A case study of discrimination and Fake News and how media deliberately skew the way they research Scientology. 

Blogger Siouxie Boshoff published her views on the Stand (Scientologists Taking Action Against Discrimination) website today  that points out the ludicrous media coverage on the Church of Scientology:

If I Were to Tell the Story of You

Pretend for a moment that I am a journalist. You’ve become something of a big deal, a hot topic. Lots of important people are mixing it up with you and it’s got the media all abuzz, so I want to do a feature piece on you.

Sounds good, right?

But I don’t want to interview you personally.

Nah, I want to get “a different perspective.”

I’m not going to interview your friends, or the people who actually work with you because that might seem biased. In fact, I’m only going to interview your ex-friends, and people you haven’t associated with for years because of some dramatic falling out.

That sounds like fair, honest journalism, right?

Think of the people you once dated and it ended badly, or that person you turned down because there was just no chemistry, or that friend who betrayed you so badly you removed him from your life for good. Yeah, those guys. Those are the only ones I want to talk to. What they have to say would make for an accurate account of you, don’t you think?

That’s pretty much what it’s like for my religion. Every “feature story” or “documentary”or “reality show” is so contrived, slanted and sensationalized it’s almost laughable. But the part that’s not funny is that the viewer is left in the dust and the dark.

You see, the regular Joe watching that feature piece on you doesn’t realize I’ve looked under every rock (and in every gutter) to find any back-stabbing, has-been, seriously-old-news ex I can get my hands on to tell “the story of you.”

Even now, every piece on my religion features “expert sources” who are anything but.

Most of them are looking to make a quick buck, and will say just about anything to get it. And every one of them has been out of the Church for so long they have no idea what is going on and so couldn’t have a valid opinion. Some of them worked very hard to try and destroy the Church even when they were involved, and got expelled when they were discovered.

So, no. These are not reliable sources about anything involving Scientology ever. But especially today.

If I actually wanted to know about you, I certainly wouldn’t start by interviewing your exes. I’d start by meeting you. If I wanted to know more, I’d talk to your friends, colleagues, family. If you did something remarkable, I’d want to know about it. I’d want the photos, the quotes, the evidence. That would be fair reporting, wouldn’t it?

That isn’t the way the media works, unfortunately.

Read the full blog on the STAND website.