Tony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He's written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology's harassment of Paulette Cooper titled 'The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.' He continues to monitor breaking developments in the Scientology world from an undisclosed location in an underground bunker he shares with four cats and one of them wrinkly Shar Pei dogs. Despite his super-secret security protections, you can still reach him pretty easily by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.com (Drop him a line if you'd like to get an e-mail whenever a new story is posted.) [Header image courtesy John Rickard]
FOLLOW ME ON
Daily Notifications
Sign up for free emails to receive the feature story every morning in your inbox at tonyortega.substack.com

Categories

Monthly Archives

New letter about Scientology by J. Edgar Hoover shows up in FBI records search

[Hoover in 1959]

In three weeks, it will be 19 years since we wrote one of our favorite stories of all time, about Tory Christman’s wild defection from Scientology which happened live on the early Internet, and thanks to a friend she had made on the other side of the planet, the generous, patient, and wise []

ADVERTISEMENT

The Top 25 People Enabling Scientology, No. 16: James Packer

 In 2011 we spent the month of August counting down a list of the “Top 25 People Crippling Scientology.” Nine years later, Scientology is still hurting, but church leader David Miscavige learned long ago that paid membership was only one resource that kept him in business. He also relies on a small army of enablers, []

SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Episode 2 spiked by Aussie network, ‘Witness X,’ is leaked online

 ‘Witness X,’ the second episode of ‘Scientology Black Ops,’ a special 7NEWS Australia investigation that was cancelled by the network in July, has been leaked to the []

After arrest, Scientologist chiro Dennis Nobbe in even more trouble for contacting witnesses

 When he was charged with Medicare and PPP loan fraud in July, Scientology donor and Miami chiropractor Dennis Nobbe put up a $200,000 bond and, as part of an agreement to stay out of jail while awaiting trial, promised not to contact former employees that the government planned to call as []

The Top 25 People Enabling Scientology, No. 17: Louis Farrakhan

 In 2011 we spent the month of August counting down a list of the “Top 25 People Crippling Scientology.” Nine years later, Scientology is still hurting, but church leader David Miscavige learned long ago that paid membership was only one resource that kept him in business. He also relies on a small army of enablers, []

Leah Remini podcast: Scientology leader’s Fair Game campaign against his own father

[Ron Miscavige]

In the latest episode of Leah Remini’s podcast, which we have embedded for you below, Leah and Mike talk with Ron Miscavige, father to Scientology’s leader David Miscavige and author of the 2016 book Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, And []

LEAKED: ‘SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS’ EPISODE THAT WAS SPIKED BY AUSSIE NETWORK

 The Underground Bunker has learned that the initial episode of ‘Scientology Black Ops,’ a special 7NEWS Australia investigation that was cancelled by the network in July, has been leaked to the Internet.

We had time to watch the episode and prepare a transcript of it, and we’re posting the video as an embed for you to []

Danny Masterson presses for Jane Does suing him to identify themselves as hearing nears

 On Wednesday we saw the objections that Danny Masterson’s accusers were making to his legal attempt to get himself out of a lawsuit they filed against the Scientologist actor and the church itself. Now, we have Masterson’s reply, in which he’s not only refuting their arguments but pressing the point that two of his accusers []

The Top 25 People Enabling Scientology, No. 18: Mark ‘Marty’ Rathbun

 In 2011 we spent the month of August counting down a list of the “Top 25 People Crippling Scientology.” Nine years later, Scientology is still hurting, but church leader David Miscavige learned long ago that paid membership was only one resource that kept him in business. He also relies on a small army of enablers, []

Clearwater Councilman Mark Bunker’s radical suggestion: Embrace Scientology?

 After the most recent Downtown Development Board meeting, Clearwater City Councilman Mark Bunker had a brainstorm. He just sent us this video, and we agree with him that our readers could run with this []