BBC Reporter, Scientology Air Dispute

(AP)  A 40-second rant by a British Broadcasting Corp. reporter, shouting angrily at Church of Scientology official while researching a documentary, has become fodder for a simmering dispute now playing itself out in Internet video clips.

John Sweeney's outburst came as he was interviewing Tommy Davis, a Scientology spokesman who had objected to Sweeney's use of the word "cult." Sweeney's rant was captured by BBC's Panorama program, to air Monday, and Scientology video cameras.

"I look like an exploding tomato and shout like a jet engine and every time I see it, it makes me cringe," Sweeney said in a story posted on the BBC News Web site.

"I apologized almost immediately, Tommy carried on as if nothing had happened, but meanwhile Scientology had rushed off copies of me losing it (my temper) to my boss, my boss's boss and my boss's boss's boss, the director-general of the BBC," Sweeney said.

The Church of Scientology, whose members include John Travolta and Tom Cruise, shadowed the Panorama team with its own camera crew.

A church spokesman denied that Sweeney apologized, and said the organization was putting its own documentary about the dispute on the Internet.

Mike Rinder, a Los Angeles-based spokesman for the Church of Scientology, said he had taken the documentary to the BBC.

"Not one of them would look. The arrogance that has been displayed in this is a little beyond comprehension," he said.

The first clip on the Scientologists' documentary shows Sweeney describing the BBC as sometimes "hideously hidebound" and hampered by bureaucracy. "There are people there who claim salaries who frankly are morons," he says.

Excerpts of the Scientologists' documentary have been posted on YouTube, apparently taken from one of the 100,000 DVDs of its program that the church distributed, Rinder said.

Another clip on YouTube, from the same documentary, shows Sweeney at a movie premiere shouting at Travolta, "Are you a member of a sinister brainwashing cult?"

The BBC offered links to its footage and its own news report on its Web site.

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Photos: Scientology's Stars

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Panorama's editor, Sandy Smith, said Monday he was "disappointed" by Sweeney's outburst but added that the Church of Scientology has "no way of dealing with any kind of criticism at all."

Rinder said it was not the first time that the church had made its own recordings of reporters doing stories about it.

Sweeney refused an invitation to visit the church's headquarters in Florida, Rinder said.

"When we found that he was refusing to literally come inside the building, it was at that point that we went, 'OK we better document this,"' Rinder said.

Sweeney said his outburst came while he was touring a Scientology exhibition in Los Angeles, "Psychiatry: Industry of Death." The exhibit included a mock-up of a Nazi torture chamber, he said, adding that he lost it in the "Mind Control" section of the exhibition.

"I have been shouted at, spied on, had my hotel invaded at midnight, denounced as a 'bigot' by star Scientologists, brainwashed — that is how it felt to me — in a mock-up of a Nazi-style torture chamber and chased round the streets of Los Angeles by sinister strangers."

Rinder said the material in the exhibition came from psychiatric archives. "It's all documentary and its all on video, that's why we did it," he said.

[lil_d3vil]

I wish the U.S. would outlaw this cult just as Germany did after they investigated their practices and how they get their money.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQkhhUytdDs

Here is an undercover tape of how they recruit and history on Hubbard and more.

[jazz_jeff2]

In his defense, John Sweeney and his camera crew were harnessed for 7 full days by the Scientology goon squads AND ALL WERE CAUGHT ON CAMERAS DOING IT.

Read his version here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6650545.stm

[dedik8d]

John Sweeney is a disgrace as a reporter and should be fired. Everyone with a brain knows Scientology is a money grubbing cult with a bunch of whackos in charge. But Sweeney looks as crazy as the Scientologists and is one of the worst "reporters" ever seen.

[jazz_jeff2]

There is something here too: www.xenu.net - its called the REAL truth about this cult.
Not the edited and spinned version of the truth on a website set out to debunk the story. It is just dreadful to see the methods used on the British, the very people and country that are still supporting fellow American soldiers in Iraq.

Go to www.xenu.net for some real truth.

[jazz_jeff2]

If you want to know what Scientology doesn't want you to know, go to www.xenu.net.

[jazz_jeff2]

The Scientology church is the only one in the world that has an intelligence gathering internal agency called the O.S.A. This group of operatives and hired goons have been caught off and on camera doing everything from going through a persons rubbish ( to get any scraps of info) to tailing, confronting and intimidating those that dare might speak out. PLEASE NOTE: The likes of John Travolta and Tom Cruise are probably unaware of the tactics that their organisation uses on the very public that also support their careers too. Most Scientologists I'm sure, are decent people but higher up the ladder, an investigation needs to be held into the outrageous internationally used tactics used by the OSA and hired goons of the sect. It was clear by tonights show that the BBC had only scraped the surface of the terrible tactics used by this corrupt organisation. No wonder the organisation is not recognised in many, many countries and completely banned in others. This organisation does nothing for the credibility of America if it wants to be seen as a land of the fair and free

[jazz_jeff2]

The show ONLY showed the terror tactics used by Scientology cult. Watch the proper show when it become available by the BBC. It shocking to see the Scientology goons intimidating the British reporters for 7 full days.

[jazz_jeff2]

I watched the show (Ireland) and I was shocked. The complete programme instead showed the British public the extent of how far the British BBC were being continuously harassed! The organisation followed continuously the BBC cameramen and reporters EVERYWHERE, even to toilets, tailed them everywhere in cars and Suv's, hired private detectives and harassed the staff of the BBC outrageously ...and they were all caught on film doing this again and again and again! Normally, I'd have an open mind to such things when others (Scientologists) claim a story is biased reporting but that is the first time that its been shown on camera that a "Religion" and "church" is staffed by dark suited evil creeps (including one who came across as a complete raving, ranting thug), abusive to people, stalking day and night BBC reporters and staff. As one BBC man said later, he couldn't see a Church of England doing that! Quite right. It was utterly scary stuff indeed. There is not one other religious organisation in the world that uses today the absolute, threatening, dirty, underhanded "fair game" tactics that were shown ON CAMERA in this one case alone, by the hired goons of this organisation. A BBC reporter cracked under the intense pressure of an abusive goon in his dark glasses and dark suit. Who could blame the BBC staff for cracking? The tactics shown to be used on the staff alone is indicative of the strong arm mentality that now is being used. And this is a church???

[johnalexwood]

Watch "BBC Panorama Exposed", the Scientologists' documentary in full here: http://www.bbcpanorama-exposed.org

johnalexwood

[pearson30]

I think the Church of Scientology did an AWESOME job on this one. Finally turning the tables on "reporters" who are NOT objective at all, but who simply try to bully people around. Right on Scientology! I wish more organizations would learn how to put these bully's in their place! This "reporter" actually went to John Travolta's last movie premier and was totally heckling the poor guy as he was trying to sign autographs. What kind of reporter does that?