By Anthony Fox - Editor No Agenda News
Long ago I remember reading somewhere the statement "Question Authority, Question Everything". I've taken this to heart and not always to my personal benefit.
I started following the Scientology story a few months ago after noticing a certain viciousness in what I was reading. Regular followers of No Agenda News will have seen the series "What is Psychological Warfare?", the emotional timbre that I've seen in these stories are a hallmark of the smear campaigns that are used in psychological warfare. So I began to question what was the truth in these stories.
I'm not defending Scientology. Religions rise and fall on their merits. There may even be a correlation between persecution and success. All the major religions were attacked in their earliest days. Maybe Scientology is a great and wonderful thing and will save us all. Maybe its a silly and foolish pastime like astrology, numerology, etc. If it really is a criminal enterprise; well that's why we have courts.
I'm questioning the main stream media because that's what I do. I can't let this story go because it's hip to trash Scientology and Tom Cruise. Actually, the fighter in me wants to pick this up for that very reason.
I like to pick on bullies. I LOVE picking on bullies. Not because I feel sorry for their victims or because I want to be some kind of hero.
Bullies are stupid, arrogant, and mean; and best of all they don't expect to have the tables turned on them. I like that. What's the point in beating up the weak and helpless? I want to take down a big swaggering loud mouth that thinks he tough picking little people.
No Agenda News is about power. Who's got it and what are they doing with it? The tools of psychological warfare are tools of power. Is Scientology the victim of a coordinated attack? I don't know that. But if they are I want to be part of exposing it. Not for the sake of Scientology but to expose the attackers themselves. I don't like bullies.
All that being said, here's the little tidbit I dug up that's moved me to make an anti-anti-scientology post. This is from Religious Freedom Watch:
When approached by [Anderson Cooper] 360 to comment on their “story,” Church of Scientology executives cooperated fully, providing the producers with, as Cooper admits on-camera, “affidavits, declarations and dozens of emails and letters” refuting and correcting the lies spun by Mark Rathbun and his cohorts – individuals who left church staff, then began attacking Scientology and Mr. Miscavige through a planned media campaign.
In addition, the Church made some of its top executives available for on-camera interviews, doing everything possible to answer the assertions.
Regardless, throughout the interviews, Anderson appears to go out of his way to present the apostates in a positive light while painting church executives negatively. Cooper looks on kindly and without interrupting Rathbun, while the notoriously abusive former church member paints himself as a victim who just couldn’t stop himself from punching co-workers in the stomach and throwing them down staircases.
But when Cooper interviewed a group of four church executives, who all new Rathbun and wanted their eye-witness accounts to be heard, the CNN anchor routinely cut them off mid-sentence, allowing none to finish their statements, forcing each to talk on top of the other in an effort to be heard. When Cooper also interviewed as a group the former wives that Mark Rathbun, Mike Rinder, and cohorts Jeff Hawkins and Tom Vocht, abandoned, Cooper treated these women the same way.
The editing of this footage juxtaposed a calm Rathbun against seemingly aggressive groups of church members, furthering an overall negative impression of the Church. At no point does Cooper reveal that this abuse of staff in Rathbun’s and Mike Rinder’s areas ceased years ago, as soon as they were removed from positions of authority.
There are seven affidavits there and reading through them; these guys are described as absolute monsters.
Bullies.
And Anderson Cooper is taking their side.
I hate bullies.
