Subject: Scn PR Blitzkrieg in Shippensburg
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 15:25:43 -0500
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.96.1011113152206.115A-100000@darkstar.zippy>
Shippensburg, Pennsylvania was once listed as one of the best places in the United States to live. Coincidentally, the word "Scientology" has rarely, if ever, been mentioned in the Shippensburg media. That was especially true from 1996 to 2000, with the exception of an article on February 2, 2000 about my winning a $20,000 essay contest.Tripping Scientology's Trigger Happy Coincidence number 1 A Scientology PR blitz in Shippensburg
(http:www.innernet.net/joecisar/trip0101.htm) That is probably just as well, because earlier this year the 2nd Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that describing Scientology as: "a ruthless global scam posing as a religion that survived by intimidating members and critics in a Mafia-like manner and describing it as a ruthless...
terroristic cult. " was not a libelous statement.
(http://www.lermanet.com/2ndcircuit.htm) I was originally scheduled to finish my thesis on L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, in May, 2001. I couldn't finish it because of my schedule, but the next month, four articles advertising a 1990 book by L.
Ron Hubbard appeared in the Shippensburg News-Chronicle. Three of them appeared in the June 19th edition, and another one in the June 22nd edition. I only noticed one of them on June 19th before I put the newspaper down and started my letter to the editor. It never occurred to me that The News-Chronicle had published two more Scientology articles in that edition and another one in the next edition.
Basically, I wrote a "Let the buyer beware" letter to the News-Chronicle.
I said nothing misleading, nor did I mention anything controversial like the "Body Thetans" that Scientology charges people hundreds of thousands of dollars to exorcise.
My opening line contained a tiny bit of titillation to pique audience interest, but it still did not at all disagree with a frequently voiced mainstream opinion: one undesirable consequence of President Bush's Faith-Based Initiative was that groups like Scientology and the National of Islam could be subsidized by the government.
(http:www.innernet.net/joecisar/trip0103.htm) My opening line was followed by sentence after sentence of boring facts that I wrote for one reason: The News-Chronicle had failed to mention in the four articles promoting the "purification program" that Scientology was behind the program, and that Scientology stood to gain thousands of dollars if people went out and bought the ten-year old book the News-Chronicle was promoting.
The News-Chronicle published my letter, and I can't complain about that. I can complain, however, that the title that was given to my article did not exactly fit the message I was giving: "They're not doctors and they want your money." That title sounds more like its Joe Cisar vs. "Them," with "them" being the people that the News-Chronicle just gave 68 column inches of free advertising to.
Despite my uncontroversial depiction of Scientology, the editors of The News-Chronicle still saw fit to publish yet another Scientology info-mercial from someone portrayed as a Philadelphia Scientologist, Bruce Thompson. Mr. Thompson did not mention my name or the title of my letter.
Nor did he address or dispute anything I said. He merely wrote that a letter in The News-Chronicle had "misrepresented" his religion. This got him another 14 inches of free advertising. It also proved my point that Scientology was indeed behind the News-Chronicle's four previous pro-Scientology articles. In other words, Mr. Thompson did not disagree or dispute anything I said, but he was presented by the News-Chronicle as an authority on Scientology who had to take time out to correct my letter.
Since I had not yet completed my thesis on just this sort of operation, I decided to include it. I called up and scheduled a telephone interview with the editor of The News-Chronicle, Barb Thompson.
I asked Barb how was it that an article got published in the Shippensburg News-Chronicle about a book that was published ten years ago by a guy that died 14 years ago? She said that she would level with me and then told me that this had happened while she was out of the office.
That is certainly understandable. That sort of thing happens to me all the time when I'm out of the office. But, I asked Barb, how was it that four articles on the same book got published in one week. "Same thing," she said. That answer caught me off-guard. I never would have thought that she would have just sloppily applied the same excuse a second time because it worked the first time. So I didn't think to ask the following question, which is probably rhetorical, anyway:
How many times in the history of The News-Chronicle have four articles on the same book ever been published in one week, much less a book by somebody that nobody has allegedly ever heard of?As far as giving Scientologist Bruce Thompson of Philadelphia the final word on Scientology in Shippensburg, let me just enter "Bruce Thompson Scientology" into an internet search engine. Four or five articles came up pretty quickly by or mentioning Bruce Thompson, "director of public relations for the Church of Scientology of Pennsylvania". In one of those articles he was proud of the fact that he had finished the "purification program," which was correctly described as an entry level program into the Church of Scientology. There is also a newspaper that did not act strictly as a mouthpiece for Scientology written propaganda, but actually conducted an interview with Scientology Public Relations Officer Bruce Thompson. Does this sound like religion? "Contrary to some beliefs, there is no deity to Scientology, but there are no anti-deity feelings either, Thompson says." August 31, 2000, The Express-Times Enter "Bruce Thompson Scientology" into another Internet search engine. A former Philadelphia Scientologist, Charlotte Kates, has mentioned Bruce Thompson quite frequently. Charlotte decided that she did not want to be a Scientologist anymore. Guess what happened? Good old Bruce Thompson, whose official Scientology title is the Public Relations Officer for the Department of Special Affairs, and David Cormier, who is the "Purif I/C"
(officer In Charge of the "purification program") paid Charlotte a little visit. And they paid Charlotte's mother a little visit, too. Charlotte put up a web page with pictures of these people and other Scientologists picketing her mother's home and handing out leaflets saying that Charlotte was a "religious bigot." (http://www.offlines.org/picketpix.html) Bruce is the one who is holding the camera, filming everything. Let's just pause a minute and think of why Bruce might be doing this. You get four or five people together with picket signs and leaflets saying a young woman is a religious bigot and you stand on the sidewalk outside her house and leaflet her neighborhood. The reason one of your team has a video camera there is to record the reaction of your targets. If Charlotte were to suddenly get angry and start screaming at the people outside her house, or especially if she hit one of those poor men, Bruce would have it all on tape. Of course Ms. Kates could never be convicted of criminal wrongdoing in these circumstances. But if any Scientologist were to press charges against Charlotte at any future date, the filmed incident could be used as "evidence" of Charlotte's predisposition to violence. Scientology has done this repeatedly with freedom-of-speech advocate Bob Minton.
See, this is the kind of thing Bruce Thompson does for a living. In order to get Scientology accepted, he needs to "clear" the planet. He gets people who disagree with Scientology convicted of crimes by manufacturing incriminating evidence on them. If he can't do that he works to discredit them, or just publicly brush them off like he did me, with the aid of the Shippensburg News-Chronicle, while spouting his party line.
Suppose I were to write something to the News-Chronicle about the KKK or the Nazis after The News-Chronicle had already given those groups 68 inches of free, covert recruitment articles. Would The News-Chronicle feel obligated to take input from Philadelphia and give the KKK and the Nazis even more positive coverage?
The people of the News-Chronicle are in no danger of having their homes picketed by members of the "church" of Scientology. Nor will you ever find any staff of The News-Chronicle pictured on Scientology's "public enemy"
pages at http://www.religiousfreedomwatch.com/extremists. The News-Chronicle is doing the "safe" thing. (The purpose of Scientology's "Public Enemy" pages will be explained in greater detail in the section about Earthlink.) And if anyone in Shippensburg ends up joining Scientology the way Konrad Aigner did, the News-Chronicle is certainly not to blame. (See http://cisar.org/konrad.htm for a memorial page on Konrad Aigner, the son of a farmer who lost his money, his life and his father's farm to Scientology in Germany.)
Charlotte Kates was put on Scientology's public enemy pages on or about November 11, 2001. I was put on those pages on or about October 24, 2001.
As near as I can tell, the reason I was pilloried in this fashion is that I wrote about L. Ron Hubbard for my communications thesis. My thesis was accepted. Charlotte Kates has not actively spoken out against Scientology for quite a while. I believe she is being publicly discredited at this time because she is the one who photographed Bruce Thompson doing his dirty work.
Now when the people of Shippensburg find out I wrote a thesis, Scientology can react with a fabricated story that gives the impression that I have spread "hate" against Scientology. When the people of Shippensburg see the photographs of Bruce Thompson and a team of modern-day secret police, Scientology can now react with another fabricated story about C. Kates, the person who took and webbed Bruce's photograph.
As far as I know, the above was just one big, happy coincidence. But it involved Scientology, it was unusual, and it happened right after my thesis was supposed to come out. That made it worthy of webbing, as far as I am concerned.
The above is from http://www.innernet.net/joecisar/trip0100.htm There is an image on that page, and a new one at http://www.innernet.net/joecisar/trip0000.htm, if you haven't looked at it recently. Don't those Scientologists have beautiful uniforms?
If I'm not otherwise occupied, I'll let you know if the News-Chronicle reacts to the above.
Joe Cisar, Xenu apologist What tripped Scientology's trigger?
http://www.innernet.net/joecisar/trip0000.htm
Media, read what made me Scientology Public Enemy nbr. 46
http://www.xenu.net/archive/thesis/cisar-home.html
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