials carry the same moral authority as Harvey Weinstein’s denials:
David Miscavige’s second response to his critics is to have OSA create hate websites on people Scientology deems Suppressive Persons. However, Scientology’s hate websites only serve as self-indicting evidence that Scientology is as malicious as former members, critics, journalists, and documentarians have stated after having been on the receiving end of Scientology’s Fair Game campaigns.
SCIENTOLOGY TV AS THE PROPAGANDA OF A COLLAPSING REGIME
David Miscavige is so delusional that he spent $100 million on Scientology TV in order to tell Scientology’s story so that other’s won’t. However, this is pure fantasy. The media, critics, and former members have been telling Scientology’s story for decades and will continue to do so. David Miscavige and his “crisis management experts” are powerless to stop any coverage of Scientology.
I once shooped Miscavige as Ceausescu in his final hours to depict Miscavige’s utter incomprehension of what is actually happening around him:
The incomprehension of the wealthy and powerful occurs because they have gotten their own way for so long and live in a bubble of sycophants, lawyers, fixers, private investigators, paid hoodlums, crisis management firms, and other enablers. When something truly disastrous besets them, the wealthy think they can buy their way out of it, silence it with various dire threats, or stop it by enforcing nondisclosure agreements that were signed in the past. Stormy Daniels and her attorney have made a mockery of the system of payoffs and nondisclosure agreements. Ronan Farrow has made a mockery of NBC’s alleged “concerns” of not having enough evidence to run a story. The Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, and the soon to be released Appleby Papers have ripped the veil off the offshore financial chicanery of monied elites. The 1% are powerful, but not that powerful. The 1% should take notice when even the governments of China and Russia fear the internet and the free flow of information.
SCIENTOLOGY SPIN
Scientology has often tried to spin the narrative in self-serving attempts to attack its most effective critics. Taryn Teutsch’s recent attempts to hijack the #MeToo movement for use in attacking her father Mike Rinder were exposed as fraudulent and reprehensible.
Rather than acknowledging the extremely serious and enormous problems with Scientology, David Miscavige has tried to spin the overwhelming public outrage against Scientology by tossing out the bogus and unconvincing tagline, “Curious? We thought so.”
Mr. Miscavige, the only thing people are curious about concerning Scientology is why the IRS has not revoked its tax exemption.
Taryn Teutsch spoke at the Leila Grace Foundation. This foundation is a, “is a non-profit organization that provides sexual assault awareness for college students across the country. It’s main focus is to provide education, which can reduce the risk of sexual assaults on college campuses.” Taryn’s eight year old “fake news Fair Game story” has nothing to do with rape or sexual assault. Why is Taryn trying to exploit the Leila Grace Foundation?
Scientology leader David Miscavige spent $100 million dollars and took seven years to launch Scientology TV. Miscavige boasted that his pricey television network would serve as the Church of Scientology’s “uncorrupted communication line to the billions.”
Despite having Scientology TV at his command, David Miscavige has kept Mike Rinder’s daughter Taryn Teutsch off the $100 million network.
Why?
If Taryn Teutsch’s story is so important then why isn’t David Miscavige giving it prime time repeat coverage on Scientology TV? Aren’t such stories the reason why the $100 million network exists?
David Miscavige has his reasons for demoting Taryn’s story to wog social media and paying click farms so that Taryn can have thousands of fake followers. Miscavige knows that Taryn’s
stale old fabricated story about her father assaulting her mother is bogus. Per the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office report, the events Taryn claims to have happened never actually happened. The Sheriff’s Office said there was no crime, no victim, and only “incidental contact” was made as Mike Rinder attempted to extricate himself while surrounded by a mob of hysterical, angry, and screaming Scientologists.
You can hear Cathy Bernardini, daughter Taryn Teutsch, and the other angry Scientologists profanely screaming at Mike Rinder on this audio recorded by John Sweeney who worked as a journalist for the BBC from 2001 to 2014. Mike and John were talking on the phone when the April 2010 ambush went down. Cathy Bernardini repeatedly drops the F bomb:
Mike Rinder retreated from the parking lot into the doctor’s office where his girlfriend (and now his wife) Christie Collbran was. The angry Scientology mob tried to follow him into the doctor’s office and the police had to be called. It can all be heard on the Sweeney recording. This tape puts the lie to Taryn Teutsch and Cathy Bernardini’s account. They were both part of the Scientology lynch mob that ambushed Mike. Taryn never shares this audio when she speaks to women’s groups.
Scientology TV would never dare broadcast this recording. To this point, if David Miscavige wanted Taryn’s malicious fantasy told all he need do is order Scientology TV to produce a series of episodes and then air it 24/7 to the billions of people he claims his network can reach. However, as Taryn’s Fair Game narrative about her father is fake news unsupported by the facts, David Miscavige has to keep Scientology TV unsullied by Taryn. This leaves Taryn to press her attack in the social media.
What is heinous in Taryn’s Teutsch’s conduct — and that of the Church of Scientology — is that Taryn is peddling her fabricated story to groups that are concerned with either helping women who are the survivors of rape and sexual harassment or the prevention of rape and sexual harassment through education. Taryn’s fabricated story has nothing to do with rape or sexual assault. So why is Taryn shamelessly exploiting these groups?
L. Ron Hubbard and Rape Culture
Tony Ortega today published a story today in which Christie’s is auctioning off two letters written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in 1948. In one of the letters Hubbard writes of the “treatment” he gave to a group of women:
“I went to work and got me a flock of ambulant lunatics from a matrimonial bureau and began to work on them,” he writes. “Six out of ten unfrigidized and went practically nympho and I had a hound’s time trying to undo the over-compensation and normalize it.”
Hubbard brags that he “unfrigidized” women and turned them into veritable nymphomaniacs even as Taryn Teutsch is speaking at the Leila Grace Foundation, a rape prevention group. But it gets worse as Ortega notes:
We’re reminded of another letter Hubbard wrote at about this time, a 1949 letter to another close friend and Hubbard’s literary agent, Forrest Ackerman. Hubbard told “Forrie” that with dianetics…
“…you can rape women without their knowing it, communicate suicide messages to your enemies as they sleep, sell the Arroyo Seco parkway to the mayor for cash, evolve the best way of protecting or destroying communism, and other handy house hold hints. If you go crazy, remember you were warned.”
Taryn Teutsch attempts to weave a fabricated narrative of spousal abuse against the backdrop of L. Ron Hubbard’s heinous rapine boasting to his literary agent Forrest Ackerman that Dianetics will allow men to, “rape women without their knowing it.” And it gets even worse. As covered by Tony Ortega, L. Ron Hubbard wrote a shocking passage in which he excuses male pedophile behavior and blames the child victim:
There are two axioms about mind function with which the auditor should be familiar…The first axiom is of interest to the auditor in his work because with it he can clearly establish whether or not he is confronting a rational reaction. The seven-year-old girl who shudders because a man kisses her is not computing; she is reacting to an engram since at seven she should see nothing wrong in a kiss, not even a passionate one. There must have been an earlier experience, possibly prenatal, which made men or kissing very bad.
Hubbard wrote that a seven year old girl should not react to being passionately kissed by an adult male. Taryn Teutsch ignores Hubbard’s shocking and inexcusable writings about raping women and men passionately kissing seven year old girls — and she ignores it while peddling her fake story at women’s centers that seek to prevent rape and sexual harassment.
Your own pleasure is not dependent on the woman’s. You are interested only in your own sexual pleasure. If she gets any that is all right but not vital. Many women are not capable of pleasure in sex and anything adverse they say or do has no effect whatever upon your pleasure. Their bodies thrill you. If they repel you, it merely means they themselves are too frigid or prudish to be bothered with. They are unimportant in bed except as they thrill you. Your sexual power is magnificent and they know it. If they are afraid of it, that is their loss. You are not affected by it.
You have no fear if they conceive. What if they do? You do not care. Pour it into them and let fate decide.
The slipperier they are the more you enjoy it because it means their mucous is running madly with pleasure.
There is nothing wrong in the sex act. Nothing any woman may say can change your opinion. You are a master. You are as sensitive and sexy as Pan. Lord help women when you begin to fondle them. You are master of their bodies, master of their souls as you may consciously wish. You have no karma to pay for these acts. You cannot now accumulate karma for you are a master adept.
(Scroll down to the bottom of this page to read Hubbard’s Admissions in PDF form)
Scientologist Taryn Teutsch is attempting to identify herself with rape prevention and sexual harassment prevention groups. She does this even as the founder of Scientology was a demented misogynist whose dehumanization of women and girls as sexual objects is proven by his own words. Hubbard’s Admissions contain his view of women and have long been exposed online. Who do Taryn and OSA think they’re fooling?
In a further attempt to legitimatize her breathtaking hypocrisy and social media fraud, Taryn Teutsch has even posted photos of herself with distinguished women such as Gretchen Carlson and Fox LA’s Christine Devine who did not know their names and images would be used in a Scientology Fair Game smear campaign ultimately aimed at destroying Mike Rinder and Leah Remini for their efforts to expose Scientology.
Predictably, the LAPD — an agency that is suspiciously far too friendly with the Church of Scientology — is only too happy to lend its name and command officers to Taryn Teutsch’s smear campaign. The LAPD is always there for Scientology:
L. Ron Hubbard’s Affirmations. Hover your mouse over the document to invoke the page up/page down controls at the bottom of the document:
The Church of Scientology’s 2018 multi-million dollar Super Bowl ad strategy can now be seen as the grandiose and abject failure it is. Essentially, Scientology wanted to accomplish two conflicting goals that cancelled each other out:
1. Scientology wanted to use the marketing angle of “Curious?” to drive traffic to Scientology’s websites and thereby raise awareness of what Scientology is according to Scientology itself.
2. At the same time it broadcast its Super Bowl ad, the next batch of attack videos by professional Scientology troll Marty Rathbun were released. A mere coincidence? Of course not. In these pompous and unconvincing propaganda videos, Rathbun attempts to discredit Leah Remini, Mike Rinder, Tony Ortega and Leah’s Emmy-winning show Scientology and the Aftermath. If anything, these videos show how far Marty has fallen from his once high estate:
In what was supposed to be, apparently, a masterstroke of Scientology PR genius, the Super Bowl ad campaign was intended to promote Scientology. Simultaneously, Marty Rathbun’s videos were to be used as a flanking maneuver to discredit Leah, Mike, and Tony. However, this strategy failed as Scientology still has its hate websites up on Marty Rathbun. Thus, on the one hand Scientology wants to use Rathbun as a credible source to discredit Leah, Mike, and Tony while simultaneously portraying Marty Rathbun as a violent psychopath, a perjurer, and a liar on its own websites.
THE SCHEMATIC OF SCIENTOLOGY FAILURE
Scientology is using Twitter where one can see this all being played out. Schematically, Scientology illogic looks like this:
Anyone who becomes curious about Scientology and uses Google to do research will quickly discover that Scientology leader David Miscavige is a violent psychopath who has physically assaulted numerous members of his staff. Likewise, anyone who does research will discover that Scientology has hate websites on Marty Rathbun describing him in the same terms as David Miscavige. Why Scientology spent millions of dollars on its Super Bowl ad campaign and failed to address this inherent and crippling contradiction speaks to David Miscavige’s typical overreaching behavior. No one out here in the real world was fooled.
IS THE PUBLIC REALLY THAT CURIOUS ABOUT SCIENTOLOGY?
Scientology is using Twitter to argue that people are “curious” about Scientology and are flocking to Scientology’s website as a result. However, as Scientology’s own graphic below shows, Scientology is paying .64-.78 USD per click to drive traffic to its website. The graphic also shows a Scientology spend of $383,000 for organic search and $14,700 for paid search thus far. Again, no one is fooled: Scientology has just publicly admitted that it has to pay millions of dollars for a Super Bowl ad and hundreds of thousands of dollars for clicks to get anyone to look at its websites.
Scientology’s Super Bowl ad and Marty’s attack videos are a pair of bookends that are supposed to boom Scientology while destroying its critics. Are you serious Scientology? That’s all you have? A paid Super Bowl ad, paid clicks, and Marty Rathbun? Good luck betting on this Trifecta of Fail.
As stated, the big problem is that Marty Rathbun has zero credibility according to Scientology itself. The Church of Scientology still has its hate websites up on Marty. As we have asked before: Which story are you sticking with Scientology? Is Marty a credible source or he is a violent psychopath, a liar, and a perjurer as you depict him on your own website? If Marty is a liar and a perjurer, then why should the public believe anything he says?
Scientology’s Freedom Magazine currently carries this article about Marty in which he is called a lunatic with a history of psychological problems:
However, on a different Freedom Magazine webpage, Freedom links to the lunatic Rathbun’s attack videos on Leah Remini, Mike Rinder, and Tony Ortega and declares:
He’s [Marty Rathbun] recorded his knowledge of their plans, their unsavory traits, and their rank manipulation of show participants, in a 27-part video series on YouTube, “Leah Remini and Her Troublemakers.”
Having been an onscreen participant in both seasons of Leah’s show, I can tell you that the show is unrehearsed and unscripted. There is no manipulation of participants by Leah or anyone else on the set. What Marty Rathbun has said in this regard is a lie. I resent Marty lying about it, but given his disreputable behavior and the other lies he has told over the past several years I am not surprised.
Freedom Magazine repeats Rathbun’s lies about Leah’s show even as Freedom calls him a
violent psychopath, a liar, and a perjurer. Freedom even takes it one step further by linking to Rathbun’s YouTube video channel. Why would Freedom link to the videos of a man it has called a lunatic with a history of psychological problems? This question is rhetorical of course. The fact is that Freedom Magazine’s self-serving and transparent double standard is not acceptable in legitimate journalism. Freedom Magazine is nothing more than fake news, a mouthpiece for a Cult long known for its history of lying. Likewise, Rathbun’s videos are fake news. For example, Rathbun used a recent video to outrageously claim that Scientology was free from child abuse and sexual abuse. Valeska Paris tweeted about this:
From all appearances, Marty Rathbun is back to being David Miscavige’s “fixer” who is now the onscreen talent charged with attacking Scientology’s critics and former members.
DAVID MISCAVIGE’S SCHIZOPHRENIA
David Miscavige’s multi-million dollar 2018 Super Bowl ad campaign fails because it talks out of both sides of its mouth and is underpinned by Marty Rathbun. Marty is the weak link in the chain and yet Scientology needs him to help spin its web of lies, treachery and deceit.
That David Miscavige is capable of living a life of such hypocrisy, delusion, and unreality is nothing new. Indeed, “Captain” Miscavige — a man in a fake Navy uniform festooned with fake military medals — has claimed that infinity has a front porch and that Scientologists can travel faster than light.
My wife Karen de la Carriere and I want to show our respect for Paul Haggis and our solidarity with Leah Remini and Mike Rinder. Therefore, we are reprinting verbatim Leah and Mike’s open letter that was posted today on Mike’s blog:
There is plenty of reason to worry about defending anyone accused of sexual assault in today’s climate. But the fear of consequences for speaking our truth has not held us back in the past and isn’t about to start now.
We have supported victims of sexual abuse who have reached out to us and have worked with them and law enforcement to ensure justice is done for both victims and the accused. We have avoided trial by media.
In this time of heightened awareness of sexual predators, it is easy to remain quiet when an injustice is being perpetrated for fear of being tarred as politically incorrect. But more important to us than being politically correct is standing up for what we believe is right.
Paul Haggis is a good man who has been a friend to us and so many others. He has championed the rights of women, the LGBT community and has fought for and devoted himself to the underprivileged in the world. These are not “PR stunts” — he has devoted his time, skill and money to worthy causes without fanfare for decades.
Like all of us, Paul Haggis is not perfect. Unlike a lot of us, he is truly a gentleman. A gentle man, with impeccable manners and a generous heart.
Like those of us who were scientologists, we trusted and confided in our church to seek resolution for our shortcomings. What is different about scientology is the detailed records they maintain of everything you tell them. And beyond that, they conduct intense interrogations based on the idea that only when all specifics and details are disclosed can one find relief. The names, dates, and minute details of any indiscretions, and even thoughts, are all recorded.
It is not a crime to be attracted to women (or men). It’s not a crime to flirt. Or to have sexual relations with someone. It might not be acceptable to your significant other (if you have one), but it certainly isn’t criminal nor worthy of newspaper headlines.
Only a scientologist can understand the pressure one feels to offer up even the slightest thing that the scientology organization might consider a transgression of THEIR mores. This information is used against anyone who departs scientology and dares speak their mind. This is not imaginary. There is a documented history of such things. When someone is a declared an “enemy” by scientology, they are fair game.
With the name of everyone one might have thought of, flirted with or taken on a date, it takes little imagination to conjure a string of accusers being contacted and suddenly appearing out of the woodwork.
We expect the next “revelations” about Paul Haggis in this campaign to destroy him to be based on information culled from his scientology files in the form of more “anonymous” accusers, hiding behind a lawyer who will never have to disclose who is paying their bill.
Those who accuse without going to law enforcement, those who seek hush money to keep their stories secret, those who make accusations to the media anonymously – they are suspect. And when the target of these tactics is someone who is a prominent critic of scientology, it is very suspect.
Paul Haggis deserves, based on his record as a gentleman and humanitarian, to be judged when all the evidence has been taken under penalty of perjury in a court of law. Because claims of anonymous accusers who have NOT gone to law enforcement are not credible.
Even as Mr. Farrakhan warns the Nation of Islam that they were given a white Jesus to keep them enslaved, he leads the Nation to uncritically embrace and accept a white Savior named L. Ron Hubbard. NOI Western Regional Representative Tony Muhammad has called Hubbard, “an angelic messenger sent from God.”
