'Going Clear' fallout: Imagining the fate of Scientology and David Miscavige - 2015-03-19

'Going Clear' fallout: Imagining the fate of Scientology and David Miscavige March 19, 2015, Tony Ortega, Underground Bunker

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Maria Bustillos contacted us recently, telling us that she was working on a review of Alex Gibney's film Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, and she wanted to ask us a question, which turned out to be quite good.

We were familiar with Maria's work because of a story she did at The Awl in 2011 lauding the work of Los Angeles Times reporters Joel Sappell and Robert Welkos, who wrote about Scientology in a number of stories in the 1980s, culminating in a huge series in 1990. She also referred to earlier work done by Pulitzer-prize winners Charles Stafford and Bette Orsini at the St. Petersburg Times.

Maria's point was that there were great and brave journalists who had done much of the heavy lifting before Lawrence Wright came along in 2011 with his massive story on Paul Haggis in The New Yorker. That point is well taken, and here in the Underground Bunker we have tried to give credit to brave journalists where it is due, going back to the likes of Paulette Cooper, for example. (Ahem, shameless plug.)

Wikipedia cite:

{{cite news | author = Tony Ortega | title = 'Going Clear' fallout: Imagining the fate of Scientology and David Miscavige | url = https://tonyortega.org/2015/03/19/going-clear-fallout-imagining-the-fate-of-scientology-and-david-miscavige/ | work = Underground Bunker | date = March 19, 2015 | accessdate = August 21, 2017 }}