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What Your Donations Buy II: Vanity PR for David Miscavige

Rae

Patron with Honors
An excellent evaluation of the recent "Freedom" mag from Rebel 008. If my memory serves me well..Freedom was NEVER used in such a way as Miscavage just has.
http://leavingscientology.wordpress...nations-buy-ii-vanity-pr-for-david-miscavige/


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If you want to see the perfect representation of David Miscavige’s Brave New World of Scientology, then have a look at the full color, glossy, 80-page Freedom Magazine that was just produced and mailed out to every household in Pinellas, Pasco and Hillborough Counties, at a cost of millions of dollars – paid for, of course,  by Scientologists’ donations. http://www.freedommag.org/

Apparently the last three weeks have been a scramble, with reges squeezing every penny they could out of wealthy Scientologists “to defend the Church” and PR and Marketing staff up day and night to write and lay out this massive PR piece.

And what did you get for all that money and effort? A huge vanity piece for David Miscavige. That’s right.  Article after article about Miscavige. Fifteen glossy color photos of David Miscavige. And how many pictures of LRH? None. That’s right, zip.

It’s supposed to be a “PR handling” for the first series of Saint Petersburg Times articles. But who caused this “PR flap”? If you read the articles and listen to the interviews, you’ll see that those speaking out are not attacking Scientology, Scientologists, or L. Ron Hubbard. They are exposing the culture of violence and abuse which Miscavige has engendered at the highest levels of Scientology. They are exposing Miscavige’s lies. They are exposing the huge and expensive PR machine he has put into place to hide his crimes.

In other words, the “PR flap” was caused by Miscavige himself. And you have to pay to handle it. By producing a glossy, 80 page brochure with one purpose – to glorify Miscavige, and perpetuate his lies about the “expansion” of Scientology.

Of the “expansion statistics” listed, most have to do with the square footage of buildings purchased. In other words, Miscavige’s “Ideal Org” real estate scam. The magazine says that there are over 8,000 “orgs, missions and groups.” Well, where are they? Why can’t we see them? Are they invisible? If this is true, why doesn’t the Church list all their addresses on their website? Or is it just an empty lie?

How many of these “Ideal Orgs” are empty shells?

And as for their attacks on the St. Petersburg Times reporters and the former executives who have spoken out? Well, see my earlier post about “attacking the attacker” and why it is usually perceived as an admission of guilt. It is Miscavige, once again, trying to change the subject. “Look at how bad these people are” he says. “Look how good I am.” “Look at all this expansion.” That is not the subject. That is not the issue. The issue is one thing and one thing only – the abuse and violence within Miscavige’s Brave New World of Scientology. And it is being exposed. And will continue being exposed.

But let’s get down to practicality here. Who was this puff piece mailed to? The entire population of the Tampa Bay area. How many people do you think will read 80 pages of puff PR about David Miscavige? How many will throw it straight into the trash?

Imagine you live in Utah and there is a big expose in a local paper about abuse in the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints). A few weeks later you get an 80-page booklet about the wonderful leader of the FLDS, Merril Jessop, and the “amazing expansion” of the FLDS, with glossy pictures of their huge facilities. Would you read it from cover to cover? Or would you throw it in the trash? Would you think they were wasteful? Strange? Covering up?

Now you know how “effective” this brochure will be. Not. It was a waste of money. Your money.

It was produced for one reason and one reason only. David Miscavige’s massive ego.

When are Scientologists going to wake up and stop writing blank checks to this narcissistic, violent dictator who is destroying Scientology?
 
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_brian

WogRevert
Blog linked claims it cost "millions of dollars" to do this Freedom Mag mail-shot, which is a load of crap.

A more realistic estimate would be between $10K and $30K, tops.

Michael "The Sneakster" Hobson
I am *not* anonymous. I *do* forgive.

So that means DM claimed he needed millions in raised donations and scored a nice profit:unsure: :eyeroll: :nervous: :whistling:
 

Rae

Patron with Honors
Blog linked claims it cost "millions of dollars" to do this Freedom Mag mail-shot, which is a load of crap.

A more realistic estimate would be between $10K and $30K, tops.

Michael "The Sneakster" Hobson
I am *not* anonymous. I *do* forgive.

Probably would be good to contact the writer and find out what, if any, the source of that info is.
 

lkwdblds

Crusader
An excellent evaluation of the recent "Freedom" mag from Rebel 008. If my memory serves me well..Freedom was NEVER used in such a way as Miscavage just has.
http://leavingscientology.wordpress...nations-buy-ii-vanity-pr-for-david-miscavige/


HTML:
If you want to see the perfect representation of David Miscavige’s Brave New World of Scientology, then have a look at the full color, glossy, 80-page Freedom Magazine that was just produced and mailed out to every household in Pinellas, Pasco and Hillborough Counties, at a cost of millions of dollars – paid for, of course,  by Scientologists’ donations. http://www.freedommag.org/

Apparently the last three weeks have been a scramble, with reges squeezing every penny they could out of wealthy Scientologists “to defend the Church” and PR and Marketing staff up day and night to write and lay out this massive PR piece.

And what did you get for all that money and effort? A huge vanity piece for David Miscavige. That’s right.  Article after article about Miscavige. Fifteen glossy color photos of David Miscavige. And how many pictures of LRH? None. That’s right, zip.

It’s supposed to be a “PR handling” for the first series of Saint Petersburg Times articles. But who caused this “PR flap”? If you read the articles and listen to the interviews, you’ll see that those speaking out are not attacking Scientology, Scientologists, or L. Ron Hubbard. They are exposing the culture of violence and abuse which Miscavige has engendered at the highest levels of Scientology. They are exposing Miscavige’s lies. They are exposing the huge and expensive PR machine he has put into place to hide his crimes.

In other words, the “PR flap” was caused by Miscavige himself. And you have to pay to handle it. By producing a glossy, 80 page brochure with one purpose – to glorify Miscavige, and perpetuate his lies about the “expansion” of Scientology.

Of the “expansion statistics” listed, most have to do with the square footage of buildings purchased. In other words, Miscavige’s “Ideal Org” real estate scam. The magazine says that there are over 8,000 “orgs, missions and groups.” Well, where are they? Why can’t we see them? Are they invisible? If this is true, why doesn’t the Church list all their addresses on their website? Or is it just an empty lie?

How many of these “Ideal Orgs” are empty shells?

And as for their attacks on the St. Petersburg Times reporters and the former executives who have spoken out? Well, see my earlier post about “attacking the attacker” and why it is usually perceived as an admission of guilt. It is Miscavige, once again, trying to change the subject. “Look at how bad these people are” he says. “Look how good I am.” “Look at all this expansion.” That is not the subject. That is not the issue. The issue is one thing and one thing only – the abuse and violence within Miscavige’s Brave New World of Scientology. And it is being exposed. And will continue being exposed.

But let’s get down to practicality here. Who was this puff piece mailed to? The entire population of the Tampa Bay area. How many people do you think will read 80 pages of puff PR about David Miscavige? How many will throw it straight into the trash?

Imagine you live in Utah and there is a big expose in a local paper about abuse in the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints). A few weeks later you get an 80-page booklet about the wonderful leader of the FLDS, Merril Jessop, and the “amazing expansion” of the FLDS, with glossy pictures of their huge facilities. Would you read it from cover to cover? Or would you throw it in the trash? Would you think they were wasteful? Strange? Covering up?

Now you know how “effective” this brochure will be. Not. It was a waste of money. Your money.

It was produced for one reason and one reason only. David Miscavige’s massive ego.

When are Scientologists going to wake up and stop writing blank checks to this narcissistic, violent dictator who is destroying Scientology?

Rae - Good to encounter your post and see that you are still posting. Very thorough well written article. Remember the old HCOB, "What your fees buy?" Things have changed a little since the time that was written; at that time purchasing real estate was not mentioned in the bulletin and now real estate, along with attorney's, private investigators and legal fees probably constitute almost 100% of what your fees buy.

I can not for the life of me understand why C of S does not value their staff members far more than they do. Staff food, pay, sleeping facilities, medical and personal enhancement seem to be dismissed as "other intentionedness" and the staff are allowed to work until they breadk down and can no longer perform at which point they are discarded as PTS or DB's. To me, once I discovered that LRH was totally behind this approach and that it is the way he designed and wanted things to be, my confidence, in particular, in his system of management plummeted like a stone and, in general, his being my main spiritual leader, taking every word he uttered as "the gospel", likewise went totally down the tubes.
lkwdblds
 

Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
Blog linked claims it cost "millions of dollars" to do this Freedom Mag mail-shot, which is a load of crap.

A more realistic estimate would be between $10K and $30K, tops.

Per Wikipedia, the number of households in those three counties (2000 census) totals 953,891. I'm not sure what the postage rate for a freedom mag would be, but from looking over the US postage rates for non-profits for pieces between 3.3 and 16 ounces each the lowest is 8 cents and the highest much more. I assume the CofS would have bar-coded addresses etc. Let's be generous and say 10 cents a pop. That rounds out to about $100k for postage.

Paper and ink and so forth would add to the cost, of course. Do they produce such mags in-house? I know they do their own POD books, but full-colour mags too?

Even so, it doesn't add up to millions, as you say.

Paul
 

Thrak

Gold Meritorious Patron
I love the bit about "at the helm of scio's explosive growth". That makes me laugh. Explosive growth of what? I guess you could say a dead body has an explosive growth of bacteria.
 

Doom

Lurking.
I love the bit about "at the helm of scio's explosive growth". That makes me laugh. Explosive growth of what? I guess you could say a dead body has an explosive growth of bacteria.
Explosive growth of hot air, explosive growth of DMs ego.

Great posts everyone:thumbsup:
 

Gadfly

Crusader
An excellent evaluation of the recent "Freedom" mag from Rebel 008. If my memory serves me well..Freedom was NEVER used in such a way as Miscavage just has.
http://leavingscientology.wordpress...nations-buy-ii-vanity-pr-for-david-miscavige/


"A huge vanity piece for David Miscavige. That’s right. Article after article about Miscavige. Fifteen glossy color photos of David Miscavige. And how many pictures of LRH? None. That’s right, zip."

Imagine, one day a churchie walks into his or her local org, to find instead of pictures of LRH, pictures of little Davey hung everywhere! What is so amazing is that most of the overly-indoctrinated members would somehow "make sense of it" (cognitive dissonance in full swing). They would quickly "come to terms with it", as most do with every other "outpoint" that confronts them. And, they would do it happily and with great enthusiasm! Strange folks them churchies. (deny, justify, or develop cognitive dissonance)

And, instead of an LRH office, there would be (drum roll) a very much LARGER and more extravagantly adorned DM's office! What would they do with all of those old packs of "Kools"? By the way, does anyone know, how often must the LRH Comm replace the cigarettes that set in a very exact location on Ron's desk? I mean, when Ron returns, he wouldn't want to smoke a STALE cigarette. Would he? Or, possibly after all of that upper level research he did "out of the body, in a state of exterior" (ref: LRH Death Event), possibly he has "handled" the compulsion to smoke! Anything is possible to the mind of an over-indoctrinated, overly-controlled Church of Scientology member. :confused2:

These are pressing and deep questions grasshopper . . . . . :D
 

Gadfly

Crusader
The packs of cigarettes in the LRH Office were officially cancelled not long after Hubbard quit smoking, IIRC.

I used to white glove the ASHO LRH Office after the LRH Communicators for Day and Foundation were both RPF'd (around mid-1992) - passed every time, too.

Michael "The Sneakster" Hobson
I am *not* anonymous. I *do* forgive.

My ignorance is betrayed! I guess I am just not up on these things! My BAD!:duh:
 

lkwdblds

Crusader
Cognitive Dissonance

Imagine, one day a churchie walks into his or her local org, to find instead of pictures of LRH, pictures of little Davey hung everywhere! What is so amazing is that most of the overly-indoctrinated members would somehow "make sense of it" (cognitive dissonance in full swing). They would quickly "come to terms with it", as most do with every other "outpoint" that confronts them. And, they would do it happily and with great enthusiasm! Strange folks them churchies. (deny, justify, or develop cognitive dissonance)

And, instead of an LRH office, there would be (drum roll) a very much LARGER and more extravagantly adorned DM's office! What would they do with all of those old packs of "Kools"? By the way, does anyone know, how often must the LRH Comm replace the cigarettes that set in a very exact location on Ron's desk? I mean, when Ron returns, he wouldn't want to smoke a STALE cigarette. Would he? Or, possibly after all of that upper level research he did "out of the body, in a state of exterior" (ref: LRH Death Event), possibly he has "handled" the compulsion to smoke! Anything is possible to the mind of an over-indoctrinated, overly-controlled Church of Scientology member. :confused2:

These are pressing and deep questions grasshopper . . . . . :D

This post is "classic" Gadfly and very humorous to boot! It is truly amazing what the overindoctrinated members will accept and make sense of. The most recent example for me is when I received a call from an O.C. Staff member with whom I had been friendly with regarding the issuance of the new "Basics" books. I usually screen my calls but this staff member used her cell number and I did not know it and innocently answered the phone.

She was in exhillaration over the release of the new "Basics" while I thought the whole thing was a scam to generate some quick cash for Int Management and to replace old books whose copyrights were running out with new ones which could be newly copyrighted. I mentioned something to the effect that LRH was using these books, mostly published in the 50's all the way through the 50's and 60's on courses he taught himself such as the Briefing Course.
How could they be so bad, wouldn't he have caught the mistakes long ago.
She dropped in tone but insisted that DM, called COB, had put forth an enormous effort to find the errors in these books and the new books would blow the lid off of any stops to Scientology's expansion. She could see no downside to COB's claims and no inconsistensies in his claims.

As to the DM offices replacing the LRH offices, I would not put it past DM to set something up in his name in every Org when he leaves office but I don't know if even he is brassy enough to take away LRH's offices. Probably LRH will keep his offices and perhaps each Org will rename one of the rooms for DM, Perhaps old Academies could be renamed DM Academies and have his portrait hung at the front of the room or the HGC could called renamed the MGC.
lkwdblds
 

Gadfly

Crusader
As to the DM offices replacing the LRH offices, I would not put it past DM to set something up in his name in every Org when he leaves office but I don't know if even he is brassy enough to take away LRH's offices. Probably LRH will keep his offices and perhaps each Org will rename one of the rooms for DM, Perhaps old Academies could be renamed DM Academies and have his portrait hung at the front of the room or the HGC could called renamed the MGC.
lkwdblds

You're as bad as me!:thumbsup:

I was laughing out loud - The Miscavige Guidance Center!!!!!! (MGC)

I wonder if Davey is concerned with his legacy as much is Bill Clinton? Poor Davey, how WILL he be remembered? Think of it. In some 300 years, there will have been MANY COBs, and a long history of who did what, and how great each of them were. I am sure there will the usual purges, power struggles and coup d'états, and of course, every once in awhile the current COB will simply rewrite all of past Scientology history to his personal liking and self-aggrandizement. Isn't it amazing how these "elite", top of the Sea Org food chain, are no better than common ego-centric power-hungry Earth wogs????!!!!!!!:omg:

(I know, come on, will Scientology REALLY be around THAT long . . . . .)
 

Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
(I know, come on, will Scientology REALLY be around THAT long . . . . .)

In the unlikely event that the CofS keeps going after Miscavige bites the dick, I imagine there will be a huge pendulum swing in the other direction. New buildings and upstat MEST will be OUT and orgs will go back to using fold-up rickety wooden chairs and card tables in the Academy and so on.

Paul
 
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