Phil and Willie are back! After putting up billboards that call attention to Scientology’s ‘disconnection’ policy in Los Angeles and Largo, Florida last year, Phil and Willie Jones say they’re launching a new effort to get their billboard put up again in L.A. And that’s where you come in.
This morning, Phil has launched a new gofundme page to raise money for a new run of the “Call Me” billboard. His goal is $10,000, which will keep the billboard up for about three months. And given the media interest for Scientology right now, we have a feeling that another billboard launch will get some attention.
Last year, our readers helped raise the money for Phil’s first billboard, in the L.A. neighborhood of Los Feliz. Two billboard companies offered him contracts, but then rescinded their offers when they came under heavy attack from Scientology. But Phil found a third company that was willing to stand up to Scientology’s pressure.
The billboard has a simple message, asking Scientologists to call their loved ones in defiance of the church’s disconnection policy. Nothing negative is said about Scientology itself. But just asking Scientologists to call home was apparently enough of a threat that the church expended a lot of energy in trying keep Phil from putting it up. We have a feeling they’ll try to stop this effort as well, and if so, we’ll report on it.
Here’s Phil’s message about this new campaign:
We had an amazing year last year. We did some protesting around Scientology properties that created a bit of a stir at the time. We put out a “missing” poster on one of our kids who we haven’t seen in some years and was last seen at the Scientology Celebrity Center. And we set up the “Call Me” billboards in two different cities. Out of that we got a ton of interviews with television, radio, and print media. Our message went global. And our message was about the abuse of families by Scientology with their practice of disconnection.
Putting up another billboard now has to do a lot with timing. We did the first one, in Los Angeles, last spring and then one in the summer in Clearwater. At the time, we did get international press but we didn’t feel we could keep that pace up and maintain interest. We did do some additional on the ground protesting after that in Los Angeles around various Scientology properties.
After that things died down somewhat but we never gave up and we would never quit fighting and exposing Scientology abuses until disconnection has ended and all families as well as ours are reunited.
Now, with the incredible interest in Scientology’s abuses that Leah Remini’s show has created and which seems to just keep building, we thought the time was right to put up the billboard again. Hopefully this will help keep the subject alive and add to the amazing work they have done recently in exposing more of the horrible abuses Scientology engages in on a regular basis.
We have an amazing location picked out for the billboard that we feel will get the attention we’d like to see and hopefully bring us closer to ending Scientology Disconnection abuse.
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New York magazine goes overseas for a story in its own backyard
Every six months to a year, a newspaper somewhere in the world makes the discovery that Scientology is trying to reach kids in schools with its anti-drug campaigns. We can remember numerous times it’s happened in England over the past few years. But for some reason, a story about that very thing went pretty viral this week.
Well, that happens. It’s the nature of media that some stories get ignored, and others go wild, even when they’re about the same thing. But what really surprised us, and gave us this week’s Rodney Dangerfied moment, was seeing New York magazine pick up the British newspaper report as if it were news that Scientology infiltration was happening in merry olde England.
The reason this had us slapping the old forehead was that we’ve been writing about Scientology infiltrating NEW YORK CITY’s schools for almost four years now. Our regular readers know that we’ve kept a consistent watch on Queens dentist Bernard Fialkoff and his daughter, the glamorous Meghan Fialkoff, as they’ve given countless presentations in New York schools, and often with the cooperation of the New York Police Department.
In fact, Bernie and Meghan have worked so hard to get L. Ron Hubbard into New York’s schools, this past fall they received the highest honor for Scientologists — they were given Freedom Medals for all their work.
We sure wish New York magazine had done, you know, a Google search or something to find that this was going on right here in the city, and not just over in England.
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Chris Shelton interviews Aaron Smith-Levin
Here’s what Chris tells us about his new video…
Aaron Smith-Levin and I knew and worked with each other in the Sea Org in Los Angeles back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In fact, he was one of the people I used to order around! We finally made the time to get together and talk about some of the details of that time period, his current “popularity” with Scientology in the form of the new hate website put up about him, and some of the reactions he’s gotten from current “under the radar” Scientologists after his appearance on Leah Remini’s show, among many other things. And we had a great time doing it. I hope you all enjoy watching this as much as we enjoyed doing it.
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Last night’s ABC 20/20 episode
Mike Rinder’s perfect dissection of what’s wrong with it.
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Go here to start making your plans.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on January 7, 2017 at 07:00
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Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information about the book, and our 2015 book tour, can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2016 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2016), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts
Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | Scientology boasts about assistance from Google | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield
