Reviews and Media on HBO Documentary Going Clear

[bromo]

Looks to me like the quality of the stories by reporters about Scientology, in particular about Going Clear, is rapidly improving.

Some 10 years ago, there were not many stories because they were to afraid. Then came the stories about Cruise and LOLXenu.

And look at stories now.

Been thinking about this for a few days, about the large number of articles that just keep appearing about Going Clear. Part of me wonders if journalists are not having a field day to make up for all the years that they and their peers felt too scared and too intimidated to publicly denounce scientology. Whatever the reason, I say Hell Yeah, go for it.

And agree about the quality of stories improving. Just compare one or two of the thoughtfully written pieces of the last couple of days to those first ones about Going Clear which seemed to focus on Tom/Nicole only.

 

[David C Gibbons]

Usually I am upset by physical violence, but tomorrow I am looking happily forward to hearing the sound of the Scientology organization receiving a succession of body blows.

 

[Teanntás]

LA Times review is in.

(Link to entire article written by Robert Lloyd here: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-going-clear-review-20150328-column.html )

"HBO's 'Going Clear' a remarkable glimpse into Scientology"


Excerpt:



The entire review is... carefully worded.

JB

I love this

"Apart from some blurry dramatic re-creation and a few fanciful images to illustrate the church's less advertised beliefs — its science fiction-style creation myth involving a galactic tyrant, a 75-million-year-old-world resembling 1950s America, overpopulation, tax audits, volcanoes, hydrogen bombs and the attachment of disembodied aliens to w human newborns — Gibney's presentation is, given his hot topic, sensibly low-key."

 

[JBWriter]

"Texas? What's that? Is it a food?" - David Miscavige, future deposition testimony. :wink2:

"'Strange Cult Causing Concern': Scientology came to Dallas In 1956. Then the questions."

Link to The Scoop Blog, Robert Wilonsky here: http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/...me-to-dallas-in-1956-then-the-questions.html/


Excerpt: (my bold)

According to The Dallas Morning News‘ archives, the first references to Scientology appeared in this newspaper on April 14, 1956: “New Church to Form Organization in Dallas.” The timing’s certainly right. That was the year L. Ron Hubbard’s Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought was published. It’s also the year Scientology was granted tax-exempt status and first considered a religion by the Internal Revenue Service. (Going Clear, the book and movie, are determined to get that status tossed.)


At the time members met at the downtown Dallas YMCA. And in short order, Scientology was deemed nothing more than the practice of “quacks,” per the Dallas Better Business Bureau; read the 1963 story below about Dianetics and other “menaces.” In 1969 — or, just four years after Lawrence Wright graduated from Woodrow — this paper even ran a highly critical series about Scientology.

Even now it feels remarkably of-the-moment, explaining the E-meters and auditors at the heart of Wright and Gibney’s tale about a “religion” that turns its true believers’ confessions into the stuff of blackmail. And it too was built upon accounts offered by former members — the so-called “squirrels.”

The blog has kindly uploaded Scribd versions of a few articles written in the 50's & 60's. (The ones by Fred Pass are superb, btw.)

Read about the Dallas-based local FDA office seizing e-meters; real disconnection stories; and, mind-blowing quotes from Co$ Assistant Guardian, Ann Ursprung, stating that disconnection was no longer in practice (but would remain a "life principle") and security check cancellation.

JB

 

[Little David]

Oh Vey!

What you will not see in Canada this weekend is the HBO documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief. It airs on HBO in the United States on Sunday and is generating a lot of notice. Here is HBO Canada’s explanation: “Some HBO documentaries are not part of our HBO agreement, so the rights need to be negotiated with other distributors from time to time. Canadian broadcast details for Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief are still not finalized, but we can confirm it will not air on HBO Canada day-and-date with HBO in the U.S. on Sunday, March 29.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/john-doyle-the-empty-headed-mr-selfridge-you-are-welcome-to-it/article23667694/

 

[chipgallo]

Getting ready for the big show, I used my Comcast web console to order HBO. According to their customer support person, I can cancel within the first 30 days and receive a "full refund." Then a little while ago HBO ran one of their ads for "Going Clear," a serious and intriguing bit of work with ominous voice over and closeups of e-meters and org real estate. This is gonna be great. (anyone know how to type the little diacritical on top of the "e" in expose?)

 

[The Sloth]

How one woman climbed her way out of Scientology’s elite Sea Org

The release Sunday of HBO’s “Going Clear” documentary will bring attention to members and past members of Scientology and to questions about the movement’s allure and controversies. Among those speaking out is Tracy Ekstrand, who joined the Church of Scientology in 1967 when she was 19. Fourteen years later, after Ekstrand said her daughter’s finger was severed in the door of a Scientology nursery, she made her way out of the the Sea Organization, which includes Scientology’s most elite and loyal members. She said she also served as a steward for the children of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Karin Pouw, a spokeswoman for Scientology, confirmed that Ekstrand was a nanny in a Scientology daycare in Los Angeles but she said that her supervisor at the daycare center said the incident with her daughter’s finger never happened. For years, Ekstrand, 66, said she was afraid to tell her story, fearing harassment or lawsuits from the church, which has a history of suing former members. But after she was quoted in the critically-acclaimed book “Going Clear,” which came out in 2013, nothing happened. She received no threats of any kind.

More at Source:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ay-out-of-scientologys-elite-sea-org/?hpid=z6


The media coverage of the last several weeks redefines "full court blitz"

 

[The Sloth]

Getting ready for the big show, I used my Comcast web console to order HBO. According to their customer support person, I can cancel within the first 30 days and receive a "full refund." Then a little while ago HBO ran one of their ads for "Going Clear," a serious and intriguing bit of work with ominous voice over and closeups of e-meters and org real estate. This is gonna be great. (anyone know how to type the little diacritical on top of the "e" in expose?)

http://www.forlang.wsu.edu/help/keyboards.asp

 

[CommunicatorIC]

LA Times: Review HBO's 'Going Clear' a remarkable glimpse into Scientology

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-going-clear-review-20150328-column.html

* * * * * BEGIN EXCERPT * * * * *

More troubling, and the bulk of his case, is the testimony of former Scientologists, some of them high-ranked, some of them claiming inside knowledge. Defenders of the faith will say that they are lying now when they say they were lying then, but they seem quite credible and composed to me — amazed at the people they'd been, astonished by what they couldn't see, ashamed at their actions or inaction.

* * * * * END EXCERPT * * * * *

 

[MrNobody]

Call me selfish or whatever, but I hope the movie legally finds it's way to a website, youtube or whatever, where I can watch it too and send the link to others.

 

[CommunicatorIC]

Leah Remini addresses Scientology doc Going Clear

Leah Remini addresses Scientology doc Going Clear.

Tony Ortega has more on the Leah Remini story.

On the eve of ‘Going Clear’, Leah Remini says she’s grateful to the people behind it

http://tonyortega.org/2015/03/28/on...i-says-shes-grateful-to-the-people-behind-it/

* * * * * BEGIN EXCERPT * * * * *

Yesterday we saw Leah Remini’s tweet which contained a Martin Luther King Jr quote and the date that Alex Gibney’s documentary about Scientology, Going Clear, is airing on HBO tomorrow night…

So we reached out to Leah to ask how she’s feeling about the documentary playing for the masses on Sunday. She said she hasn’t seen the movie yet and will watch it Sunday night, but her friends who have seen the film were deeply affected by it.

“I wanted to thank the people who are in it and have worked so hard. You, Mike Rinder, Marty Rathbun, Marc Headley, Tom DeVocht, Lawrence Wright, Alex Gibney, and HBO. And Paul Haggis in particular for what he wrote on your website the other day. What Paul wrote is so exactly right,” Leah told us.

* * * * * END EXCERPT * * * * *

 

[strativarius]

Getting ready for the big show, I used my Comcast web console to order HBO. According to their customer support person, I can cancel within the first 30 days and receive a "full refund." Then a little while ago HBO ran one of their ads for "Going Clear," a serious and intriguing bit of work with ominous voice over and closeups of e-meters and org real estate. This is gonna be great. [highlight](anyone know how to type the little diacritical on top of the "e" in expose?[/highlight])

[1] Turn on 'Num Lock'
[2] Hold down 'Alt' and key in 130 on your NUMERIC KEYPAD
[3] Let go of the 'Alt' key.

é Bingo!

 

[Elronius of Marcabia]

HBO streaming in April

https://order.hbonow.com/?camp=NowM19

FAQ for the when and how and how much

https://order.hbonow.com/faq/index.html

 

[CommunicatorIC]

Bustle: Scientology's "Freedom Media Ethics" Twitter Account Shows How Scared They Are Of 'Going Clear'

http://www.bustle.com/articles/7270...ount-shows-how-scared-they-are-of-going-clear

* * * * * BEGIN EXCERPT * * * * *

As you may have heard, there’s a big documentary premiering on HBO this week, and it’s clearly striking fear into the heart of a hugely controversial organization: the Church of Scientology. On Sunday, filmmaker Alex Gibney’s Going Clear: Scientology And The Prison Of Belief will air for the very first time, and the Church isn’t taking it so well. In fact, if you’re looking for evidence of just how frightened this film has them, just take a look at Twitter — Scientology’s “Freedom Media Ethics” Twitter account proves just how scared they are of Going Clear.

It really can’t be overstated how aggressive, propagandistic and vehement this account is, and as such, how Scientology must be feeling about things. It’s a profoundly visceral encapsulation of their decades-long, scorched-earth public relations tactics. An important thing to know about Scientology is that virtually all doctrine, such as it is, flows directly from the Church’s founder, the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.

And Hubbard’s philosophy when posed with a threat, crisis or criticism was very plain — he authored Scientology’s “Fair Game” policy, stating that enemies of the Church could be rightly “tricked, sued, lied to or destroyed.” It’s an order the Church has made good on over the years — in the 1970s, in fact, they attempted to hound and falsely litigate a critical author into a mental break, as revealed in documents later seized by the FBI. It’s apparently in that same spirit of “smear at all costs” that Freedom Media Ethics has been operating.

Suffice to say, a trip to @FreedomEthics is a trip down a rabbit’s hole of aggressive spin, insecure propaganda and character assassination at all costs. Countless claims are made against former members of the Church who’ve since defected and became sources for Gibney’s film, which is based on a book of the same name by Lawrence Wright — abusers, drug addicts, tabloid-peddlers, perjurers, homewreckers, any line of attack you like.


* * * * * END EXCERPT * * * * *

 

[CommunicatorIC]

USA Today: Scientology doc 'Going Clear': Five takeaways

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2015/03/28/going-clear-scientology-film-hbo/70442214/

* * * * * BEGIN EXCERPT * * * * *

1. The church engaged in harassment and torture. The scathing exposé directed by Gibney (The Armstrong Lie) is based on Lawrence Wright's riveting 2013 bestseller, Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief. Among the bombshells asserted by eight former church members: Scientology intentionally broke up Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman; it tortured some of its members in a prison known as "the hole" and subjected others to hard labor; and it harassed those who left the organization and forced their family members to cut off all contact.

* * * * END EXCERPT * * * * *

 

[HelluvaHoax!]

...


Scieno-Scenario: If Vito Corleone was a defrocked Apostate. After the death of one of his sons, Phillip Seymour Hoffman Corleone--who mysteriously died by an "accidental" lethal overdose of heroin--after starring in the anti-Scientology movie "The Master"--Vito addresses the leaders of the COS (Crimewave of Scientology).

You talk about vengeance.
Is vengeance gonna bring your
Founder L. Ron Hubbard back to you?
​

Or my boy to me?
I forego the vengeance of my son.
But I have selfish reasons.


​

My youngest son Alex Gibney Corleone
was forced to leave this country because
of this HBO "Going Clear" business.

All right. And I have to make arrangements to bring him back here safely,
cleared of all these false charges. But I'm a superstitious man.
And if some unlucky accident should befall him - If he
should get framed for making bomb threats vs your cult,
or audited on R2-45 by an OSA exec, or if he should
shed his encumbrance in his jail cell, or
if he's struck by a bolt of lightning -
or as-ises like Shelly, then
I'm going to blame some
of the OTs in
this room.

LURKER'S SOURCE MATERIAL:
During a meeting of the heads of the Five Families and associates from the greater New York area in a downtown city boardroom, godfather Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) chaired as the head of the Sixth Family. He refused to allow drug trafficking, but he also wanted to stop the endless months of slaughter. He was reluctantly willing to compromise and allow controlled narcotics operations:

​

...I believe this drug business is gonna destroy us in the years to come. I mean, it's not like gambling or liquor, or even women, which is something that most people want nowadays and is forbidden to them by the pezzonovante of the church. Even the police departments that have helped us in the past with gambling and other things are gonna refuse to help us when it comes to narcotics. And I believed that then - and I believe that now...I hoped that we could come here and reason together. And as a reasonable man, I'm willing to do whatever's necessary to find a peaceful solution to these problems... You talk about vengeance. Is vengeance gonna bring your son back to you? Or my boy to me? I forego the vengeance of my son. But I have selfish reasons.

​

Corleone also announced his intention to make arrangements to bring his youngest son Michael (Al Pacino) back safely, but warned:

​

My youngest son was forced to leave this country because of this Sollozzo business. All right. And I have to make arrangements to bring him back here safely, cleared of all these false charges. But I'm a superstitious man. And if some unlucky accident should befall him - if he should get shot in the head by a police officer, or if he should hang himself in his jail cell, or if he's struck by a bolt of lightning - then I'm going to blame some of the people in this room.​

 

[degraded being]

.
.
I'm all pent up. I'm obsessed. I can't let it go.

What is John Travolta going to SAY???

He will be told by OSA that he has to make a statement that Spanky T. was lying.

His Good Wife has had a shiny slippery coat of Super Power painted on to her. I think she had to roll around on the oiliness table for that. It makes her symbolically like fly paper and the true believers will stick to her more, and that means they will not be able to away-run, after seeing HBO. When the sticky wife and John T. are at home together they will be all "fair roads and good weather". She will be watching for any outnesses arising from his massive PTS sits, so she can write 'em up and KR him to OSA.

Kirstie recently had a layer of stickiness added to her too. If you get near them and touch them you will not be able to get away from them. Kirstie has High Priestess status. She keeps people in scientology. Kelly Preston has high up Intel status. She's a controller priestess.

Tom is holed up with his tongue attached to the roof of his mouth with super glue.
What is he going to say???

And where I am, I can't get HBO.

 

[Intelligence]

Three of us, two in the USA and Me up in the frozen tundra of Canada, are all hyped and ready for tomorrow evening. I - ROFLMAO at one in the USA who said, "Hurry up, David, we've already missed 15 minutes of Going Clear' trying to tweek this 3-way, Skype conference call so you and me can watch the HBO show!!!" I said, "OMG, you must be near my age with the "Mental-Pause" setting in, this is Saturday, not Sunday - LOL " ----- So, we're all set up now to watch 'Going Clear' on HBO using a three-way Skype call with one Laptop camera facing the TV Screen .... so excited I went out in freezing cold to buy Popcorn and butter just now. :dancer:

 

[dchoiceisalwaysrs]

I propose we rename ESMB as PASMB - Professional Anti-Scientologist Message Board.

I ain't no Professional. Big Pharma has never paid me. Maybe I can join PASMB when Bob Duggan sends me a thank you bonus for getting him OUT of scientology.

 

[ThetanExterior]

I just looked for the Going Clear book on Amazon UK and it is highlighted as #1 Bestseller.