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]
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Times Union piece on Nancy Salzman’s fall from Nxivm ‘Prefect’ to guilty plea is devastating

[Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman in happier times]

The Albany Times Union really uncorked a beauty today. Written by Brendan J. Lyons, it does a great job tracing Nancy Salzman’s involvement with Keith Raniere and Nxivm now that she’s pled guilty, the first of the Nxivm defendants to do so.

A few excerpts from the piece…

— For []

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One thing that sets JW apart: Scaring the crap out of kids as a guiding principle

 The other day we mentioned that even in this age of the Internet, the Watchtower is still using an art style with an old-timey feel. Which we are not criticizing! We just find it interesting. []

Michael Jackson and Scientology: When the Hollywood Celebrity Centre went on lockdown

 After the airing of the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland, we’ve been getting questions from readers about one of the odd moments in the film: The Gloved One’s marriage to Lisa Marie Presley in 1994, and whether it had anything to do with []

Video: A conversation with an ex-Jehovah’s Witness shunned for being gay

[Jeremy Howell]

Lloyd Evans has a new video today about Jehovah’s Witness homophobia and shunning. Here’s what he said about it at []

Scientology pitches a fit about sensible mental health reform in wake of Parkland shooting

[CCHR Florida President Diane Klein, center]

Rod Keller keeps us up to date on Scientology’s latest anti-psychiatry []

Nxivm prosecutors still skeptical that Mark Geragos and daughter can avoid conflicts

[Teny Geragos and her famous father Mark]

The other day we noted that one of Keith Raniere’s attorneys, Teny Geragos, had assured the court that there would be no conflict if her famous father, defense attorney Mark Geragos, represented Raniere’s co-defendant, Seagram’s heiress Clare Bronfman, in the upcoming Nxivm trial. []

JW film ‘The Truth About the Truth’ needs some help to get to the homestretch

 Javier Ortiz and Lloyd Evans have spent two years working on a film that needs some funding to get it into post-production. Here’s some of what Javier and Lloyd have to say about it in this short video []

Miss America organization says it’s looking into Scientology’s use of Miss New York

 Our readers know that we like to keep an eye on two of Scientology’s sneakiest front group operators — Queens dentist Bernard Fialkoff and his daughter Meghan. As far back as 2013, we were examining how the Fialkoffs were infiltrating New York City schools with their quack L. Ron Hubbard drug abuse literature and getting []

What is Nxivm? The summary in this court document is actually pretty good

 We jumped right into things with this new blog, and the Nxivm story is moving fast as one defendant, Nancy Salzman, pleaded guilty on Wednesday and trial for the other five defendants is still scheduled for April []

Adventures in JW social media: that old time online feel

As we slide into this subject, we thought we’d take a look at how the JW ruling body engages in social []