Daily Archives: June 7, 2017

Note:

Mark Rathbun was approached by Lawrence Wright to serve as his source of Scientology expertise for his book Going Clear. Wright considered no one comparable to Rathbun in terms of depth of knowledge and experience with Scientology both within and outside the church.  Rathbun recounts how he spent many days, including two days of interviews at Rathbun’s home, attempting to educate Wright on the subject in a neutral fashion – that is taking the good with the bad. Wright apparently only wanted the bad. Rathbun posted a number of videos analyzing Wright’s work after the fact. Summaries are provided ahead of each video.

Intro video, Part One, summary:

How Lawrence Wright betrayed his ‘fairness’ standard employed in Looming Towers when it came to dealing with L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology.

Instead, Wright slavishly regurgitated the existing Establishment anti Scientology narrative, excluding many facts brought to him that at minimum threw serious doubt upon that narrative.

Rathbun was frustrated because he provided much of the facts undermining the existing mainstream anti-Scientology narrative that Wright systematically excluded.

Rathbun was hounded by Wright’s fact checkers and virtually every one of Rathbun’s corrections to the fact checkers never found their way into the book.

Several propaganda techniques used by Wright included:

1. Positioned self publicly as wanting to find out how prominent people found Scientology so alluring and stuck with it despite its bad media rap.  That cover was found by Rathbun to be insincere and fraudulent. Wright systematically excluded the plethora of specifics Rathbun provided to answer that question.
2. On the press circuit Wright took 180 degree different position; that of anti-Scientology advocate, literally lobbying to have its tax exemption revoked and wanting to cancel prominent Scientologists to turn on their religion by Wright’s public shaming.
3. Rathbun shows how Wright did “bias disclosure” in his only previous book on religion – Saints and Sinners. Yet, if there were ever pre bias disclosure required, it was clear that was case with Scientology. Yet, no such disclosure.