A Silver Moment.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Forest Public Library
.
Anderson Cooper will visit Scott County
By Chris Allen Baker, News Editor
Wednesday, March 31, 2010 1:27 PM CDT
FOREST — During an upcoming visit to the South, CNN broadcast news journalist Anderson Cooper is making a stop in Scott County within the next two months as part of an effort to help raise funds for the new Forest Public Library shelving campaign.
Cooper, who has family ties to Forest through cousins who live here, is expected to visit on Friday, May 14, according to family members who confirmed the visit late last week. He is expected to speak for one hour, from noon to 1 p.m., that day. He is expected to serve as a commencement speaker at Tulane University the next day.
A family spokesperson said Monday that Cooper, a book author in addition to broadcast journalist, will speak for approximately 30 minutes and take questions from the audience. Attempts to use the Forest Elementary Auditorium fell through on Tuesday but organizers were seeking a new location.
Cooper’s visit is the result of his local family’s membership in the Friends of the Forest Library organization which is conducting a fundraising campaign to raise $100,000 for shelving for the new library facility expected to be completed this summer. The family spokesperson said an invitation was extended to Anderson, who has visited Mississippi frequently, to make a public appearance.
Further details of his visit were still incomplete as of press time.
According to his CNN biography, Cooper anchors “Anderson Cooper 360°,” an award-winning provocative alternative on CNN/U.S. each weekday to the typical network evening newscast. Cooper, who joined CNN in December 2001, served as CNN's weekend anchor before moving to prime time in March 2003 following the war in Iraq and then to a two-hour, late evening timeslot in November 2005 following Hurricane Katrina, where he spent more than a month along the U.S. Gulf Coast and has returned regularly.
His reporting has also taken him abroad to Afghanistan, Iraq, Mexico and London. Additional international correspondence assignments during his career have included Bosnia, Iran, Israel, Russia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa and Vietnam.
He also anchored much of CNN’s live coverage of the funeral of Pope John Paul II in the Vatican City in 2005 and traveled to Sri Lanka to cover the tsunami in 2004.
His book, Dispatches from the Edge, are memoirs about covering the South Asia tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and other news events, has topped the New York Times Bestsellers List and other bestseller charts.
Before joining CNN, Cooper was an ABC News correspondent and host of the network's reality program, The Mole, among his ABC assignments.
Cooper graduated from Yale University in 1989 with a bachelor of arts degree in political science. He also studied Vietnamese at the University of Hanoi. Cooper was born on June 3, 1967, in New York City, the younger son of the writer Wyatt Emory Cooper and the artist, designer, writer, and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, and is the great-great-great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt of the prominent Vanderbilt shipping fortune.
Anderson Cooper will visit Scott County
By Chris Allen Baker, News Editor
Wednesday, March 31, 2010 1:27 PM CDT
FOREST — During an upcoming visit to the South, CNN broadcast news journalist Anderson Cooper is making a stop in Scott County within the next two months as part of an effort to help raise funds for the new Forest Public Library shelving campaign.
Cooper, who has family ties to Forest through cousins who live here, is expected to visit on Friday, May 14, according to family members who confirmed the visit late last week. He is expected to speak for one hour, from noon to 1 p.m., that day. He is expected to serve as a commencement speaker at Tulane University the next day.
A family spokesperson said Monday that Cooper, a book author in addition to broadcast journalist, will speak for approximately 30 minutes and take questions from the audience. Attempts to use the Forest Elementary Auditorium fell through on Tuesday but organizers were seeking a new location.
Cooper’s visit is the result of his local family’s membership in the Friends of the Forest Library organization which is conducting a fundraising campaign to raise $100,000 for shelving for the new library facility expected to be completed this summer. The family spokesperson said an invitation was extended to Anderson, who has visited Mississippi frequently, to make a public appearance.
Further details of his visit were still incomplete as of press time.
According to his CNN biography, Cooper anchors “Anderson Cooper 360°,” an award-winning provocative alternative on CNN/U.S. each weekday to the typical network evening newscast. Cooper, who joined CNN in December 2001, served as CNN's weekend anchor before moving to prime time in March 2003 following the war in Iraq and then to a two-hour, late evening timeslot in November 2005 following Hurricane Katrina, where he spent more than a month along the U.S. Gulf Coast and has returned regularly.
His reporting has also taken him abroad to Afghanistan, Iraq, Mexico and London. Additional international correspondence assignments during his career have included Bosnia, Iran, Israel, Russia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa and Vietnam.
He also anchored much of CNN’s live coverage of the funeral of Pope John Paul II in the Vatican City in 2005 and traveled to Sri Lanka to cover the tsunami in 2004.
His book, Dispatches from the Edge, are memoirs about covering the South Asia tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and other news events, has topped the New York Times Bestsellers List and other bestseller charts.
Before joining CNN, Cooper was an ABC News correspondent and host of the network's reality program, The Mole, among his ABC assignments.
Cooper graduated from Yale University in 1989 with a bachelor of arts degree in political science. He also studied Vietnamese at the University of Hanoi. Cooper was born on June 3, 1967, in New York City, the younger son of the writer Wyatt Emory Cooper and the artist, designer, writer, and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, and is the great-great-great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt of the prominent Vanderbilt shipping fortune.
Webcast Conference about Haiti
.
March 31, 2010
Haiti Donor's Conference webcast
Posted: 01:34 PM ET
Add a comment
AC360°
Earlier today the United the United States and United Nations, in cooperation with the Government of Haiti, kicked off the first International Donor's Conference aimed at securing funding for rebuilding Haiti after the January 12 earthquake that rocked the already-impoverished nation.
You can follow the conference via live webcast here.
March 31, 2010
Haiti Donor's Conference webcast
Posted: 01:34 PM ET
Add a comment
AC360°Earlier today the United the United States and United Nations, in cooperation with the Government of Haiti, kicked off the first International Donor's Conference aimed at securing funding for rebuilding Haiti after the January 12 earthquake that rocked the already-impoverished nation.
You can follow the conference via live webcast here.
One Long Sanchez
.
Rick Sanchez: The anti-Anderson Cooper
By Eleni Gage - The Daily Caller 03/31/10 at 2:16 AM
Tweet. Tweet. That’s not the sound of baby birds celebrating the first day of spring. Some would say it’s the future of news journalism in this country.
At least that’s one explanation for Rick Sanchez’s rapid rise at CNN, where he evolved from an anchor and contributor who joined the network in 2004 to the host of his own live, two-hour daily show, “Rick’s List,” where he blusters about spreading news and infotainment from 3 to 5 p.m. every weekday. His Twitter skills are a reason CNN execs themselves tout when asked what Sanchez — whose reporting style differs so noticeably from the traditional CNN talking heads – brings to the network.
“Rick is passionate about the topics he chooses,” Bart Feder, senior vice president of current programming wrote in an e-mail. “He engages with viewers through Twitter and social media, he takes on challenging interviews and pushes back when necessary to make sure the viewers are getting real answers.”
That passion and pushback may be what gets him viewers — it’s also what gets him parodied on “Saturday Night Live” and pilloried on “The Daily Show.” His antics have included getting Tasered to explore the effects of the tool, simulating a police chase and submerging himself underwater — not once, but twice (the first time to demonstrate what happens when you fall off a cruise ship by jumping off a motorboat, and the second to show how to safely get out of a sinking car).
Even a simple interview is a spectacle when Sanchez is involved — Jon Stewart recently acknowledged Sanchez’s passion by saying, “Rick Sanchez delivers the news like a guy at a party who’s doing a lot of coke and traps you in a corner and explains really intensely how an ant is the strongest animal on earth.”
Sanchez’s high-energy broadcasts and oversized reaction shots make him the ideal fantasy to be the subject of a biopic starring Jim Carey. There are plenty of cinematic plot twists in Sanchez’s past to fuel a film. Born in 1958 in Havana, Cuba, Sanchez came to Miami with his parents as a young boy, won a football scholarship to Moorhead State University in Minnesota and went on to study journalism at the University of Minnesota. (Just think of the possibilities of Carrey-as-Sanchez interacting with extras with Fargo-esque accents.)
As a journalist he has covered September 11 and Hurricane Katrina, and returned to Cuba several times, even interviewing Fidel Castro (imagine the music swelling, the tear in Carrey’s eye as the exiled boy returns triumphant to his lost island).
Despite a stable family life with his wife and three children, there is drama in Rick’s personal life for Carrey to chew on as well; in 1990, leaving a Miami Dolphins game, he hit a pedestrian, Jeffrey Smuzinick, with his car and drove off, returning to the scene later. Smuznick died of his injuries after several years and Sanchez pleaded no contest to a charge of drunk driving, but never served time. In 2007, he told a reporter for the New York Observer, “I was wrong, because I had a couple of cocktails, because I was over the legal limit … It could have happened to anybody … There were probably a lot of other people leaving the stadium that had had a couple of beers as well.”
The incident has come back to haunt Sanchez in the blogosphere, where his fans and detractors show the passion Feder credits to Sanchez himself. When he tweeted “do u know how much money I’d make if I’d sold out as Hispanic and worked at fox news, r u kidding, one problem, looking in the mirror,” one blogger responded, “If I were Rick Sanchez, I’d take a long look in the mirror over driving drunk, hitting a man, fleeing the scene …” and on in the same vein.
The tweeting chirps both ways. For every rabid detractor, there’s an accolade, whether it’s Sanchez hosting the Twitter awards or the proud declaration on Sanchez’s official CNN bio that “in 2008, he became the first national anchor to regularly incorporate social media in his news gathering and broadcasts.”
Being el Rey de Twitter keeps Sanchez busy. Too busy to learn geography — after the recent earthquake in Chile, he pointed to the Galapagos islands on the map and said, “Here’s Hawaii.” Too busy to learn the metric system – covering the same disaster, he asked an expert what nine meters was “in English.” And too busy with his new show, which launched in December, to be interviewed for this profile, a request his reps declined or postponed repeatedly.
Feder, commenting on what Sanchez brings to CNN, e-mailed, “Rick’s enthusiasm is genuine and people can tell that he is authentic and extremely knowledgeable.” Extremely knowledgeable may be a stretch, but authentic is right on the money. “He is who he is; it’s not a persona for TV, he’s really that hyper and excited,” said a CNN producer who doesn’t work with Sanchez and who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “You can tell what’s a Sanchez story, and that must make producing for him really easy.” It makes watching him easy and, to some, comforting, too; you know exactly the kind of Taser-ing, deep-sea-drama show you’re going to get when you tune in, and that keeps viewers coming back in an era where, the producer said wistfully, “no one makes an appointment to watch TV anymore.”
When asked what Sanchez added to CNN, the producer said, “Two things: Hispanics and Twitter.”
Hispanics aren’t just tuning in to support an immigrant-made-good; Sanchez, who appears on both CNN and CNN en Espanol, often interviews subjects in Spanish, while doing live, simultaneous translation into English for the viewer, a valuable use of his manic energy, and one that adds to the viewer’s sense of being involved in the story.
As for the Twittering, it’s an odd hybrid of personal opinion, Sanchez’s diary, and a news feed. And while it may be disheartening to think that we’re becoming used to getting our news from a medium which could be embodied by Tweetie the cartoon bird, several producers I spoke to said twittering was the wave of the future — that Sanchez is part of CNN’s effort to make news more interactive.
Maybe the viewers Sanchez brings in — and engages — offset his gaffes, but whatever the case, the same fast-on-the-draw, larger-than-life style that makes Sanchez a Twitter machine is what contributes to the man’s antic, often-amusing reporting style. Following Sanchez’s Chile coverage, Jon Stewart commented, “See, that’s the thing about news in a disaster – you need information that’s fast and inaccurate,” which may characterize not just Sanchez (and Stewart was commenting on his on-camera performance, not a tweet), but on Twittering itself.
One wonders what the eminences grises of CNN — those gray-haired, deep-voiced purveyors of information such as Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper – think of the tweeting bloviator in their midst. Are they embarrassed to be in his company? Envious of his success? Or simply cognizant of the fact that he might just be the future of television news? As for the anti-Anderson, Sanchez himself, one suspects he’s not too troubled by bloggers laying blame or pundits lamenting the end of reliable news coverage. In his brave new world of media, he who tweets loudest tweets best.
Rick Sanchez: The anti-Anderson Cooper
By Eleni Gage - The Daily Caller 03/31/10 at 2:16 AM
Tweet. Tweet. That’s not the sound of baby birds celebrating the first day of spring. Some would say it’s the future of news journalism in this country.At least that’s one explanation for Rick Sanchez’s rapid rise at CNN, where he evolved from an anchor and contributor who joined the network in 2004 to the host of his own live, two-hour daily show, “Rick’s List,” where he blusters about spreading news and infotainment from 3 to 5 p.m. every weekday. His Twitter skills are a reason CNN execs themselves tout when asked what Sanchez — whose reporting style differs so noticeably from the traditional CNN talking heads – brings to the network.
“Rick is passionate about the topics he chooses,” Bart Feder, senior vice president of current programming wrote in an e-mail. “He engages with viewers through Twitter and social media, he takes on challenging interviews and pushes back when necessary to make sure the viewers are getting real answers.”
That passion and pushback may be what gets him viewers — it’s also what gets him parodied on “Saturday Night Live” and pilloried on “The Daily Show.” His antics have included getting Tasered to explore the effects of the tool, simulating a police chase and submerging himself underwater — not once, but twice (the first time to demonstrate what happens when you fall off a cruise ship by jumping off a motorboat, and the second to show how to safely get out of a sinking car).
Even a simple interview is a spectacle when Sanchez is involved — Jon Stewart recently acknowledged Sanchez’s passion by saying, “Rick Sanchez delivers the news like a guy at a party who’s doing a lot of coke and traps you in a corner and explains really intensely how an ant is the strongest animal on earth.”
Sanchez’s high-energy broadcasts and oversized reaction shots make him the ideal fantasy to be the subject of a biopic starring Jim Carey. There are plenty of cinematic plot twists in Sanchez’s past to fuel a film. Born in 1958 in Havana, Cuba, Sanchez came to Miami with his parents as a young boy, won a football scholarship to Moorhead State University in Minnesota and went on to study journalism at the University of Minnesota. (Just think of the possibilities of Carrey-as-Sanchez interacting with extras with Fargo-esque accents.)
As a journalist he has covered September 11 and Hurricane Katrina, and returned to Cuba several times, even interviewing Fidel Castro (imagine the music swelling, the tear in Carrey’s eye as the exiled boy returns triumphant to his lost island).
Despite a stable family life with his wife and three children, there is drama in Rick’s personal life for Carrey to chew on as well; in 1990, leaving a Miami Dolphins game, he hit a pedestrian, Jeffrey Smuzinick, with his car and drove off, returning to the scene later. Smuznick died of his injuries after several years and Sanchez pleaded no contest to a charge of drunk driving, but never served time. In 2007, he told a reporter for the New York Observer, “I was wrong, because I had a couple of cocktails, because I was over the legal limit … It could have happened to anybody … There were probably a lot of other people leaving the stadium that had had a couple of beers as well.”
The incident has come back to haunt Sanchez in the blogosphere, where his fans and detractors show the passion Feder credits to Sanchez himself. When he tweeted “do u know how much money I’d make if I’d sold out as Hispanic and worked at fox news, r u kidding, one problem, looking in the mirror,” one blogger responded, “If I were Rick Sanchez, I’d take a long look in the mirror over driving drunk, hitting a man, fleeing the scene …” and on in the same vein.
The tweeting chirps both ways. For every rabid detractor, there’s an accolade, whether it’s Sanchez hosting the Twitter awards or the proud declaration on Sanchez’s official CNN bio that “in 2008, he became the first national anchor to regularly incorporate social media in his news gathering and broadcasts.”
Being el Rey de Twitter keeps Sanchez busy. Too busy to learn geography — after the recent earthquake in Chile, he pointed to the Galapagos islands on the map and said, “Here’s Hawaii.” Too busy to learn the metric system – covering the same disaster, he asked an expert what nine meters was “in English.” And too busy with his new show, which launched in December, to be interviewed for this profile, a request his reps declined or postponed repeatedly.
Feder, commenting on what Sanchez brings to CNN, e-mailed, “Rick’s enthusiasm is genuine and people can tell that he is authentic and extremely knowledgeable.” Extremely knowledgeable may be a stretch, but authentic is right on the money. “He is who he is; it’s not a persona for TV, he’s really that hyper and excited,” said a CNN producer who doesn’t work with Sanchez and who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “You can tell what’s a Sanchez story, and that must make producing for him really easy.” It makes watching him easy and, to some, comforting, too; you know exactly the kind of Taser-ing, deep-sea-drama show you’re going to get when you tune in, and that keeps viewers coming back in an era where, the producer said wistfully, “no one makes an appointment to watch TV anymore.”
When asked what Sanchez added to CNN, the producer said, “Two things: Hispanics and Twitter.”
Hispanics aren’t just tuning in to support an immigrant-made-good; Sanchez, who appears on both CNN and CNN en Espanol, often interviews subjects in Spanish, while doing live, simultaneous translation into English for the viewer, a valuable use of his manic energy, and one that adds to the viewer’s sense of being involved in the story.
As for the Twittering, it’s an odd hybrid of personal opinion, Sanchez’s diary, and a news feed. And while it may be disheartening to think that we’re becoming used to getting our news from a medium which could be embodied by Tweetie the cartoon bird, several producers I spoke to said twittering was the wave of the future — that Sanchez is part of CNN’s effort to make news more interactive.
Maybe the viewers Sanchez brings in — and engages — offset his gaffes, but whatever the case, the same fast-on-the-draw, larger-than-life style that makes Sanchez a Twitter machine is what contributes to the man’s antic, often-amusing reporting style. Following Sanchez’s Chile coverage, Jon Stewart commented, “See, that’s the thing about news in a disaster – you need information that’s fast and inaccurate,” which may characterize not just Sanchez (and Stewart was commenting on his on-camera performance, not a tweet), but on Twittering itself.
One wonders what the eminences grises of CNN — those gray-haired, deep-voiced purveyors of information such as Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper – think of the tweeting bloviator in their midst. Are they embarrassed to be in his company? Envious of his success? Or simply cognizant of the fact that he might just be the future of television news? As for the anti-Anderson, Sanchez himself, one suspects he’s not too troubled by bloggers laying blame or pundits lamenting the end of reliable news coverage. In his brave new world of media, he who tweets loudest tweets best.
Penn in Haiti
.
March 31, 2010
Video: Sean Penn reports from Haiti
Posted: 08:50 AM ET
Add a comment
Anderson Cooper
AC360° Anchor
March 31, 2010
Video: Sean Penn reports from Haiti
Posted: 08:50 AM ET
Add a comment
Anderson Cooper
AC360° Anchor
One Long Scientology
.
March 31, 2010
Ex-members spar with Scientology over beating allegations
Posted: 09:28 AM ET
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Program Note: Don't miss part three of our investigation into allegations of abuse within the Church of Scientology tonight on AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.
Anderson Cooper and Ismael Estrada
AC360°
Marty Rathbun used to beat people. He admits it. But he says he was pressured to do it by his boss.
Rathbun was once a senior official of the Church of Scientology, reporting directly to church leader David Miscavige. He says that Scientology's leadership fostered a culture of violence among its top ranks and that Miscavige "constantly pushed me to get physical with people" during his time among its top ranks.
"And I've got to tell you, I've admitted to some, to doing a few of those," Rathbun said. "But not like he did."
Rathbun broke with Scientology in 2004 after 27 years. Other former members support his accusation, telling stories about Miscavige kicking, punching and choking members of the Sea Organization, a religious order that is the church's international leadership team.
The church emphatically denies Miscavige abused anyone or encouraged anyone else to assault subordinates. The only abusers, it says, were two of today's accusers.
Meanwhile, in dozens of affidavits, e-mails and interviews, church supporters - including members of its leadership and the former wives of some of the accusers - are defending Miscavige and attacking the credibility of those who have spoken out. Church spokesman Tommy Davis said it was Rathbun's physical abuse of other church officials that led to him being removed from his job.
"The thing Mr. Miscavige is known for, and has been from the very beginning, is he cleans house," Davis said. "He is someone who makes sure that people who do things that shouldn't be done, they're removed."
Miscavige has led Scientology since the 1986 death of its founder, science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. Through a church spokesman, Miscavige declined to be interviewed for this report. There is no physical evidence to support the accusations against him, just as church affidavits attacking the accusers and supporting Miscavige cannot be independently verified.
But what both sides appear to agree on is that at least for a time, there were periodic beatings within Scientology's upper management. While they disagree on who was responsible for it, both sides say top officials used physical abuse as a means of discipline and intimidation.
During that period, no one called police.
Rathbun is the highest-ranking member of the Church of Scientology to speak against Miscavige. He was Scientology's "inspector-general" and part of the Sea Organization. Members live behind the guarded walls of Scientology's 500-acre international headquarters outside Los Angeles, provided with room and board and a $50-a-week paycheck. They sometimes wear naval-style uniforms, and their billion-year contracts with the church are a pledge not only for this lifetime, but for many others they believe are still to come.
But during that time, Rathbun and others said Miscavige - Rathbun's immediate superior - frequently assaulted subordinates. He said Mike Rinder, the church's spokesman until 2007, bore the brunt of the attacks. In a 2000 meeting, he said Miscavige pinned Rinder against a table "and was whacking him upside the head," then began choking him and eventually threw him to the ground by his neck.
"He had marks on his neck for a week," Rathbun said.
He's not the only one to describe Rinder being badly beaten. Amy Scobee, who helped run Scientology's Celebrity Center in Los Angeles, said she saw Miscavige choke Rinder during a meeting before she left the church in 2005.
"He grabs Mike around the neck, swings him around in one of the office chairs that swings around and is choking him, holding his neck, and Mike's just, like, grabbing the side of his chair, struggling, like, not knowing what was going on," Scobee said. "His face is turning red, and the veins are popping in his neck, and I'm going, 'What the hell is going on?' "
In 2007, the BBC asked Rinder about allegations that Miscavige had beaten him. He denied the reports, calling them "absolute rubbish." He left the church soon afterward and now corroborates Rathbun's account, telling CNN that Miscavige physically assaulted him about 50 times. He says he, too, got physical with subordinates.
Jeff Hawkins, a marketing manager for the church, said Miscavige attacked him several times, including once during a marketing meeting.
"He jumped up on the conference room table, like with his feet right on the conference room table, launched himself across the table at me - I was standing - battered my face and then shoved me down to the floor," Hawkins said.
Hawkins spent 35 years as a Scientologist before leaving the church in 2005. Tom DeVocht, a construction manager for the church, left the same year, because, he says, he could no longer accept Miscavige's violence.
"David asked me a question, and I couldn't tell you what the question is. Don't remember," DeVocht said. But, he added, "The next thing I knew, I have been smacked in the face and knocked down on the ground ... in front of all these people. This is the pope knocking me to the ground."
In addition to leaving Scientology, Rinder, DeVocht, Hawkins and Rathbun are now divorced. Their former wives, who remain high-ranking members of the Sea Organization, are joining Scientology leaders in painting them as "bitter" former employees who are now colluding against the church. All four spoke to CNN in a joint interview Monday, along with other church officials.
Rinder's ex-wife, Catherine Bernardini, said the only time she saw any sign that her husband had been beaten was when he was attacked "totally out of the blue" by Rathbun.
"I know every square inch of Mike Rinder's body," she said. "I know everything that's ever happened to him, every accident, every time he broke his wrist. I've been with him, we've been together all our lives - it's utterly ridiculous, and it isn't true."
Rathbun's ex-wife, Anne Joasem, calls him "a liar" and "totally psychotic."
"He's alleging that when he left in 2004, it was because he witnessed Mr. Miscavige beating somebody up or whatever. Right after he left, I'm the first person he called. He called me right away. And it never came up," she said.
DeVocht's ex-wife, Jennifer Linson, said she "never saw one scratch" on her husband.
"I never saw one bruise, I never saw one black eye - nothing," Linson said. "Nor did he complain about anything personally. And he would've told me, because any, anything that would happen, I would know about. And besides that, that's not the character of Mr. David Miscavige."
Hawkins' ex-wife, Catherine Fraser, said he "never mentioned one thing" about any abuse.
"To the contrary, he mentioned to me how much Mr. David Miscavige supported him, how much he believed in him," Fraser said.
Davis, who replaced Rinder as Scientology's spokesman, said that Rathbun was to blame for the beatings and that Miscavige stripped him of his authority as he learned of the problem in 2001.
Scientology officials say they tried to offer Rathbun counseling, but he refused their efforts and left the church three years later. After that, Davis said, Rathbun and other ex-members "ganged up" to take on their old religion.
The church says DeVocht was violent and wasted millions of church dollars during his time in the Sea Organization. It accuses Rinder of physically attacking his subordinates and says Hawkins has attended rallies with an anti-Scientology movement called Anonymous.
"These are individuals who have proven not only that they would lie, but that they will get other people to lie," Davis said. "It's not much of a stretch for them to all get together, corroborate their stories, find some other people who have left years ago to try and corroborate it even more, and then come to news media and attack the very person who removed them."
But Hawkins said that was "absolutely not true."
"David Miscavige was the one leading this whole physical violence kick, and it was him who was beating people up," he said.
Rathbun calls the accusations against him "outright lies."
"I didn't come in here saying I was Little Lord Fauntleroy and never did anything wrong," he said. "I said I'm no angel. I'm going to tell you I was involved in this. But for God's sake, to make it sound like I perpetrated the whole thing is just a complete and utter fabrication."
Rathbun said he never raised the issue with anyone besides his wife because of the power Miscavige wields, including excommunication. Hawkins said church members are "not going to say anything" critical of the chairman, and he would have lied to the police himself while he remained a member.
"It's like the battered wife," he said. "The police show up and say, 'Why are you all bruised?' And she says, 'I just fell down the stairs.' She defends the husband."
But the church's defense raises a question of who knew what, when and what was done to stop the abuses - which its leaders say is a matter Miscavige handled personally, and internally.
March 31, 2010
Ex-members spar with Scientology over beating allegations
Posted: 09:28 AM ET
Add a comment
Program Note: Don't miss part three of our investigation into allegations of abuse within the Church of Scientology tonight on AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.
 |  |
AC360°
Marty Rathbun used to beat people. He admits it. But he says he was pressured to do it by his boss.
Rathbun was once a senior official of the Church of Scientology, reporting directly to church leader David Miscavige. He says that Scientology's leadership fostered a culture of violence among its top ranks and that Miscavige "constantly pushed me to get physical with people" during his time among its top ranks.
"And I've got to tell you, I've admitted to some, to doing a few of those," Rathbun said. "But not like he did."
Rathbun broke with Scientology in 2004 after 27 years. Other former members support his accusation, telling stories about Miscavige kicking, punching and choking members of the Sea Organization, a religious order that is the church's international leadership team.
The church emphatically denies Miscavige abused anyone or encouraged anyone else to assault subordinates. The only abusers, it says, were two of today's accusers.
Meanwhile, in dozens of affidavits, e-mails and interviews, church supporters - including members of its leadership and the former wives of some of the accusers - are defending Miscavige and attacking the credibility of those who have spoken out. Church spokesman Tommy Davis said it was Rathbun's physical abuse of other church officials that led to him being removed from his job.
"The thing Mr. Miscavige is known for, and has been from the very beginning, is he cleans house," Davis said. "He is someone who makes sure that people who do things that shouldn't be done, they're removed."Miscavige has led Scientology since the 1986 death of its founder, science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. Through a church spokesman, Miscavige declined to be interviewed for this report. There is no physical evidence to support the accusations against him, just as church affidavits attacking the accusers and supporting Miscavige cannot be independently verified.
But what both sides appear to agree on is that at least for a time, there were periodic beatings within Scientology's upper management. While they disagree on who was responsible for it, both sides say top officials used physical abuse as a means of discipline and intimidation.
During that period, no one called police.
Rathbun is the highest-ranking member of the Church of Scientology to speak against Miscavige. He was Scientology's "inspector-general" and part of the Sea Organization. Members live behind the guarded walls of Scientology's 500-acre international headquarters outside Los Angeles, provided with room and board and a $50-a-week paycheck. They sometimes wear naval-style uniforms, and their billion-year contracts with the church are a pledge not only for this lifetime, but for many others they believe are still to come.
But during that time, Rathbun and others said Miscavige - Rathbun's immediate superior - frequently assaulted subordinates. He said Mike Rinder, the church's spokesman until 2007, bore the brunt of the attacks. In a 2000 meeting, he said Miscavige pinned Rinder against a table "and was whacking him upside the head," then began choking him and eventually threw him to the ground by his neck.
"He had marks on his neck for a week," Rathbun said.
He's not the only one to describe Rinder being badly beaten. Amy Scobee, who helped run Scientology's Celebrity Center in Los Angeles, said she saw Miscavige choke Rinder during a meeting before she left the church in 2005.
"He grabs Mike around the neck, swings him around in one of the office chairs that swings around and is choking him, holding his neck, and Mike's just, like, grabbing the side of his chair, struggling, like, not knowing what was going on," Scobee said. "His face is turning red, and the veins are popping in his neck, and I'm going, 'What the hell is going on?' "
In 2007, the BBC asked Rinder about allegations that Miscavige had beaten him. He denied the reports, calling them "absolute rubbish." He left the church soon afterward and now corroborates Rathbun's account, telling CNN that Miscavige physically assaulted him about 50 times. He says he, too, got physical with subordinates.
Jeff Hawkins, a marketing manager for the church, said Miscavige attacked him several times, including once during a marketing meeting.
"He jumped up on the conference room table, like with his feet right on the conference room table, launched himself across the table at me - I was standing - battered my face and then shoved me down to the floor," Hawkins said.
Hawkins spent 35 years as a Scientologist before leaving the church in 2005. Tom DeVocht, a construction manager for the church, left the same year, because, he says, he could no longer accept Miscavige's violence.
"David asked me a question, and I couldn't tell you what the question is. Don't remember," DeVocht said. But, he added, "The next thing I knew, I have been smacked in the face and knocked down on the ground ... in front of all these people. This is the pope knocking me to the ground."
In addition to leaving Scientology, Rinder, DeVocht, Hawkins and Rathbun are now divorced. Their former wives, who remain high-ranking members of the Sea Organization, are joining Scientology leaders in painting them as "bitter" former employees who are now colluding against the church. All four spoke to CNN in a joint interview Monday, along with other church officials.
Rinder's ex-wife, Catherine Bernardini, said the only time she saw any sign that her husband had been beaten was when he was attacked "totally out of the blue" by Rathbun.
"I know every square inch of Mike Rinder's body," she said. "I know everything that's ever happened to him, every accident, every time he broke his wrist. I've been with him, we've been together all our lives - it's utterly ridiculous, and it isn't true."
Rathbun's ex-wife, Anne Joasem, calls him "a liar" and "totally psychotic."
"He's alleging that when he left in 2004, it was because he witnessed Mr. Miscavige beating somebody up or whatever. Right after he left, I'm the first person he called. He called me right away. And it never came up," she said.
DeVocht's ex-wife, Jennifer Linson, said she "never saw one scratch" on her husband.
"I never saw one bruise, I never saw one black eye - nothing," Linson said. "Nor did he complain about anything personally. And he would've told me, because any, anything that would happen, I would know about. And besides that, that's not the character of Mr. David Miscavige."
Hawkins' ex-wife, Catherine Fraser, said he "never mentioned one thing" about any abuse.
"To the contrary, he mentioned to me how much Mr. David Miscavige supported him, how much he believed in him," Fraser said.
Davis, who replaced Rinder as Scientology's spokesman, said that Rathbun was to blame for the beatings and that Miscavige stripped him of his authority as he learned of the problem in 2001.
Scientology officials say they tried to offer Rathbun counseling, but he refused their efforts and left the church three years later. After that, Davis said, Rathbun and other ex-members "ganged up" to take on their old religion.
The church says DeVocht was violent and wasted millions of church dollars during his time in the Sea Organization. It accuses Rinder of physically attacking his subordinates and says Hawkins has attended rallies with an anti-Scientology movement called Anonymous.
"These are individuals who have proven not only that they would lie, but that they will get other people to lie," Davis said. "It's not much of a stretch for them to all get together, corroborate their stories, find some other people who have left years ago to try and corroborate it even more, and then come to news media and attack the very person who removed them."
But Hawkins said that was "absolutely not true."
"David Miscavige was the one leading this whole physical violence kick, and it was him who was beating people up," he said.
Rathbun calls the accusations against him "outright lies."
"I didn't come in here saying I was Little Lord Fauntleroy and never did anything wrong," he said. "I said I'm no angel. I'm going to tell you I was involved in this. But for God's sake, to make it sound like I perpetrated the whole thing is just a complete and utter fabrication."
Rathbun said he never raised the issue with anyone besides his wife because of the power Miscavige wields, including excommunication. Hawkins said church members are "not going to say anything" critical of the chairman, and he would have lied to the police himself while he remained a member.
"It's like the battered wife," he said. "The police show up and say, 'Why are you all bruised?' And she says, 'I just fell down the stairs.' She defends the husband."
But the church's defense raises a question of who knew what, when and what was done to stop the abuses - which its leaders say is a matter Miscavige handled personally, and internally.
Tuesday's Abuse
.
March 31, 2010
Scientology: Allegations of abuse
Posted: 06:03 AM ET
Add a comment
Anderson Cooper
AC360° Anchor
March 31, 2010
Scientology: Allegations of abuse
Posted: 06:03 AM ET
Add a comment
Anderson Cooper
AC360° Anchor
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
QuebTex
.
with 
&
US, Canada Agree To Swap Texas, Quebec
OTTAWA, Ont. (CAP) (CNN) (P.E.T.E.R.)- Hello, this is Anderson cooper reporting for Anderson Cooper 360 from Ottawa, Canada. Oh boy, it is cold up here! Brrr! It's a good thing I brought the pretty and warm globes Ben gave me for Christmas... Ahem. On to the news, officials from the United States and Canada gathered today in Canada's capital city to sign an historic agreement whereby the countries agree to exchange the province of Quebec for the state of Texas. Finally, we'll get rid of that pest... Did I say that? No, I didn't, and if they say I did I will deny it solidly. So there.
Where was I? Oh, yes. I interviewed the US Ambassador to Canada David Jacobson and he told me that, and I quote, "It's basically an Even-Steven swap," his words, not mine. "Texas already seceded from the US once, back in the 1800's," he continued, "and they've been talking about doing it again for a while. Likewise, Quebecors have been clamoring for a break from Canada for years."
An even swap...? I don't think so, we win French class, they get... what? cattle? The Bushes? Good Riddance I say. No I didn't. Anyway, Mr. Jacobson added, "For both governments, this was an easy play. Our feeling is, if you don't like being part of this country, maybe you'll like being part of theirs better, and vice versa."
The move is expected to be a boon for the trucking industry, whose vehicles begin rolling almost immediately to start swapping the two locations piece by piece. So, if you own a truck, better get going to the Northern border of Texas and get in line to start loading a few cows at the time. Officials said that while some things may break or be lost in transit, they expect both Texas and Quebec to be delivered mostly intact.
"The people of Canada could not be more happy," said Canada's Ambassador to the US, Michael Wilson. "Quebec's been weighing us down for quite a while, so this is great news. We almost blew it - we had asked the US to throw in Rhode Island as well - but as soon as they balked at that proposition, we took it off the table, and the deal was done." I told Monsieur Wilson that they may have fared better had they asked for Wyoming, and take the Cheneys with it. He made a "Ha!" sound and moved on.
Residents of Canada will now have an in-country vacation destination with warm temperatures year-round, a first in Canadian history, along with all the steaks they can eat. Likewise, US citizens pick up miles and miles of new ski slopes at countless winter resort destinations, and a place to finally put to good use the French they learned in junior high school. Mais Oui mes amis.
"The best part of the whole deal is that no one from Texas will ever be eligible to run for president again, since they'll all be Canadian citizens," said Sen. Jeff Merkeley (D-OR), who was eavesdropping from a few feet away, just off view from the camera. "God only knows if the Bush family had any more potential candidates hiding around down there," the camera paned on him, "but now it doesn't matter - we've shipped them all off to Canada!"
For now, the US will retain the rights to the oil refineries located along the coast of Texas, as well as the occasional hurricane that comes ashore. However, that could change when the deal is renegotiated in three years. We may give them Wyoming in exchange for the oil refineries; fat chance but we'll have to try.
US, Canada Agree To Swap Texas, QuebecOTTAWA, Ont. (CAP) (CNN) (P.E.T.E.R.)- Hello, this is Anderson cooper reporting for Anderson Cooper 360 from Ottawa, Canada. Oh boy, it is cold up here! Brrr! It's a good thing I brought the pretty and warm globes Ben gave me for Christmas... Ahem. On to the news, officials from the United States and Canada gathered today in Canada's capital city to sign an historic agreement whereby the countries agree to exchange the province of Quebec for the state of Texas. Finally, we'll get rid of that pest... Did I say that? No, I didn't, and if they say I did I will deny it solidly. So there.
Where was I? Oh, yes. I interviewed the US Ambassador to Canada David Jacobson and he told me that, and I quote, "It's basically an Even-Steven swap," his words, not mine. "Texas already seceded from the US once, back in the 1800's," he continued, "and they've been talking about doing it again for a while. Likewise, Quebecors have been clamoring for a break from Canada for years."
An even swap...? I don't think so, we win French class, they get... what? cattle? The Bushes? Good Riddance I say. No I didn't. Anyway, Mr. Jacobson added, "For both governments, this was an easy play. Our feeling is, if you don't like being part of this country, maybe you'll like being part of theirs better, and vice versa."The move is expected to be a boon for the trucking industry, whose vehicles begin rolling almost immediately to start swapping the two locations piece by piece. So, if you own a truck, better get going to the Northern border of Texas and get in line to start loading a few cows at the time. Officials said that while some things may break or be lost in transit, they expect both Texas and Quebec to be delivered mostly intact.
"The people of Canada could not be more happy," said Canada's Ambassador to the US, Michael Wilson. "Quebec's been weighing us down for quite a while, so this is great news. We almost blew it - we had asked the US to throw in Rhode Island as well - but as soon as they balked at that proposition, we took it off the table, and the deal was done." I told Monsieur Wilson that they may have fared better had they asked for Wyoming, and take the Cheneys with it. He made a "Ha!" sound and moved on.
Residents of Canada will now have an in-country vacation destination with warm temperatures year-round, a first in Canadian history, along with all the steaks they can eat. Likewise, US citizens pick up miles and miles of new ski slopes at countless winter resort destinations, and a place to finally put to good use the French they learned in junior high school. Mais Oui mes amis."The best part of the whole deal is that no one from Texas will ever be eligible to run for president again, since they'll all be Canadian citizens," said Sen. Jeff Merkeley (D-OR), who was eavesdropping from a few feet away, just off view from the camera. "God only knows if the Bush family had any more potential candidates hiding around down there," the camera paned on him, "but now it doesn't matter - we've shipped them all off to Canada!"
For now, the US will retain the rights to the oil refineries located along the coast of Texas, as well as the occasional hurricane that comes ashore. However, that could change when the deal is renegotiated in three years. We may give them Wyoming in exchange for the oil refineries; fat chance but we'll have to try.
The Whole Truth
.
...As reported by that horrible fox. The real truthiness is framed between two brightly colored, magenta lines.
Opinion[ated]
Updated March 30, 2010
The 5 Craziest Attacks on Tea Parties
By Dan Gainor
- FOXNews.com
In case there are any residual doubts of how bad the tea partiers have been treated, here are the Top 5 ways the left and the media have abused a grassroots movement. The coverage has been so hateful and so biased, it was almost impossible to narrow the list.
5) Protesters are Anti-Government
The media and the left portray tea parties as “anti-government” because it undermines a patriotic grassroots movement. Tea partiers aren’t anti-government, they are anti-big government. That’s just not the story journalists tell. The “anti-government” theme is strong, cropping up in more than two dozen stories in The Washington Post and New York Times combined. Very few of them mentioned the word “big” in reference to government.
Instead, it’s NPR’s Liz Halloran claiming tea parties have been boosted by “restive Republicans who have found refuge in the year-old anti-tax, anti-government uprising.” Frank Rich of The New York Times compared tea partiers with Andrew Joseph Stack, the man who flew a plane into an IRS building. “Stack was a lone madman, and it would be both glib and inaccurate to call him a card-carrying Tea Partier or a ‘Tea Party terrorist.’ But he did leave behind a manifesto whose frothing anti-government, anti-tax rage overlaps with some of those marching under the Tea Party banner.”
“restive Republicans who have found refuge in the year-old anti-tax, anti-government uprising.” -- NPR’s Liz Halloran
Frank Rich of The New York Times compared tea partiers with Andrew Joseph Stack, the man who flew a plane into an IRS building.
“Anti-government, anti-CNN since this is highly promoted by the right-wing conservative network Fox and since I can't really hear much more and I think this is not really family viewing.” -- CNN correspondent Susan Roesgen
Then there’s former CNN correspondent Susan Roesgen, who became the story when she reported from the Chicago Tea Party on April 15 last year. Roesgen rudely interrupted one of the protesters and slammed the event for being “anti-government.” After she bullied her interview subject, Roesgen concluded that “you get the general tenor of this” tea party. “Anti-government, anti-CNN since this is highly promoted by the right-wing conservative network Fox and since I can't really hear much more and I think this is not really family viewing.”
CNN is more family friendly now. Roesgen no longer works at the network.
4) Tea Partiers Are Stupid
Calling conservatives stupid is typical left-wing strategy. The left labeled Reagan stupid or senile. George W. Bush was consistently portrayed as stupid by detractors in the left and the media. It only makes sense that tea partiers get the same treatment.
In the case of the tea parties, some of the biggest offenders were also some of the biggest mouths on the left. Last August, former Air America host MSNBC regular Janeane Garofalo let the venom fly during an appearance at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 21. Garofalo called tea partiers “functionally retarded adults.”
[Teabaggers are] “functionally retarded adults.” -- Janeane Garofalo, comic and actor
“The teabaggers, they're not a movement. They're a cult... Cults have their own vocabulary. Now, I don't speak sh**kicker, but I know that in their world, freedom means guns, diplomacy means weakness, elitist means reader, and socialist means black.” -- Bill Maher, HBO's “Real Time”
Bill Maher deployed the same strategy in February of this year during HBO's “Real Time” calling tea partiers “cultists. [sic] “The teabaggers, they're not a movement. They're a cult, and I'm going to prove it. You know someone has fallen into a cult if you see these signs: One. Cults have their own vocabulary. Now, I don't speak sh**kicker, but I know that in their world, freedom means guns, diplomacy means weakness, elitist means reader, and socialist means black.” In Maher’s world, stupid means anyone who is conservative.
3) Protesters are Nazis
Nazis are the ultimate villains both for the horror they brought to the world through conquest and their use of industrialized genocide. But while the left went crazy when Lyndon LaRouche fans carried Obama/Hitler posters to protests, they were quick to use the slander for their own devices.
Take MSNBC’s relatively obscure host Dylan Ratigan. In February, the host of “The Dylan Ratigan Show” began the program by doing what his network always does – attacking conservatives. “The Tea Party has a bit of an integrity problem, as everybody from birthers, to open racists, to outright Nazis are actually on the team. And no one involved, including its leadership, seems to mind that fact.”
“The Tea Party has a bit of an integrity problem, as everybody from birthers, to open racists, to outright Nazis are actually on the team. And no one involved, including its leadership, seems to mind that fact.” -- Dylan Ratigan, host of “The Dylan Ratigan Show” on MSNBC
“They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare.” -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Ratigan learned from the best, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who called the tea parties “Astroturf” before she went on to link them to Nazis. “They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare.” Later she backed off her complete attack and tried to latch onto tea party popularity claiming, “but, you know, we share some of the views of the Tea Partiers.” Sure…
2) Homophobic Slurs
To most ordinary Americans in early 2009, the term “teabagging” meant using a tea bag to make actual tea. Then entire world learned the term had an overt, oral sex connotation, thanks to the media and left-wing pundits.
Nowhere was the use of the term more pronounced than MSNBC. The day before the big tea party event last April, MSNBC's David Shuster made numerous sexual puns during a “Countdown” appearance. “It's going to be teabagging day for the right-wing and they're going nuts for it. Thousands of them whipped out the festivities early this past weekend, and while the parties are officially toothless, the teabaggers are full-throated about their goals,” he told viewers. He later used his Twitter account to attack “teabaggers” and their “teabag leader.” Shuster lost out to fellow MSNBC host Rachel Maddow for most adolescent behavior. Maddow’s and then Air America radio contributor Ana Marie Cox used the word “teabag” at least 51 times in a in a 13-minute long segment of bad “teabag” puns.
“It's going to be teabagging day for the right-wing and they're going nuts for it. Thousands of them whipped out the festivities early this past weekend, and while the parties are officially toothless, the teabaggers are full-throated about their goals,” -- MSNBC's David Shuster on "Countdown"
“It’s hard to talk when you’re tea-bagging.” -- Anderson Cooper [Yeeaaah!!], anchor of Anderson Cooper 360º on CNN
It wasn’t just MSNBC. Journalists at numerous outlets used the derisive term. But CNN anchor Anderson Cooper went even farther during the April 15 “Anderson Cooper 360” program. CNN’s senior political analyst David Gergen said Republicans were “searching for their voice” after two electoral losses, Cooper followed up by saying, “It’s hard to talk when you’re tea-bagging.” The irony of this attack is that it allows lefties and the media to feel smart and act juvenile at the same time.
1) Calling them “racist”
Playing the race card has become the left’s favorite move. It trumps everything else and is virtually impossible to defend against. Naturally, with an African-American president, crying “racism” has become a routine occurrence. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews is just one of the milder examples of someone who injects race into everything except commercials.
Whether it’s Colbert King of The Washington Post or loose cannon former comedienne Garofalo, racism is the left’s preference in attempts to undermine the tea parties.
“a bunch of teabagging rednecks,” “this is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up.” -- Janeane Garofalo, comic and actor
“Today's Tea Party adherents are George Wallace legacies.” “It reminds me of that period in our history right after Reconstruction,” Clyburn said, “when South Carolina had a black governor and the political gains were lost because of vigilantism, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan.” -- Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C.
“Countdown” host Keith Olbermann focused on suggestions there should be civics literacy testing for registered voters made at the recent Tea Party convention.
“And as you could hear, the tea party convention crowd erupted in cheers at the suggestion, although, to be fair, it was sort of hard to tell exactly what the sounds coming from the crowd meant. They were sort of a little bit muffled by, you know, the white hoods,” -- MSNBC host Rachel Maddow
Former funny lady Garofalo bashed the attendees at last year’s tax day tea parties by using several different attacks. The “Countdown” guest called party-goers “a bunch of teabagging rednecks,” adding “this is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up.”
At least she didn’t invoke the KKK, or talk about tea partiers wearing sheets. But she didn’t have to because Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., did it for her. Clyburn showed up in a column by The Post’s Colbert King that claimed “Today's Tea Party adherents are George Wallace legacies.” “It reminds me of that period in our history right after Reconstruction,” Clyburn said, “when South Carolina had a black governor and the political gains were lost because of vigilantism, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan.”
He wasn’t alone. In February, “Countdown” host Keith Olbermann focused on suggestions there should be civics literacy testing for registered voters made at the recent Tea Party convention, which Olbermann referred to as the “Tea Klux Klan.”
Maddow had her own Klan spin. “And as you could hear, the tea party convention crowd erupted in cheers at the suggestion, although, to be fair, it was sort of hard to tell exactly what the sounds coming from the crowd meant. They were sort of a little bit muffled by, you know, the white hoods,” she mocked.
Dan Gainor is The Boone Pickens Fellow and the Media Research Center’s Vice President for Business and Culture. His column appears each week on The Fox Forum. He can also be contacted on Facebook and Twitter as dangainor.
Anderson Cooper 360 - It's hard to talk when you're tea-bagging
...As reported by that horrible fox. The real truthiness is framed between two brightly colored, magenta lines.
Opinion[ated]
Updated March 30, 2010
The 5 Craziest Attacks on Tea Parties
By Dan Gainor
- FOXNews.com
In case there are any residual doubts of how bad the tea partiers have been treated, here are the Top 5 ways the left and the media have abused a grassroots movement. The coverage has been so hateful and so biased, it was almost impossible to narrow the list.
5) Protesters are Anti-Government
The media and the left portray tea parties as “anti-government” because it undermines a patriotic grassroots movement. Tea partiers aren’t anti-government, they are anti-big government. That’s just not the story journalists tell. The “anti-government” theme is strong, cropping up in more than two dozen stories in The Washington Post and New York Times combined. Very few of them mentioned the word “big” in reference to government.
Instead, it’s NPR’s Liz Halloran claiming tea parties have been boosted by “restive Republicans who have found refuge in the year-old anti-tax, anti-government uprising.” Frank Rich of The New York Times compared tea partiers with Andrew Joseph Stack, the man who flew a plane into an IRS building. “Stack was a lone madman, and it would be both glib and inaccurate to call him a card-carrying Tea Partier or a ‘Tea Party terrorist.’ But he did leave behind a manifesto whose frothing anti-government, anti-tax rage overlaps with some of those marching under the Tea Party banner.”
“restive Republicans who have found refuge in the year-old anti-tax, anti-government uprising.” -- NPR’s Liz Halloran
Frank Rich of The New York Times compared tea partiers with Andrew Joseph Stack, the man who flew a plane into an IRS building.
“Anti-government, anti-CNN since this is highly promoted by the right-wing conservative network Fox and since I can't really hear much more and I think this is not really family viewing.” -- CNN correspondent Susan Roesgen
Then there’s former CNN correspondent Susan Roesgen, who became the story when she reported from the Chicago Tea Party on April 15 last year. Roesgen rudely interrupted one of the protesters and slammed the event for being “anti-government.” After she bullied her interview subject, Roesgen concluded that “you get the general tenor of this” tea party. “Anti-government, anti-CNN since this is highly promoted by the right-wing conservative network Fox and since I can't really hear much more and I think this is not really family viewing.”
CNN is more family friendly now. Roesgen no longer works at the network.
4) Tea Partiers Are Stupid
Calling conservatives stupid is typical left-wing strategy. The left labeled Reagan stupid or senile. George W. Bush was consistently portrayed as stupid by detractors in the left and the media. It only makes sense that tea partiers get the same treatment.
In the case of the tea parties, some of the biggest offenders were also some of the biggest mouths on the left. Last August, former Air America host MSNBC regular Janeane Garofalo let the venom fly during an appearance at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 21. Garofalo called tea partiers “functionally retarded adults.”
[Teabaggers are] “functionally retarded adults.” -- Janeane Garofalo, comic and actor
“The teabaggers, they're not a movement. They're a cult... Cults have their own vocabulary. Now, I don't speak sh**kicker, but I know that in their world, freedom means guns, diplomacy means weakness, elitist means reader, and socialist means black.” -- Bill Maher, HBO's “Real Time”
Bill Maher deployed the same strategy in February of this year during HBO's “Real Time” calling tea partiers “cultists. [sic] “The teabaggers, they're not a movement. They're a cult, and I'm going to prove it. You know someone has fallen into a cult if you see these signs: One. Cults have their own vocabulary. Now, I don't speak sh**kicker, but I know that in their world, freedom means guns, diplomacy means weakness, elitist means reader, and socialist means black.” In Maher’s world, stupid means anyone who is conservative.
3) Protesters are Nazis
Nazis are the ultimate villains both for the horror they brought to the world through conquest and their use of industrialized genocide. But while the left went crazy when Lyndon LaRouche fans carried Obama/Hitler posters to protests, they were quick to use the slander for their own devices.
Take MSNBC’s relatively obscure host Dylan Ratigan. In February, the host of “The Dylan Ratigan Show” began the program by doing what his network always does – attacking conservatives. “The Tea Party has a bit of an integrity problem, as everybody from birthers, to open racists, to outright Nazis are actually on the team. And no one involved, including its leadership, seems to mind that fact.”
“The Tea Party has a bit of an integrity problem, as everybody from birthers, to open racists, to outright Nazis are actually on the team. And no one involved, including its leadership, seems to mind that fact.” -- Dylan Ratigan, host of “The Dylan Ratigan Show” on MSNBC
“They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare.” -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Ratigan learned from the best, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who called the tea parties “Astroturf” before she went on to link them to Nazis. “They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare.” Later she backed off her complete attack and tried to latch onto tea party popularity claiming, “but, you know, we share some of the views of the Tea Partiers.” Sure…
2) Homophobic Slurs
To most ordinary Americans in early 2009, the term “teabagging” meant using a tea bag to make actual tea. Then entire world learned the term had an overt, oral sex connotation, thanks to the media and left-wing pundits.
Nowhere was the use of the term more pronounced than MSNBC. The day before the big tea party event last April, MSNBC's David Shuster made numerous sexual puns during a “Countdown” appearance. “It's going to be teabagging day for the right-wing and they're going nuts for it. Thousands of them whipped out the festivities early this past weekend, and while the parties are officially toothless, the teabaggers are full-throated about their goals,” he told viewers. He later used his Twitter account to attack “teabaggers” and their “teabag leader.” Shuster lost out to fellow MSNBC host Rachel Maddow for most adolescent behavior. Maddow’s and then Air America radio contributor Ana Marie Cox used the word “teabag” at least 51 times in a in a 13-minute long segment of bad “teabag” puns.
“It's going to be teabagging day for the right-wing and they're going nuts for it. Thousands of them whipped out the festivities early this past weekend, and while the parties are officially toothless, the teabaggers are full-throated about their goals,” -- MSNBC's David Shuster on "Countdown"
“It’s hard to talk when you’re tea-bagging.” -- Anderson Cooper [Yeeaaah!!], anchor of Anderson Cooper 360º on CNN
It wasn’t just MSNBC. Journalists at numerous outlets used the derisive term. But CNN anchor Anderson Cooper went even farther during the April 15 “Anderson Cooper 360” program. CNN’s senior political analyst David Gergen said Republicans were “searching for their voice” after two electoral losses, Cooper followed up by saying, “It’s hard to talk when you’re tea-bagging.” The irony of this attack is that it allows lefties and the media to feel smart and act juvenile at the same time.
1) Calling them “racist”
Playing the race card has become the left’s favorite move. It trumps everything else and is virtually impossible to defend against. Naturally, with an African-American president, crying “racism” has become a routine occurrence. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews is just one of the milder examples of someone who injects race into everything except commercials.
Whether it’s Colbert King of The Washington Post or loose cannon former comedienne Garofalo, racism is the left’s preference in attempts to undermine the tea parties.
“a bunch of teabagging rednecks,” “this is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up.” -- Janeane Garofalo, comic and actor
“Today's Tea Party adherents are George Wallace legacies.” “It reminds me of that period in our history right after Reconstruction,” Clyburn said, “when South Carolina had a black governor and the political gains were lost because of vigilantism, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan.” -- Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C.
“Countdown” host Keith Olbermann focused on suggestions there should be civics literacy testing for registered voters made at the recent Tea Party convention.
“And as you could hear, the tea party convention crowd erupted in cheers at the suggestion, although, to be fair, it was sort of hard to tell exactly what the sounds coming from the crowd meant. They were sort of a little bit muffled by, you know, the white hoods,” -- MSNBC host Rachel Maddow
Former funny lady Garofalo bashed the attendees at last year’s tax day tea parties by using several different attacks. The “Countdown” guest called party-goers “a bunch of teabagging rednecks,” adding “this is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up.”
At least she didn’t invoke the KKK, or talk about tea partiers wearing sheets. But she didn’t have to because Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., did it for her. Clyburn showed up in a column by The Post’s Colbert King that claimed “Today's Tea Party adherents are George Wallace legacies.” “It reminds me of that period in our history right after Reconstruction,” Clyburn said, “when South Carolina had a black governor and the political gains were lost because of vigilantism, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan.”
He wasn’t alone. In February, “Countdown” host Keith Olbermann focused on suggestions there should be civics literacy testing for registered voters made at the recent Tea Party convention, which Olbermann referred to as the “Tea Klux Klan.”
Maddow had her own Klan spin. “And as you could hear, the tea party convention crowd erupted in cheers at the suggestion, although, to be fair, it was sort of hard to tell exactly what the sounds coming from the crowd meant. They were sort of a little bit muffled by, you know, the white hoods,” she mocked.
Dan Gainor is The Boone Pickens Fellow and the Media Research Center’s Vice President for Business and Culture. His column appears each week on The Fox Forum. He can also be contacted on Facebook and Twitter as dangainor.
More Hatred
.
Conspiracy Theorists are Insane & Violent CNN Psyop
(03:25 min.)
From: HaarlemmerHewe
Added: March 6, 2010
Description: "The Hatriot Movement" John Avalon
URL:
(03:25 min.)
From: HaarlemmerHewe
Added: March 6, 2010
Description: "The Hatriot Movement" John Avalon
URL:
Militias Have Brains Too
.
CNN Psyop NEW WORLD ORDER Anderson Cooper Mark Potok
(06:46 min.)
From: IlluminatiSeer
Added: March 30, 2010
Description: The government is trying to set up militias and people who question the government... so yes if you have a brain then you are a terrorist.. these two people are the real terrorist. Any attacks on police will probably have something to do with these 2
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBlotjckKJc
(06:46 min.)
From: IlluminatiSeer
Added: March 30, 2010
Description: The government is trying to set up militias and people who question the government... so yes if you have a brain then you are a terrorist.. these two people are the real terrorist. Any attacks on police will probably have something to do with these 2
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBlotjckKJc
Haiti and Sean Penn
.
March 30, 2010
J/P Haitian Relief Organization
Posted: 11:12 PM ET
Add a comment
March 30, 2010
J/P Haitian Relief Organization
Posted: 11:12 PM ET
Add a comment
Monday's Violence
.
March 30, 2010
Video: Scientology: A history of violence
Posted: 11:25 PM ET
AC 360°
Monday night we told you about Marty Rathbun. He was a member of the Church of Scientology for 27 years before leaving in 2004.
He rose through the ranks of the Sea Organization, the international management team that runs church operations world wide.
Rathbun says he was the Inspector General and answered only to church leader David Miscavige, the same man who he says would use physical abuse against other members of the churches elite management team.
Rathbun’s ex-wife says he’s lying, and other current Sea Organization members agree. They also say it was Rathburn who was the attacker, not Miscavige.
They say there were a number of incidents where Rathbun would punch, choke or slap other members of the church and that because of his repeated attacks, he removed from his postion of authority at the Church. Rathbun says they are exaggerating. He admits to using physical force, but says it was Miscavige who not only created the culture of violence, he encouraged it.
Tuesday at 10 PM/ET we hear from other former high ranking officials within the church who say they either witnessed or were physically assaulted by the church leader.
Allegations the church strongly denies.
March 30, 2010
Video: Scientology: A history of violence
Posted: 11:25 PM ET
AC 360°
Monday night we told you about Marty Rathbun. He was a member of the Church of Scientology for 27 years before leaving in 2004.
He rose through the ranks of the Sea Organization, the international management team that runs church operations world wide.
Rathbun says he was the Inspector General and answered only to church leader David Miscavige, the same man who he says would use physical abuse against other members of the churches elite management team.
Rathbun’s ex-wife says he’s lying, and other current Sea Organization members agree. They also say it was Rathburn who was the attacker, not Miscavige.
They say there were a number of incidents where Rathbun would punch, choke or slap other members of the church and that because of his repeated attacks, he removed from his postion of authority at the Church. Rathbun says they are exaggerating. He admits to using physical force, but says it was Miscavige who not only created the culture of violence, he encouraged it.
Tuesday at 10 PM/ET we hear from other former high ranking officials within the church who say they either witnessed or were physically assaulted by the church leader.
Allegations the church strongly denies.
Monday, March 29, 2010
A Week Of Scientology
Anderson Cooper to Take on Scientology in New Weeklong SeriesPosted on 29 March 2010 by | Author: Angie Rentmeester | Posted In: TV
Anderson Cooper is getting ready to launch a weeklong series about Scientology today. The series will cover the allegations against the controversial religion, according to Radar Online.
Cooper’s CNN nightly news show, Anderson Cooper 360, will take an inside look at Scientology’s “history of violence,” especially at the allegations against the leader, and best friend of Tom Cruise, David Miscavige that he physically abused his followers.
Cooper will interview Tommy Davis, Scientology spokesman, where he discusses the claims that while there violence was committed against the members in the elite Sea Organization. The guilty offenders are also the ones making the allegations against Miscavige.
Recently, Scientology has been under attack by top-ranking members who left the organization. Top celebrities who support this religion, like Cruise, John Travolta, Jenna Elfman and Kristie Alley, have yet to comment.
Viva La Vida Ricky Gay
.
Living La Vida Gay
Mar 29 2010, 5:11 PM ET
So Ricky Martin is gay.
I know--sit down. You may want to have a glass of water, and possibly a valium. Who could have guessed?
Well, not me, I suppose. Pre-coming out, Ricky Martin occupied about a minute of total time in my consciousness. I never gave much thought to whether he was gay or not, because I never gave much thought to Ricky Martin.
What Martin did is awfully brave and daring--given his profession, and what I understand to be the demographic for his music, this might be a career-ender.
I find his coming-out letter sort of interesting, though. He says that by not coming out, he was "not sharing with the world my entire truth". Well, yes, but who does? I assure you, dear readers, that there are many parts of my "truth" to which you will never be privy, and lucky you, really.
Why do we think that our love lives are such a central part of our existence that we cannot be perfectly whole unless we've shared the major details with the world? I'm not arguing that Ricky Martin should stay in the closet--I'm glad he's out and proud, and hope that it makes life easier for other gay people.
Rather, I wonder why the sex lives of public figures are so central to their appeal. Frankly, I know nothing about the love lives of virtually any movie star or musician: not gender, age, hair color, or names. And it doesn't hamper my enjoyment of their work. Why should it matter whether Ricky Martin--or Anderson Cooper--comes out?
I know, these are not exactly deep thoughts. What can I say. It's Monday.
Bombshell: Ricky Martin Is Gay
By Richard Lawson
Mar 29, 2010 -- 04:32 PM
Though long believed to be the hips-swivelingest, child-adoptingest, Miami-livingest, women-never-datingest straight pop star in town, Ricky Martin has revealed today, on his website [closed at the moment for remodeling. Yeah, really.], that he is a gay person who does gay things.
"I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am," he says at the end of a long missive on the site. Congrats, Ricky! What a nice change from this quote from back in the day:
Living La Vida Gay
Mar 29 2010, 5:11 PM ET
So Ricky Martin is gay.
I know--sit down. You may want to have a glass of water, and possibly a valium. Who could have guessed?
Well, not me, I suppose. Pre-coming out, Ricky Martin occupied about a minute of total time in my consciousness. I never gave much thought to whether he was gay or not, because I never gave much thought to Ricky Martin.
What Martin did is awfully brave and daring--given his profession, and what I understand to be the demographic for his music, this might be a career-ender.
I find his coming-out letter sort of interesting, though. He says that by not coming out, he was "not sharing with the world my entire truth". Well, yes, but who does? I assure you, dear readers, that there are many parts of my "truth" to which you will never be privy, and lucky you, really.
Why do we think that our love lives are such a central part of our existence that we cannot be perfectly whole unless we've shared the major details with the world? I'm not arguing that Ricky Martin should stay in the closet--I'm glad he's out and proud, and hope that it makes life easier for other gay people.
Rather, I wonder why the sex lives of public figures are so central to their appeal. Frankly, I know nothing about the love lives of virtually any movie star or musician: not gender, age, hair color, or names. And it doesn't hamper my enjoyment of their work. Why should it matter whether Ricky Martin--or Anderson Cooper--comes out?
I know, these are not exactly deep thoughts. What can I say. It's Monday.
Bombshell: Ricky Martin Is GayBy Richard Lawson
Mar 29, 2010 -- 04:32 PM
Though long believed to be the hips-swivelingest, child-adoptingest, Miami-livingest, women-never-datingest straight pop star in town, Ricky Martin has revealed today, on his website [closed at the moment for remodeling. Yeah, really.], that he is a gay person who does gay things.
"I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am," he says at the end of a long missive on the site. Congrats, Ricky! What a nice change from this quote from back in the day:
- If I were gay, why not admit it?...I am a normal man. I love women and sex. I am a real hot-blooded Puerto Rican, but I have never been attracted by sex with a man.
 |
The Sharkman
.
Watch CBS News Videos Online
Anderson Cooper dives unprotected with great white sharks and the South African who has spent more time up close with the ocean's most feared predator than anyone else.
Watch CBS News Videos Online
Anderson Cooper gets up close and personal with a great white shark.
Watch CBS News Videos Online
Anderson Cooper dives unprotected with great white sharks and the South African who has spent more time up close with the ocean's most feared predator than anyone else.
Watch CBS News Videos Online
Anderson Cooper gets up close and personal with a great white shark.
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