Tony Ortega | The Underground Bunker

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]

Hey, kids! It’s open mic night at your local Scientology spaceport!

Scientology TV features so much repetitive and boring content that it has taken to inviting desperate filmmakers to screen their documentaries on its platform. These filmmakers are able to overlook the appalling human rights abuses of Scientology in order to get their documentaries about other appalling human rights abuses broadcast. The mental gymnastics of this […]

After 3 years of Hurricane Leah: ‘Scientology today is light years ahead of what it was’

Yesterday we looked at how Scientology seems to expend enormous resources for initiatives that really get them almost nowhere. And yet, today we have another reminder that for those still hanging on inside David Miscavige’s sinking ship, it’s always a sunny […]

Scientology: So much effort and heartache, for such little effect

[Emily Jones and John Goodwin]

Does it ever strike you, the way it does us from time to time, the sheer amount of effort that Scientology puts into its various initiatives that are forever chipping away at the […]

Hurricane Dorian’s destruction provides Scientology another chance at make-believe

[Disasters are fun!]

Glendy Goodsell, Executive Director of Scientology Volunteer Ministers of Florida, wants to send 150 volunteers to join relief efforts in the Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian. She recorded a video (below) from the VM center on Fort Harrison Ave. in Clearwater this week. […]

NXIVM: Keith Raniere’s prosecutor gets her reward, parachutes to private practice

[Moira Penza leaving court. Photo by Dianne Lipson]

Moira Penza, the lead government attorney on the team that convicted Nxivm leader Keith Raniere, has left the Department of Justice to re-enter private practice. She has joined the boutique law firm of Wilkinson Walsh + Eskovitz. […]

More filmmakers who are helping out Scientology with its TV network

[Oh, Emma, say it isn’t so.]

In January, we talked to J.R. Biersmith, one of the filmmakers who had agreed to allow the Church of Scientology to show their movies on the “Documentary Showcase” at the Scientology TV network on DirecTV. […]

Elisabeth Moss snows another reporter about Scientology, but this one really hurts

[Elisabeth Moss gears up for a new publicity push]

It’s getting very frustrating to see otherwise competent journalists let Elisabeth Moss get away with murder in interviews. Marlow Stern at the Daily Beast is no pushover, and he at least asked Moss more than one question about her involvement in Scientology. But she gave him three […]

Available today, a new thriller based on a former Scientologist’s experiences

At HowdyCon in Los Angeles, one person we were happy to meet was Stefan Malmström, who had come all the way from Sweden. Today, Stefan’s book Kult is being published by Silvertail Books in London. (And full disclosure, Silvertail is also the publisher of our book about Paulette Cooper, The Unbreakable Miss […]

Scientology’s biggest donors of 2019, so far: The whales giving millions to Miscavige

[C.O.B. will take your check now]

Yesterday, we showed you the lesser whales keeping Scientology afloat with their donations, as revealed in the latest issue of Impact […]

Lloyd Evans: Jehovah’s Witnesses still celebrating parents who let their children die

[Lloyd Evans]

One of the more surprising things we realized when we started looking into Jehovah’s Witnesses controversies is how recent the “blood rule” is. It was only 1945 that, under then-president Nathan Norr, the Watchtower adopted the idea that blood transfusions somehow violate Biblical references to Jewish dietary laws. […]

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