Brand Republic
 
Edition:
UK |
Asia
 
Digital jobs

Jobs

Find over 3000 jobs
 

Directory

 

Gordon's Republic

Panorama and the Scientologists 

Comments:16   Add your comment

It's been a while since I watched the BBC's Panorama, but last night's programme on the cult of Scientology was compelling.

If you haven't already seen the moment that John Sweeney (understandably) comes to pieces take a look. He finally loses it after a long drawn out attack from the creepy PR guy for the Church of Scientology.

The PR spokesman for the Scientologists (Tommy Davis) really needs to go back to communications school. What a piece of work. He was more like a secret policeman than a PR person. He seemed to spend his time organising car tails and preparing dossiers on those who speak out against the organisation, which counts Tom Cruise, Juliet Lewis and John Travolta among its members.

The way the Scientologists followed Sweeney around hectoring and shouting at him, and turning up at his hotel was really something else, and it comes as no surprise that in the end, he flipped out.

There is a moment in the documentary when the BBC crew take refuge in the loo during a day of filming Scientology celebrities (rights to show the footage was later removed). Even then they are followed by PR guy Tommy, who waited outside the loo the whole time.

Worse was what the Scientologists did to another local journalist who Sweeney was interviewing (an interview interrupted by Tommy) by printing his past sexual criminal record and posting it around Clearwater, the hometown of Scientology, like a notice for a lost dog.

As others have already pointed out, it really does seem to be an organisation that preys on rich people who have nothing better to do with their cash than hand it over to the Scientologists. I'm not even sure what they do. Perhaps dance naked around TV sets painted blue and praying that aliens will take them. Okay, the TV sets is probably pushing it.

Oddly enough, I had an experience years ago with the Scientologists, before I even knew much about them. As a student I had been visiting friends in Newcastle when someone jumped out and said "have your personality tested!".

I did, it took two and half hours and at the end they tell you that really you're kind of depressed but luckily they can help you. Hurrah! It was at that point I saw the L. Ron Hubbard books and realised it was time to go. I just couldn't see how Battlefield Earth was going to help me out.

As I got up to leave they started shouting at me. It was very strange. I should have told them I was a broke student with nothing to my name. Then they would have lost interest.
Published May 15 2007, 09:55 AM by Gordon Macmillan
Filed under:

Comments

by Amanda Harrison
May 15, 2007 9:45 AM
 
I had a similar experience with something called The (Landmark) Forum, another highly litigious organisation which had lured one of my best friends and her boyfriend. I'd had numerous heated debates with them about whether or not it was a brainwashing cult. As a journalist I wanted to back my views and went with them to a meeting, only to be cordoned off into a side room. About ten of us "friends" were held for two hours, by a bloke in an Armani suit, who tried to convert us. It was so awful (way to long to go into) and I was furious. When I was finally let out, my friends were all agog with whether I was going to join. Anyway, happy to say these friends eventually saw the light (after they had alientated family and friends) and are now back to normal. Well, apart from having become born again Christians.
 
 
by Gordon Macmillan
May 15, 2007 9:49 AM
 
Born agains, phew.
 
 
by Jeremy Jarrett
May 15, 2007 12:27 PM
 
I must say that it was totally compelling watching and the more I watch the more scared I got about how dangerous an organisation like this could be… I just hope that there are no Scientologists who read your blog Gordon as we may be about to find out a few things about what’s in your closet!!!!
 
 
by Nick Tallentire
May 15, 2007 1:16 PM
 
Yep, crazy guys. Like Gordon I once did the 'personality test' for a laugh (at the Scientology centre in Sunderland) and spotted the scam straight away. They asked me to hold the metal tubes and think of something bad that had happened to me - it was clearly some sort of pseudo 'lie' detector - so I thought I'd think about sex instead. When the excited tester said that the readings proved that I was really depressed I told him that I'd actually been thinking about something great and his stupid little box would flicker no matter what I'd thought about. I then asked him if he was an idiot - and he started shouting at me and threw me out. I thought Sweeney did well to last as long as he did before losing it last night - and little Tommy was very lucky he didn't get chinned into the bargain. What a bunch of losers. Great TV though! Nick Tallentire, Sunderland
 
 
by Gordon Macmillan
May 15, 2007 1:28 PM
 
Nick now you mention it, I think it might have been Sunderland. I had a friend who was a there and one in Newcastle. I think it was probably Sunderland. To be honest I wouldn't have stopped but the woman who jumped out was cute. Doh. Jeremy i had been thinking that as well...
 
 
by Jacquie Bowser
May 15, 2007 2:21 PM
 
Nick, good work on your 'personality test' - it made me laugh! I just don't understand how people buy into this garbage? PR guy Tommy - the Tom Cruise wannabe - needs to slap himself back into reality. Good work John Sweeney for trying to put up with the guy as long as he did. No offence to all the celebs who've jumped on the Scientology bandwagon (as i'm sure you're all reading these comments) but stop wasting your money...
 
 
by Alex Donohue
May 16, 2007 10:36 AM
 
It's troubling that no matter what state of mind you seem to have when taking their tests, the Scientology people will insist you're depressed. After an hour in their company you probably would be, but it's more likely they're just targeting the vulnerable. I'm not especially worried about Scientology taking over though. They have a bookstore on Goodge Street. It's always empty...
 
 
by Gordon Macmillan
May 16, 2007 11:33 AM
 
The vulnerable and the rich...or the vulnerable rich. All of both or something.
 
 
by Simon Gardner
May 16, 2007 12:06 PM
 
It was quite relieving when Sweeney did eventually blow off, Pr guy Tommy could probably annoy anyone he wanted to in that way to get a reaction. This stuff is just so bloody dangerous, somebody get hold of the muppet celebrities who have given their names to this, do they not see how dangerous it is to give celebrity credentials to this (dare i say it) cult! And also in "God-Fearing America" would this people not be considered as satanic or such like for not worshipping the big man? America should be put down, my sincere apologies to any America sympathisers but a country that has given us Scientology, the people who blamed everyone for "the fags" and picketed soldiers' funerals; the Ku Klux Klan; and also have allowed Britney Spears custody of her children, are currently trying to get a convicted drink driver off of her sentence (Paris Hilton) and well yer... the list goes on but I'm bored and slightly despaired now. This will probably create a few reactions so i'm off to the corner to think about the storm that may have been created.... discuss....
 
 
by Simon Wilden
May 16, 2007 1:29 PM
 
The interesting thing about this show and the fuss is how it reveals something about the dangers of a short attention span and user created media. The scientologists managed to stir up quite a lot of anti-BBC feeling by posting the explosion on Youtube with no context. Lots of comments along the lines of 'won't pay my license fee now' from people who probably won't ever watch the whole show and get the whole picture. This is only possible because we're no longer reliant on trained and normally responsible professionals to mediate our communication with one another. Not even the most lowly of tabloids would have thought it could get away with showing one tiny neagative fraction of a story and thereby destabalize the whole broader debate but in a world without media owners, anything is possible. This is the flipsiode of web 2.0. Call it web 2.ohh hell, what have we done!
 
 
by Ben Alcock
May 17, 2007 3:58 PM
 
Just following up on Alex's comment really...would it be terribly naughty to suggest that anyone they tested in Sunderland would be very depressed because, well, they were in Sunderland? Having had to live there I can say there's not much in that town to be happy about...
 
 
by Gray Sycamore
May 18, 2007 10:10 AM
 
I got my first break into advertising thanks to the Scientologists. I completed what my prospective employer thought was a legitimate psychometric test from "U Test", a front company for Scientology in South Africa. I took the test home, did a quick Google and the game was up. I had the answers to every question within a couple of minutes and passed with flying colours... The test was exactly the same as the one mentioned above, the only difference was that the employing agency paid for it and had no idea... So TBWA in Joberg, it was a scam!!
 
 
by Charlie McCathie
May 18, 2007 10:12 AM
 
I was very upset to learn that Anne Archer, who gave a fantastic performance in Fatal Attraction, is the mother of that mentalist Tommy Davis. I loved that film but I'm going to burn my copy. She spawned the devil.
 
 
by Darren Davidson
May 21, 2007 11:23 AM
 
The picture of Tommy Davis in the community section leading to this link looks suspiciously like eighties Tom Cruise ('Risky Business' era). Spooky.
 
 
by Andrew Chalmers
May 24, 2007 12:24 PM
 
Perhaps more than any other sector, (apart from the News itself), surely media people should know better that a picture can be presented to suit the story. For balance, please could you set aside your preconceptions and also view the following on the Panorama program? http://www.bbcpanorama-exposed.org/
 
 
by Michael Byrne
May 25, 2007 8:58 AM
 
Andrew Chambers... you're not a Scientologist, are you? I guess you are. "For balance, please could you set aside your preconceptions and also view the following on the Panorama program?" -- For a start, the correct spelling is "programme" And the site you list is owned by the "chuch" of scientology, where's the balance there? You should be a bit more open about this -- we can all see that the site will be not so balanced from the outset. It's my honestly held opinion that Scientology is not a religion and is instead a system of beliefs based on bad science-fiction. BTW, are you the same Andrew Chalmers listed on here: http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/impact/impact044honorroll.html, or listed here (http://stop-wise.biz/wise_2001_directory.html) as working for a World Institute of Scientology Enterprises-linked company called KeyMS. Maybe you have a vested interest in showing us the "balanced" view. Is this so?
 
To comment on this post you have to be logged in

 

About this blog

Gordon's Republic

Brand Republic's daily blog on digital, media and plenty in between.
 

About the author

Gordon Macmillan

Blogging for:

Gordon's Republic

Member since: 03 Jun 2008

Last login: 20 Nov 2009

Total Posts: 1,616

 
 
 
 

Tags

 

Syndication