Leah Remini, Part 6 – Aftermath Season 1, episode 1 – Manufactured Accusations
Transcript:
Mark Rathbun:
It begins with episode one, which is literally from beginning to end a manufactured story. Leah Remini starts off saying that she wrote a book and thought it would all be over; she wrote a book and just wanted to move on. Of course that is contradictory to the whole roll out campaign (see Leah Remini parts 1-5) that Mike Rinder briefed me on she confirmed later. But she presents herself as, “I will just write all the facts down from my experiences, and I’ll be done with…except, there was such an unbelievable demand for me to come protect these poor, innocent people who got harmed by Scientology.”
Phony, acted Amy Scobee Story
And so, episode one is supposed to be that story, Amy Scobee reached out to her. This is 2016. Amy Scobee told her story in 2009, seven years before this. Amy Scobee wasn’t in need of someone who had a platform. She wrote a book in 2009. But, according to episode one Amy came to Leah to resolve this problem of her being disconnected from her mother in 2016. Except, Amy has been connected with her mother since 2010. So, they literally manufactured and made up this story that people (former members) came out of the wood work – beginning with the person they put up front and center, Amy Scobee – so solve this problem that didn’t exist. In actual fact, it did not exist. So, this was planning, scripting, acting and dramatizing as much as her previous reality tv show.
Just look at what these people are saying in real time: Amy literally put on her Facebook page “It’s Showtime!” That was her promotion for the show coming up. It wasn’t, “hey, I’m going to tell my heartfelt story in this documentary search for the truth.” It was, “It’s Showtime!”
Amy Scobee Acting
It’s opportunist. Everybody is scratching everybody else’s back. Amy ends up getting a gig as a personal assistant in Hollywood at the same time. Her husband ends up getting another gig. So, she’s playing it for all she can get. Look, I consider myself friends with these people. I am not trying to put them down or anything. I am just telling you like it is. I got nothing on them. But, it is sort of par for the course for that personality. I mean they plan, script, create these ‘warrior princess’ personalities that do not exist in reality. You see, Amy now tells a new story after nine years after the fact of writing about how there were all these terrible things going on at the international headquarters of Scientology, and that she got in trouble, ethics trouble, because she had a problem because she told things as they were. What is wrong with this picture is, I was there at the time – and I was there for twenty years she was there – Amy Scobee was exactly the opposite of that. The only times she got in trouble was for exactly the opposite. It was for telling things how they weren’t. I mean, you’d have to go to great lengths to get her to knock off the public relations, to knock off the spin, to knock off the false positivity, and just tell it like it is. And yet, she is saying “I got disciplined and I went down in flames for telling it like it is. In other words, she was protesting these terrible things that were happening. Didn’t happen. Literally manufactured. Scripted, acted, played out.
The reason I bring this up is – because I don’t dislike Amy; she’s a very personable person – but what I am pointing out is the reality of it: The story is absolutely invented.
Remini and Rinder Compound the Fake News
Then, like I said earlier (parts 1-5) Rinder and Remini change the stories and change the complexion of it by commenting by introducing, then having the person make a quote, and then interpreting and altering and putting another spin on it so that they alter what the person said. What I am telling you is that in this series it goes a whole step further because the talent, the guest, Amy is literally telling a story that is 180 degrees from the truth. And then it is pumped up and altered and changed and conflated by the producer, director, talent: Rinder and Remini.
So, by the end of it, it bears no resemblance to reality.
Leah took me to school on how unreal reality tv is. Watching the second reality series – the Aftermath series – I see it takes it to a whole different level. It is so obviously scripted, rehearsed, acted and dramatized every step of the way it is a whole new level of false impression. I spoke earlier about how Alex Gibney pirated from Roast Beef Productions in the UK – he pirated this format they used in his documentary. Which is to say they came up with this idea of ‘well get the witnesses to say things, but if they won’t go far enough, we’ll bring in Tony Ortega who will say anything for a handout, and he can make it sound like the previous person said something else.” And so they used him (Ortega) interspersed throughout, and Gibney did the exact same thing. Tony Ortega who didn’t participate in the book – it was supposed to be a documentary about the book – is throughout the documentary because he is going to create the premise. In the Aftermath they compound the felony because they use the exact same technique except that the producer, director, talent, actors Leah and Mike Rinder are doing it throughout. They introduce a concept with a bunch of generalities. Then, they have someone say something. Then Remini and Rinder jump back in and interpret and throw out more generalities. And (what was said by the interviewee) is completely and utterly altered, the reality of what the person’s experience was. In other words, the people who participate do not even have to have a story – and to date through Season One not one of them has a story worthy of news. How do I know? Because I knew these people nine years ago when the news was reporting some of the stuff that was going on during the previous ten to twenty years when the media was interested. They did not make the cut then. But, they make the cut now (on Leah’s show) because they’ll say what they are saying, but as introduced by Leah and Mike and interpreted afterwards, and then bridged to their next comment, it all the sudden becomes this nefarious, scary thing. And that is the technique that is used, episode after episode.
Moving On Up a Little Higher 