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

Wise Beard Man on the ballot in Scientology’s mecca? Mark Bunker on why he’s running

We were on the road last week when Mark Bunker announced that he planned to run for office in Clearwater. We finally had a chance to catch up with him, and asked if he might give us some kind of statement about why he wants to run. We’re very glad he responded with this []

ADVERTISEMENT

Prosecutor’s closing statement: Nxivm leader Keith Raniere was a ‘crime boss’

[Keith Raniere]

Closing statements in the Nxivm trial began this morning, and Dianne Lipson was in court. She has the morning session, when prosecutors began their summing []

Mike Rinder returns to Scientology’s secretive Int Base! Well, sort of.

 Erin Hodges Plumb has done it again. We’ve documented her daring excursions in the past, and this time she let us know that she’d once again gotten access to Scientology’s “Int Base” in Riverside County, California. This time for a charity []

While Scientology shrinks, its ‘Ideal Orgs’ pretend they are booming

[“How Big Was Old Saint Hill?” asked this 1960s Scientology booklet.]

How big was Old Saint Hill? Scientology published at least two versions of this booklet with photos and statistics of the East Grinstead, England org while L. Ron Hubbard was living there from 1965-1967, with a brief trip to Rhodesia in the middle. Hubbard fled []

Final testimony concludes in Nxivm trial. Judge calls it a most unusual case.

[Judge Nicholas Garaufis, Nxivm leader Keith Raniere]

Dianne Lipson was in court Friday and Saturday for the final testimony in the Nxivm trial and a conference before the judge. Here’s her wrap-up of the testimony in this bizarre []

Photos and emails take up final days of testimony as Nxivm trial wraps up

[Attorney Paul DerOhannesian]

It’s hard to believe the Nxivm trial is wrapping up already. Today we have for you Dianne Lipson’s report on Thursday’s testimony. As we said when the trial started, the defense planned to call no witnesses, and Keith Raniere himself would not be testifying. Dianne said she’d be giving us a report later []

Spend hundreds of thousands on Scientology, and the rain will part for you!

 We know you, like us, can’t get enough of Scientology’s “OT Phenomena.” These are the ghost stories that Scientologists submit to Advance! magazine which prove that their promised Scientology super-powers have arrived with the secret upper level “OT” auditing []

Scientology trots out new propaganda ploy: Pretending to support journalists

 First, it’s important that you need to understand how much Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard hated reporters. He called them “merchants of chaos” and created voluminous policies detailing how to fool reporters, how to “double curve” their attempts to expose Scientology, and essentially how to destroy their careers and ruin their []

NXIVM trial witness: Keith Raniere operated like L. Ron Hubbard and other cult crackpots

[Rick Ross was targeted by Nxivm for more than a decade. We first wrote about him in 1995.]

Dianne Lipson continues to give us a front row view as the Nxivm trial winds down. Here’s her report on Wednesday’s entire day of testimony…

Wednesday morning saw the last bit of direct testimony from investigator Richard Guerci. He []

Jon Atack: Seduction, recruitment, and Scientology’s hard sell

Our thanks to the readers who wished Jon Atack a happy birthday recently, because it inspired him to check in with us…

Thanks to all for the good wishes on my birthday! It was most gratifying to read so many kind []