Propaganda Alert: Scientology opens their own television channel

The cult of Scientology has announced that they are opening their own television channel today. In a tweet from the ScientologyTV account, the group claims, “It’s time for us to tell our story” on “DIRECTV, AppleTV, Roku, fireTV, & Chromecast.”

Most likely this public outreach is being done to try and recover Scientology’s reputation after Leah Remini’s A&E docuseries “Scientology and the Aftermath” and Alex Gibney’s Emmy-winning documentary, “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief.”

Scientology was built by a deluded individual named L. Ron Hubbard who believed that his organization would create a utopian society, “A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology.”

On “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath” Season 2 episode 12, “Propaganda Arms,” we get a full perspective of exactly how the church of Scientology uses carefully crafted propaganda to attract new members and squeeze more money out of their existing members.

The episode defining propaganda arms as “Non profit organizations affiliated with Scientology designed to infiltrate society and generate positive public relations.” This episode shows us a round-table discussion on the topic with high ranking former followers, executives, and journalists.

Mike Rinder an Australian former senior executive of the Church of Scientology International (CSI) and the Sea Organization based in the United States explains, “These propaganda arms, they claim they are taking care of the drug problem, they’re taking care of illiteracy, they’re bringing relief to people who have suffered natural disasters, they are helping eradicate psychiatry, they are doing away with crimes. They are somehow taking care of the broad problems in society,”

After showing heaps of evidence that the publications created by the church of Scientology are framed in a way to pull in more money without really doing the positive work they claim to be doing, the round table presents a letter from the founder of the organization explaining that they must get “real” allies.

In a Hubbard Communications Office 1969 policy letter, Ron Hubbard states,
“You can and must ally with real humanitarian and civil-rights groups (getting press coverage for each such contact).” He also gets support from allied organizations like churches, and by using such contacts Scientology he believed that the group would become successful.

One of the guests, Quailynn McDaniel, a former Scientologist of 20 years, then admits that she was “well aligned all over the community purposely. We even started attending Indian Rocks Church, my kids went to Indian Rocks School. We were deeply embedding ourselves in the community. We were the only Scientologists with kids at Indian Rocks that were not Christian. We were safe-pointed, we’re normal, we’re aligned, we’re integrated, and we’re accepting other faiths. And I actively did disseminate and actively convert Christians and recruit them from that base.”

Tony Ortega a Journalist who has investigated Scientology since 1995, explains:
“Scientology always proceeds from the notion that they will be taking over the world, and in order to take over the world, they first need to send out these social coordination programs to soften up the field, so people will then be ready to accept Scientology. Ultimately it’s to make a show at the event to convince Scientologists that something’s being done.”

“It (the propaganda videos) can’t stand up to scrutiny, just the scrutiny of did they do anything.” says Fred Oxaal who spent 33 years in Scientology and founded one of the propaganda arms The Way to Happiness Foundation.

“It’s very clever, it’s very calculated, it’s very produced, but it’s smoke and mirrors and underneath it is nothing other than this is a way of collecting more money,” says Rinder.

Remini closes out the show with a statement that indicates just how powerful the propaganda is and how much of a hold it has on the Scientologists minds,

“Most of us stay in because we believe these things are going on in the world and we’re making these big changes. We are willing to consider divorcing our husbands and our wives, and a lot of people disconnect from their children because of the propaganda that’s being put out and I hope that somebody stops, looks and says I’m not putting my name on that or says I never said that.”

If the publications made for Scientology’s loyal followers are pure propaganda, what can we expect their public cable tv station to be? From this episode of Scientology and the Aftermath alone, we can tell that the cult of Scientology goes to great lengths to recruit new followers, especially Christians. It is through their propaganda that they find ways to pull on heartstrings, manipulate emotions, and make false promises.