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

On Memorial Day, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s stolen valor really rankles

 On this Memorial Day here in the U.S., we’ve been thinking a lot lately about Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s lies about his war service thanks to the release of Chris Owen’s eye-opening book, Ron the War []

ADVERTISEMENT

What California’s controversial new confessions bill means for Scientology

 We’ve heard from a number of readers who were curious about how a controversial new bill working its way through the California legislature might affect the Church of []

Behind enemy li(n)es: Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s secret mission that never was

[The USS Edsall, sunk in 1942]

For our ‘Scientology Lit’ series this week, we’re posting another excerpt from Chris Owen’s monumental updated ‘Ron the War Hero,’ which was released a couple of weeks ago. We asked, and Chris generously agreed to give us another peek inside this very important []

NXIVM: Keith Raniere said swallowing his semen made women see blue lights

[Testifying now is a witness whose identity is being protected by the court. (Stock image)]

Our correspondent Dianne Lipson was in court all day Thursday, and her report is certainly worth the wait as witness Daniela began her testimony about becoming an imprisoned sex slave for Nxivm leader Keith []

How Scientology created its own prison for children who chafed at lifetime service

[A Scientology cadet org]

We were standing in a room, waiting for the Cadet Coordinator to finish reading our proposal. She was the only adult person assigned to watch over all of the Sea Org Cadets in Los []

Scientology tries stealthy opening of new drug rehab in Canada and gets stuffed

[Narconon ED George Morfopoulous and his aborted clinic]

A few years ago, we noted that Scientology leader David Miscavige was making a pretty major shift in his Narconon strategy. For years, Scientology’s drug rehabs had grown larger as Miscavige, with the help of his celebrities, touted Narconon as “the authority” on drug abuse, and the centerpiece []

NXIVM: After brutal cross of Lauren Salzman, judge admonishes Keith Raniere’s lawyer

[Attorney Marc Agnifilo and Lauren Salzman]

Our correspondent Dianne Lipson has a report from a contentious afternoon at the Nxivm trial…

Judge Nicholas Garaufis admonished Keith Raniere’s attorney Marc Agnifilo at the end of this long day. I’ll get to []

NXIVM: Lauren Salzman under cross-examination about Keith Raniere and his slaves

 Lauren Salzman concluded her testimony this morning, and Keith Raniere’s attorney Marc Agnifilo began his cross-examination of her. Fortunately for us, our correspondent Dianne Lipson was in place once again to give us her perspective on how things went []

Scientology loses a whale: Major donor Michael Baybak dead at 77

[Michael Baybak in 2014]

The Church of Scientology has lost one of its all-time biggest donors, businessman Michael Baybak, who died last week at []

NXIVM: Lauren Salzman testifies about keeping a sex slave captive in a room for 2 years

[Lauren Salzman]

Lauren Salzman’s testimony continues in the Nxivm trial, and our correspondent Dianne Lipson is out at the lunch break to give us an update.

But first, her notes on yesterday’s afternoon []