The Washington Post covered the controversty over the BBC’s reporter, John Sweeney’s meltdown, which was seen by hundreds of thousands over the past couple of days on YouTube.

They had the guts to report what Scientologists were saying about this.
 

Mike Rinder, a Los Angeles-based spokesman for the Church of Scientology, said he had taken the documentary to the BBC.

"Not one of them would look. The arrogance that has been displayed in this is a little beyond comprehension," he said.

The first clip on the Scientologists’ documentary shows Sweeney describing the BBC as sometimes "hideously hidebound" and hampered by bureaucracy. "There are people there who claim salaries who frankly are morons," he says.

Excerpts of the Scientologists’ documentary have been posted on YouTube, apparently taken from one of the 100,000 DVDs of its program that the church distributed, Rinder said.

Another clip on YouTube, from the same documentary, shows Sweeney at a movie premiere shouting at Travolta, "Are you a member of a sinister brainwashing cult?"

The BBC offered links to its footage and its own news report on its Web site.

Panorama’s editor, Sandy Smith, said Monday he was "disappointed" by Sweeney’s outburst but added that the Church of Scientology has "no way of dealing with any kind of criticism at all."

Rinder said it was not the first time that the church had made its own recordings of reporters doing stories about it.

Sweeney refused an invitation to visit the church’s headquarters in Florida, Rinder said.

"When we found that he was refusing to literally come inside the building, it was at that point that we went, ‘OK we better document this,’" Rinder said.

 Leave it to a hack like Sweeney to pick up a long discredited idea, that religions "brainwash" people, and use that as the premise for his "investigation" of Scientology is which he held firm to his preconceived notions and never overlooked the opportunity to maintain his bias and agenda.

The documentary the Church did, showing how Sweeney conducted his "investigation" is a classic

Maybe it will make the BBC and other news outlets think twice before foisting off prefabricated hits on other groups and will encourage some actual investigation and thought and a dramatic increase in journalistic integrity. 

And hopefully next time someone sets out to investigate Scientology they’ll actuall take some care to find out what Scientology is actually about, and not rely on hackneyed rumors and nonsense.

 

Here’s the link to the BBC Panorama Exposed documentary.  It’s a product of Freedom Magazine and presents the truth about BBC’s filming of their so-called documentary on Scientology.

The lack of professionalism and the utter disrespect of the BBC’s own codes and any code of decency is remarkable.

You can watch it on the Freedom Magazine web site or on YouTube.

I recommend the Freedom version.  It seems to be higher quality.

But however you watch it, you’ve got to know this  show had another agenda than to present truth about Scientology to their audience.

 

I happened upon David Packwood’s Art New Blog.  What a fabulous collection of data and images on art. He is so knowledgable and communicates his views very clearly.  It’s a real education!