This is an extended version of KWTV-Channel 9’s report which aired last night about Scientology’s drug rehab program in Oklahoma — Narconon Arrowhead — which is under investigation for three deaths that occurred there over a nine-month period.
Reporter Dana Hertneky interviews Robert Murphy, whose daughter Stacy Dawn Murphy died at the rehab center in July, and David Love, who worked at a Narconon facility in Quebec and then helped to get it shut down. But she also talked to Narconon Arrowhead CEO Gary Smith, who is suddenly talking to the CBS affiliate and other Oklahoma television stations after refusing to give interviews for months.
Smith is letting in cameras and trying his best to look calm and relaxed. But we can’t help thinking this new strategy has “desperation” written all over it.
Sometimes, we are simply in awe of Scientology’s effectiveness and power as it marches onward, turning this prison planet into the sanest place in the galaxy.
Today, we can barely contain ourselves as we present to you more evidence that David Miscavige is leading Scientology into a golden age.
We present to you this photograph, which appeared recently at a website the church maintains in order to get out the truth that the media tries to suppress. Ladies and gentlemen, gaze upon a church’s good works…
Those tireless researchers over at WhyWeProtest.net reached a milestone last night (and are celebrating with party hats). They scour the Internet looking for evidence of people who have dared to leave the Church of Scientology and speak out publicly about it. (Many more leave quietly, hoping not to draw the wrath of an organization that is notorious for its retaliation ploys.)
Once again, our tipsters have come through, and we have a great new set of Scientology mailers to share with you. On Sunday mornings, we love to show you the fliers and come-ons that were forwarded to us during the week. We seem to be getting more than ever. (Although we haven’t heard from Australia in a while. What’s happening down there?)
Anyway, this week we have a fun selection for you: There’s a new mission in Texas! People in LA have yet another chance to experience the IAS gala! You’ll be happy to know that the Sea Org is still hiring. And best of all — prices are going up!
Still one of our favorite photos: Louis Farrakhan at the Scientology Celebrity Centre in Hollywood for a gala several years ago, with Scientology’s Alfreddie Johnson and former X-Factor contestant Stacy Francis
For several years now some of us in the press have been bringing up the strange relationship that has grown up between Scientology and the Nation of Islam. Most recently, Eliza Gray did a wonderful job looking at Louis Farrakhan’s embrace of L. Ron Hubbard in The New Republic.
It’s been fascinating to watch Farrakhan explain in videotaped lectures how he’s managed to fall under the spell of the whitest man who ever lived. And it’s true that he’s asked many of his followers to get trained in Dianetics and to get training as auditors. But on this Saturday, we’d like to open up the blog for discussion of a question we have about this strange relationship between such unusual groups.
Friday mornings is when we look back at Scientology history, and we’re now winding down with our last couple of weeks of dispatches from the yacht Apollo.
From 1967 to 1975, L. Ron Hubbard ran Scientology from a small armada of ships that sailed the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Each day, he’d send out a report to his crew which were known as “Orders of the Day.” We have a mostly complete set of them from late 1968 through 1971 that we’ve been sampling, week after week since last November.
So join us as we take a look at what the Commodore was raving about during that time the week of October 21 to 27…
By now you’ve no doubt heard that Tom Cruise has filed a $50 million lawsuit against Bauer Publishing and two of its magazines, Life & Style and In Touch, for claiming on the covers of a couple of issues in July that, following his divorce to Katie Holmes, Cruise had “abandoned” his daughter, Suri.
Cruise, in a complaint filed by his attorney, Bert Fields, accuses the magazines of writing checks on their covers that they couldn’t cash inside — in other words, the stories themselves didn’t have facts proving that Cruise had “abandoned” his daughter. While Tom did have a heavy work schedule following the divorce, Fields insists that the actor at least talked to his daughter on the phone every day.
Well, he may have a point there. But does that mean Cruise is going to get $50 million out of Bauer?
One of our eagle-eyed commenters pointed out something yesterday: Tommy Davis has suddenly vanished from Scientology’s media relations web page.
Sure enough, it’s true. The church’s website which lists its official spokespersons is now bereft of Davis and his wife, Jessica Feshbach. The two people who were behind them, Karin Pouw and Bob Adams, have been moved to the top tier. Pouw is now listed as the “international spokesperson.”
After the jump, we’ll show you the before and after images of the church’s official page, and we’ll try to come to grips with this stunning news.
We have to hand it to reporter Amy Jones of The Sun — she really punked Scientology leader David Miscavige and his obsession with security.
Late Monday night, the British newspaper published Jones’s account of walking into Scientology’s big annual gala which takes place in the UK each October to celebrate the International Association of Scientologists. The big IAS party is one of half a dozen major events put on by the church at different places around the world, and they all feature Miscavige on stage, feeding thousands of followers a lot of hard-to-believe assertions about Scientology’s expansion around the globe.
We’ve reported on leaked videos of past IAS and other events. But for her story, Jones managed to get inside and watch this IAS party while it was going on, and was never challenged by Scientology’s legendarily tight security.
Friday afternoon, we heard from the local Anonymous folks that the theatrical debut of a documentary featuring several of them was showing in town.
We attended, and had a great time watching We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists. Director Brian Knappenberger was on hand to answer questions afterwards, as were some of the New York Anons featured in it: Vendetta, SethDood, and PokeAnon, who we have frequently seen at protests on 46th Street across from the Scientology org.
Poke announced that night that there would be a “raid” on Scientology the following night, Saturday. But we had other plans and couldn’t go. Someone who did appreciate Saturday’s demonstration turned out to be comedian Lewis Black, who announced on his Facebook that it was the “Best. Protest. Ever.”
