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

Florida firing the architect of its COVID-19 dashboard reflects Red State data manipulation

 Attorney Scott Pilutik wrestles with the news of the day, from a lawyerly perspective…

A few places have already reported on Florida’s firing in late May of Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah), a scientist at the Florida Department of Health and the architect of Florida’s online COVID-19 dashboard. But her story needs amplification because it’s indicative of the []

ADVERTISEMENT

Danny Masterson’s Scientology upbringing: An interview with his former stepdad, Joe Reaiche

[Danny and his sister Alanna]

It was 1982 and Joe Reaiche — he pronounces it “reesh” — was in Florida working his way up Scientology’s “Bridge to Total Freedom.” []

There’s no doubt Trump views COVID testing not as a solution but as a political problem

 Attorney Scott Pilutik wrestles with the news of the day, from a lawyerly perspective…

Trump’s repeated insistence that “[w]ith smaller testing we would show fewer cases!” is like a psychological test for dissociative disorder, identifying one’s willingness to believe that problems can be solved by declining to acknowledge their []

The key thing about Danny Masterson’s ‘DJ Donkey Punch’ nick is why he stopped using it

[Danny and his brother Christopher]

The day we broke the news in 2017 that Danny Masterson was being investigated on rape allegations by the Los Angeles Police Department, we heard from Gary Morehead about Danny’s DJ nickname, which actually turned out to be []

Scientology donor’s financial firm hit with new charges of securities violations

 The Church of Scientology is reeling from the felony criminal indictment of Scientologist Danny Masterson for raping three different women, which has him facing 45 years to life in prison if he’s []

What are Scientologists being told about the Danny Masterson rape case?

 What are Scientologists being told about the Danny Masterson rape case? Very little. They don’t say “Danny Masterson,” “rape,” or “Scientology.” They’re being told he’s innocent, even if they can’t say his name or mention the charges. They claim it’s all because of the enemies of Scientology. Most of all, members shouldn’t watch or read []

Berman only DOJ figure with weight to investigate Trump, so Barr wants him gone

 Attorney Scott Pilutik wrestles with the news of the day, from a lawyerly perspective…

[Regarding this story: ‘I have not resigned’: Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman fires back at Barr, who says he’s leaving]

High drama. Barr hoped to bury this on a Friday night by announcing Geoffrey Berman’s departure by press release without bothering to check []

Scientologist chiro Jay Spina’s clinic killed a patient say feds asking for 10-year sentence

[Jay Spina receives an “OT Leadership” award from David Miscavige]

We’ve learned that Middletown, New York chiropractor Jay Spina’s sentencing has been moved back from April 3 to July 6, and also that the feds are asking the judge to throw the book at the Scientology donor not only for using elaborate ruses to rip off []

Trump and Xi’s concentration camps: When a quid pro quo is the least horrific explanation

Attorney Scott Pilutik wrestles with the news of the day, from a lawyerly perspective…

[Regarding this story: Don’t Buy John Bolton’s Book. But Don’t Ignore Its Revelations]

Most of the reporting on John Bolton’s telling of the exchange between Trump and Chinese President Xi has focused on Trump asking Xi to help him get reelected, which was []

Records show that Danny Masterson is a woeful Scientologist — would he turn on the church?

[Danny Masterson, Erika Christensen, and Beck at a CC gala in 2005]

Yesterday we tried to answer the question whether Scientology would turn on Danny Masterson now that the That ’70s Show actor has been charged for raping three women and is facing 45 years to life in []