Everyone familiar with scientology knows there are two things that really get their hackles up. Saying something they consider unkind about Tom Cruise, or saying something mean about David Miscavige. It does not matter whether what is said is true, if it casts either of them in a bad light, the STAND Minions are activated to come out with pencils blazing, firing off volleys of accusations of bigotry and hate.
Martha Ross wrote an article about Tom Cruise in the San Jose Mercury News.
Here is some of what she said that so incensed the Standbots:
While the move was widely applauded, some people who follow Cruise’s involvement in the Church of Scientology said the actor doesn’t deserve praise for what they’re calling a cynical public relations move, noting that he’s one of the leading members of an organization that has faced multiple allegations over the decades that it engages in homophobia, forced labor, physical abuse, sexual abuse against children, financial exploitation of members, and retaliation and harassment of people who leave the organization. The allegations have come in lawsuits, investigative news reports, books and documentary films such as the Emmy-winning “Going Clear,” released in 2015.
She also had the temerity to quote Yashar Ali and me on the subject. Including this:
“When is he going to return his IAS Freedom Medal to protest the horrendous abuses of Scientology? They’re far more egregious than the HFPA…” Rinder tweeted.
Scientology responded in typical style:
After the usual blah blah trying to sound educated and objective, Michael Scandling gets down to the business of hate.
Martha Ross came to my attention because in a recent story she slandered an actor for taking a socially responsible step to stand against bigotry, one which she decried as being “bad.”
Why?
Because he’s a Scientologist.
They don’t name Tom Cruise. That would require clearance from the highest levels.
He then goes on a rant about how she used “experts” who are not expert so have no right to have an opinion. Though I probably have more training and certainly a lot more experience in scientology than Michael Scandling has either in scientology or in the media, but the irony of him passing judgment on the media is apparently lost on him.
He continues:
Ross’ hate, thinly disguised as gossip, is not doing the public a service and is not worthy of public trust.
What qualifies as “hate” is apparently stating that scientology “has faced multiple allegations over the decades that it engages in homophobia, forced labor, physical abuse, sexual abuse against children, financial exploitation of members, and retaliation and harassment of people who leave the organization. The allegations have come in lawsuits, investigative news reports, books and documentary films such as the Emmy-winning “Going Clear,” released in 2015.”
This is “hate, thinly disguised as gossip”?
Poor old Michael Scandling then plays the victim:
I’m a Scientologist and I don’t appreciate my religion, and me by extension, being mocked by snarky fake news.
My advice to Martha Ross and the editorial board of The Mercury News would be to just stop. There are adequate opportunities to find out the truth about Scientology. There is no excuse not to. This presentation of L. Ron Hubbard’s essay “What Is Greatness?” would be a good place to start.
Then print the truth. Cut the hate. Skip the fake news.
What is Greatness? Seriously dude? One of the most provably fake articles Ron ever penned? Love your enemies despite all reasons not to?
But as I said, Mr. Cruise is a touchy subject. So, STAND doubled down and fired off another salvo.
Melissa Butz chimes in with some pure “we are victims” and we are “just like other religions.”
This is an area with one of the highest concentrations of Scientologists in the world. Martha Ross and The Mercury News ignore the members of their own community who are right under their noses, IN THEIR OWN TOWN, and continually deal them a slap in the face.
Who exactly do they think they represent?
With easy access to so many Scientologists and to our partners in the interfaith community with whom we work, this newspaper would be wise to start actually representing religious communities in the Bay Area and drop their allegiance to haters on the internet fringe.
I wonder what would happen if Martha Ross or anyone from the media asked for an interview and to be given access to scientology orgs?
They are no more “part of the community” than fleas are part of a dog. They may be there in small numbers, but nobody wants them and when the flea powder is applied it’s not attacking the dog. Though if the fleas had a STAND League they would no doubt claim it was.
But they still weren’t done.
In a major blow, Stuart Rosenbaum canceled his subscription!
He relies on the well-worn “You should get the REAL story” approach:
If you ever endeavor to be a true journalist, you’ll have to take a bolder approach, do something out of the box, wild and crazy, that’s rarely done by reporters of your grade: tell the truth. Tell the whole story about the scores of Northern California Scientologists
And then goes on a roll about handing out WTH booklets? The “non-religious” booklet is apparently religious now.
Again, I wonder what would happen if a reporter asked for access to the “scores” of Northern California scientologists? Asked to see how much money they had given to scientology? Asked about disconnection and destruction of families. Asked about the proven lies of L. Ron Hubbard. Asked about the abuses in the Sea Org…
STAND League is proof that scientology continues to practice Fair Game.
Martha Ross obviously touched a nerve. This sort of reaction is what stirs good journalists to do even more. I have a feeling this is not the last we have heard from Martha Ross on the subject of scientology.
“Tell the whole story about the SCORES (emphasis mine) of Northern California Scientologists.”
Excuse me, but doesn’t the word “scores” used in this sense mean “groups of 20”?
If there are “scores” of Scientologists in Northern California that means more than 1 group of 20, which could mean any number of groups of 20, including 2, which in turn would equate to 40 Scientologists in Northern California.
I mean, whoop di doo!
Something tells me this character has an MU. I hope he’s not experiencing a vast panorama of mental effects.
Does Scientology realize just how bad the Stand comes across to just about everyone? I mean, for an organization so hellbent on good PR they sure have some really STUPID “counter-attacks”. Is there any actually legit religion that has a publication that fires volleys of nonsense about anyone or anything that speaks bad about their religion or their favored lap dogs? Stand sort of reminds me of the Squirrel Busters.
Transparently frothing at the mouth with a lack of intelligence, while at the same time, being an utter PR nightmare due to their complete hypocrisy.
Frankly, I don’t think Stand hurts the cult’s PR in the world of wogdom for the simple reason that only the cultists themselves read it. When cultists read Stand’s garbage they applaud how one of their own is “confronting and shattering suppression”.
The now tiresome attempts at barking of toothless, gummy, and sticky toffee filled mouths of little purse dogs.
“If you ever endeavor to be a true journalist, you’ll have to take a bolder approach, do something out of the box, wild and crazy, that’s rarely done by reporters of your grade: tell the truth.”
And what does that say about STAND “reporters” given their proactive relationship with the truth? About other cult propaganda outlets? What does this say about a cult that teaches lying as a training routine? And finally, about a “religion” founded by a notorious pathological liar?
What does it say about the truthfulness of the STAND article itself when the writer tries to twist someone questioning Tom Cruise’s sincerity into an attack against an entire “religion” (wink, wink). This makes about as much sense as claiming that a negative review of Mel Gibson’s work on “The Passion of the Christ” is a religious attack against the Catholic Church, and that such a critique should have never happened in the first place.
So go ahead, cult boy, cancel your subscription. Better yet, threaten them with “scores” of cancellations. But beware: Once you cancel you may miss out on their next reporting on scn, and miss your opportunity to bark on time. And wouldn’t that suck…
What emerges from the cult “media” coverage is that:
1. Silicon Valley has “scores” of scientologists. A “score” means 20. It’s a measure that you usually use when you are dealing with a number that does not quite reach 100 (such as in “four scores and 7 years ago”). Naturally, if you’re dealing in “hundreds” let alone “thousands” you’d say so especially if you’re trying to flex your muscles (as is the case here).
So as it stands, there are a few “units of 20” of SJ scilons, in a metro area of 7 million, “served” by four ideal orgs. Naturally, the ratio gets worse if you consider that these orgs are the only ones in N Cal (other than Sacramento) and are designed to serve more than just the immediate SF-SJ area.
2. To add insult to injury, the SJ area represents, in their own words, “one of the highest concentrations of Scientologists in the world.” In other words: You can travel the whole world over, THIS is as good as it gets. Glad to hear it!
Thank you, Todd! I wrote my comment before reading any of the prior comments. A “score” is a group of 20. And here is this imbecile seeming to boast about “scores” of Scientologists in Northern California…hilarious!
And do we ever SEE those “scores” IN the Morgs, studying and auditing?
LOL, if they’re lucky!
In my former org, my tiny former org, “2 scores” i.e,l 40 public, 40 bodies in the shop whether in the HGC or the Academy or the Div 6 courseroom would have been considered a PACKED org!
I can no longer read even one sentence produced by a STAND hack. All that stupidity is starting to make my stomach hurt.
OT
Not sure if it was mentioned here before but Youtuber Kellicopter is doing a GREAT series about scientology. Her channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6q1t92tB_nPPWkW76Gzeww
This is really great content.
She’s great. I’ve now subscribed. I’d like to see her appear on the “Scientology: Fair Game” podcast.
I used to audit Mike Scandling. Who was an auditor at Stevens Creek Org for years. Guess I didn’t do a good job.
Well, in your defense and in my not so humble opinion, he is probably NCG 🙂
Mike, you audited him and he’s not dead. That’s a great accomplishment when using Hubtard tek.
About the “many thousands” or “scores” (quite a difference) of clams in NorCal – the two that I know from the Stevens Creek area which is pretty much where the Mercury News is published are totally utr, always making excuses not to attend events. I think scores in NorCal might be right – maybe 40-50 active members?
“I’m a Scientologist and I don’t appreciate my religion, and me by extension, being mocked by snarky fake news.” There you go Stander, take on all the anger and snark being directed at your ‘religion’ and explore what the Tone Scale says about umbrage.
Someone high up on the ladder of Hubbard has been truly angered by the Merc. Say someone with an army of ‘reputation managers’ who doesn’t want to be named but is actually called TOM CRUISE?
So now STAND (actually STAAD) is TC’s attack dog? I do hope that the Hollywood Reporter jumps on this one.
I can hear the phone conversation between TC and DM now. “Squash that freakin newspaper like the bug they are’, said one TC. To which DM replies “I’ve got the rolled up newspaper here and I’ll send every resource in my stable after them’. If STAND is the best ‘resource’ for the job, the Clampire is broiled on the barby.
They’re gunna screw with the wrong person one day and they wont be able to hide behind any amount of money. I’d love to see them go after someone as noisy and connected as trump. Now that would be some good tv haha
The Catholic Church learned though direct experience that bashing their critics was bad for them. Will Scientology make such a change?
No. It’s policy. They cannot change that.
Exactly! I’m a Catholic and I’ve had people ask why I stay in the church after the scandals. I point out that the crimes committed by those priests and higher-ups were aberrations. There is NOTHING in the Catholic dogma/catechism that condones rape, pedophilia, lying to law authorities, etc. By the ‘policy’ of the church THEY WERE WRONG! Also, no one in my church (including priests) has ever told me that crimes committed by church members should not be reported to the police.
Miss Dutch, organized religions have been going off policy for a very long time. What did the Salem Witch trials have to do with the Protestant religion? These were indeed abberations. What did the bloody Crusades or the Spanish Inquisition have to do with anything Jesus Christ or the Apostles taught? Totally off policy, off creed, etc. However, eventually these religions learned from these gruesome mistakes, mostly because they saw they were losing members. Eventually they wised up and cut out all the persecution and the cruelty in the name of the Prince of Peace. One doesn’t see any witches getting burned at the stake in New England any more, and the Roman Catholic Church has for some time now been truly “catholic” in the true meaning of the word; very accepting and tolerant of differing beliefs and cultures as well as very focused on REAL help for the poor and downtrodden. These religions would have died out if they hadn’t drastically changed and ceased their evil, punitive off policy practices. But Scientology CAN’T change because its creed is that it MUST do what Hubbard says should be done – the “tech” MUST be applied. Whether you’re “confronting and shattering suppression” on a large serious scale or possibly just washing your car, there is a WAY to do it! And so they cannot change, and will continue to practice evil, so they will perish, eventually.
I used to believe that…but Miscavige has shown he is more than happy to cherry-pick policy as/when needed (usually when there’s money to be made). So he could implement changes if he cared to – he just doesn’t.
“….about the scores of Northern California Scientologists”
“Scores”? As in increments of 20? Not “hundreds”, or “thousands”, or “millions”, but….”scores”? How many “scores” of Scientologists are there in Northern California? 10 scores? Which would be about 200 (and why not use the term “hundreds” in that case)? Out of a population in Northern California of 15.38 million (as calculated in 2015, 6 years ago, so perhaps even higher now)?
The term “scores” may seem like it sounds impressive to this guy, but if he meant this literally, he’s talking about around 0.001% of the total population of Northern California. Pathetic. He doesn’t even know how to hide the truth. Just using the term “many” instead would have been at least vague enough to be an “acceptable truth”.
The bigger joke is the likelihood, in my opinion, that probably the number of combined former Scientologists and never-in critics (here and at other sites) who even read this nonsense from STAND is probably much higher than actual Scientologists who read these ramblings posted on that site. The only reason we do so is because it’s crap like this that Scientology does that actually proves Scientology’s critics are right. But I guess they feel as though they have to do SOMETHING to respond to all this “suppression”.
“Confront and shatter” my ass….what a joke….
How would he know what a “score” is having presumably attended clam schools? Probably never even heard of “Four score and seven years ago…”
Notice how Bay Area Scientologists by number were downgraded from “MANY THOUSANDS” in the second article to “scores” in the third article , a score being twenty, closer to the truth. Rare that STAND let’s slip a little truth into their continual fabulist PR spins about the CoS.
Re: The Fair Game PL. Another example of LRH’s barely suppressed hostility and venom towards other human beings he perceived as standing in his way in any sense. These people can be “destroyed”!!! Not unlike the section in Science of Survival about “disposing” of people below a certain tone level. Ron’s hostility toward staff members is evident in many of his PLs of the 1960s. About ten years ago I made this point in some depth on Marty’s blog. LRH was, by his own behavior, an unhappy and resentful man, liable to blow up at any time, always finding new enemies. STAND continues that grand tradition .
It’s too late to stand up for the church of scientology. The church of scientology needs to clean up its own mess before anyone will care or change their mind about it (or about its known sycophants such as Tom Cruise). The public at large is becoming better informed about the church of scientology and about the doings and affects of cults and high control groups such as this vile, ugly group.
PS: I highly doubt its even possible at this point to “clean up its own mess.”
I agree Mary. Too many vile acts against too many people over way too long of a time equals a mess that cannot be cleaned up. There are just too many casualties.
My daughter turns 40 next year. That is 24 years in for her, most of it working at the HGB at Sunset and Ivar on the fifth floor……… right under the miscarriages office …. before he moved to be closer to Tom.
😞
My son turns 30 this Friday😞
Mike,
Was it a mistake when you said, “My Philosophy?” after you quoted the part that said, “The presentation of L Ron Hubbard’s essay ‘What is Greatness?’ would be a good place to start”? Did you mean to write, “What is Greatness?” instead of “My Philosophy”? (Or did I miss the point somehow?)
My Mistake. Now corrected.
I believe that the crucial question should be:
Who the hell is really reading or caring about what Stand writes?!?
After all, it is nothing more than a regime’s propaganda ‘newspaper’, lying and shamelessly attacking those who are not aligned.
I’d say that the only people who are paying any attention to the professional victims at STAAD/”STAND” are we who know full well what scientology is and laugh at their silly antics and pitiful attempts to gain others’ pity, like the sociopaths they’ve been trained to be. Most of us have been there, done that, and didn’t even get a T-shirt out of it. Even if I’d gotten one, it would have been burnt with the useless books I was forced to buy.
Jere I believe those in that read it know that is just crap made to attack others and to defend a criminal cult.
I echo “Loosing My Religion.” I am not confident anyone looks at “STAND” posts except people deep in the bubble, Director of Special Affairs types or similar rabid members. While I was still-in, I could not stomach the STAND League posts. To me they smacked of immature “rumble on the playground” bile rather than content or thoughts of any merit.
Peridot. I agree, scn is a small and bully regime where you must think and act the same way the others do and the “leader” wants. Same as any other regime were fear, blackmail, falsewood, elimination of enemies is used for the “greatest good”. STAAND reflects in full that behaviour.
As we often comment in this blog, these faux “journalistic” attempts show a complete lack of self-awareness. No rational person assigns ANY credibility to these immature attempts to “attack.”
They’re full of generalities. They never address specifics. Of course, they don’t dare, they can’t.
Have to say, I do hate it when people argue with generalities.
Disagree, by all means! That’s fine!
But when you disagree, argue on the points, on the merits! Be specific!
But again, they can’t.
So they try to razzle dazzle with righteous indignation couched in excessive verbiage which actually says very little although it might sound impressive to people who are semi-literate.
“Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”.
In truth, its pathetic. They’re pathetic. I have such contempt for them.
Loosing my Religion,
You already know who reads STAND. I guess that they even ‘star rate’ the pub. Only thing is, they have fewer readers than that of ‘The Watch Tower Bible’ that the Jehovah Witnesses publish.
Jim I was trying to be a bit sarcastic too. I don’t even know if it is translated in some other language. Otherwise proofreading, check outs, editing would take too many people. A too great task for a bunch of crap.
I’d venture that there are a dozen readers of Ed Parkins drool. That would be Dave and those he orders to read and proof it.
If Eddie boy writes some really nasty stuff then he gets to live another day off the RPF and perhaps is allowed 20 minutes to consume his rice and beans. If it isn’t nasty enough, then its off to the RPF and the endless toothbrush wars inside the dumpster.
By the time he is out of the dumpster his attitude has been adjusted enough to get him back into his normal nastyness and existence/subsistence marches on for another week.
Yo Ed,
Howz the whole ‘Total Freedum’ thing workin out fer ya. You’re probably countin the days till you get offloaded into a rest home. Thats called wog justice.
Newcomer. LOL. Right. I wouldn’t like to be in the shoes of Eddy. Imagine all the waves of bullshit, pressure, fears, punishments, conditions, screams, threats of all kind he must be daily swimming in. And the most are for free.
Who knows it maybe he likes it.
WHO, other than those in the bubble, cares what Stuart Rosenbaum is ranting about? What damage is unsubscribing going to do, REALLY? He’s just a toothless little kitten trying to “roar”.
STAAD/STAND: just more of the same ineffective [stuff].