In this week’s issue of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, we mentioned how the Tampa Bay Times released a sweet-ass web story that clearly illustrates how Scientology doubled its downtown Clearwater footprint in just three years.
We also made a joke about how Tracey McManus is bylined on the piece along with “Times Staff Writers” because who in their right mind wants to be on the church’s must-surveil list?
This fresh bit of news is not surprising, but the quip got a little more real this week after the Church of Scientology reportedly send a copy of its Freedom magazine to “every journalist at the Tampa Bay Times.” That’s according to the Times’ owner, the nonprofit Poynter Institute, whose employees also received a copy of the mag where the front page reads “I AM A CITIZEN OF CLEARWATER. I AM A SCIENTOLOGIST.” Every employee at the Poynter-owned PolitiFact got a copy of Freedom, too.
Another story in the Scientology publication has the headline “Who Is The Real Block To Downtown Revitalization?”, and claims that the Bay area’s sole daily newspaper has “maintained a rabidly prejudiced editorial policy — completely ignoring the Church’s positive contributions.”
In an email to Poynter, Times executive editor Mark Katches called the Scientology article “utterly baseless.”
The creepiest part? The magazines were “hand-delivered by two men and addressed to everyone with name and job title included.”
Happy Halloween, from Xenu & co.!
Full disclosure, the Church of Scientology owns Creative Loafing's office building.
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This article appears in Oct 31 – Nov 7, 2019.