Since some of the materials which describe the $cientology cult could be
considered to be copywritten materials, I have censored myself and The
Skeptic Tank by deleting any and all possible text files which describes
the cult's hidden mythologies. I have elected to quote just a bit of the
questionable text according to the "Fair Use" legal findings afforded to
those who report. - Fredric L. Rice, The Skeptic Tank, 09/Sep/95
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From news.interserv.net!news.sprintlink.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.compuserve.com!news.production.compuserve.com!news Tue Jul 25 09:49:58 1995
Path: news.interserv.net!news.sprintlink.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.compuserve.com!news.production.compuserve.com!news
From: Robert Marcus <102020.1551@CompuServe.COM>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: TIME: Church Victories Mount
Date: 23 Jul 1995 17:34:11 GMT
Organization: via CompuServe Information Service
Lines: 191
Message-ID: <3uu16j$gtm$1@mhade.production.compuserve.com>
"TIME: Church Victories Mount
"Following TIME magazine's hatchet-job cover story in May 1991,
The Church launched a precedented-setting public campaign to
counter the Time smear and to make the truth about Scientology
known. It soon became recognized as one of the most effective
public relations campaigns in American History. The Church and
its members refused to allow outragious lies about Scientology go
unchallenged.
"First came the daily full-page ads in USA Today, the nation's
largest newspaper. Every day for three weeks the Church exposed
the ignoble history of Time's support of Adolph Hitler, Fascist
dictator Benito Mussolini, mind-altering drugs LSD, and
psychiatric drugs including Prozac. Other ads in those first
three weeks exposed Eli Lilly & Co. as the manufacturer of
dangerous drugs such as Prozac, heroin, LSD, Darvon and
methadone.
"On June 14, 1991, `The Story Time Couldn't Tell: Who really
controls the news at Time magazine -- and why,' was inserted with
every copy of USA Today. It told the story of Lilly's pressure
on Time to attack Scientology, and their demands on the Church's
PR firm (Hill & Knowlton) to abandon the Church in the face of
the Time onslaught, in retaliation for exposure by the Church and
the Citizens Commission on Human Rights on Human Rights of the
dangers of Eli Lilly's psychiatric drugs.
"The Church's media campaign exposed the true stor behind the
attack and earned the Church enormous recognition and respect.
No one else had ever dared to stand up to Time and its hidden and
primarlity money-motivated agenda. The Church's campaign quickly
became legend -- eve making its way into college classrooms as an
example of an outstanding of effective public relations work.
"With the positive handling ongoing in the public arena, legal
actions were launched to gain restitution for the wrongs that had
been done.
"A year after the article appeared -- and only after Time refused
to correct its blatent lies and arrongantly refused to sell
advertising space to the Church -- the Church sued Time for $416
million. Evidence in the case has now confirmed that the
reporter wrote the story with malicious intent and manipulated
much of the information he recieved from sources to make their
statements appear negative and to disregard anything positive.
"The Church also brought legal action against individuals whose
false and defamatory statements about the Church had appeared in
the article. As with Time magazine, the Church first approached
these individuals with an opportunity to retract their lies and
make up the damage they had caused. Only when they refused was
legal action initiated.
"Over the past two years, knowing their own statements were so
false they would never withstand a challange in a court demanding
facts and evidence, each of the parties involved backed out, and
the Church and Scientologists won significant settlements.
"One case arising from the Time article was brought by Sterling
Management Sytems, Inc., a consulting firm owned by
Scientologists. Sterling employees were incensed at false
statements by an attorney who was a known attacker of religions,
who misrepresented Sterling's activities and attempted to smear
the Church of Scientology. Sterling sued him and in December
1993 won a favorable settlement.
"In October 1991, two other individuals quoted in Time magazine
making unfavorable statements comments about Scientology sued the
Church on a trumped-up charge, making similar claims to those
they made in Time. The Church, in turn, filed its own suit
against these individuals for their defamatory statements in the
magazine. These suits were settled in December 1993 with an
extremely favorable result for the Church.
"In August, a lawsuit against the advertising agency of Trout and
Ries Inc. was settled favorably for the Church. The Church had
briefly hired Trout and Ries in 1986 ot provide marketing advice.
When a quote from Trout appeared in the Time article in violation
of a confidentiality agreement between Trout and Ries and the
Church, the Church filed suit.
"The New York Supreme Court ruled that the agreement was `valid
and enforcable,' that it had been breached by Trout and Ries and
that the firm's principals were personally liable for damages.
Trout and Ries met the Church's demands and settle the case,
rather than face a trial on damages.
"The Church also sued Eli Lilly and former PR firm Hill &
Knowlton, and recently the Church was able to reach another very
important result as part of the overall handling of the Time
story.
"In the days immediately following the publication of the Time
article in May 1991, the Church's public relations firm, Hill and
Knowlton, refused to honor its contract with the Church even
though it had been hired specifically to assist in the crisis
situations such as media attacks. The Church launched an
immediate investigation to find the exact cause and Third Party
behind this sudden betrayal.
"As the string pull proceeded, the story unfolded that was first
introduced in `The Story That Time Couldn't Tell': Hill &
Knowlton had terminated the Church's account on orders from the
Chief Executive Officer of its owner corporation WWP (Wire &
Plastic Products). This termination follows months of pressure
from Eli Lilly, a long-term client of J. Walter Thompson, which
is also owned my WWP and is thus a sister organization of Hill &
Knowlton. Lilly, through its advertising connections and media
influence, attempted to silence the Church in order to salvage
and protect its billion dollar Prozac empire throught the Time
article.
"Following the termination of the Church's account, Church
executives attempted to get Hill & Knowlton to make up the damage
they had caused the Church. They refused. In May, 1992, the
Church subsequently filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against
Hill & Knowlton and Eli Lilly as well as J. Walter Thompson and
Martin Sorrell.
"Lilly and Hill & Knowlton, not surprisingly, quickly hired three
huge law firms and sought to have the case dismissed, haughtily
asserting that the case would be thrown out without so much as a
shred of evidence being submitted.
"The were mistaken. Because, in fact, the judge catagorically
denied all their efforts to have the case dismissed.
"At the hearing leading to the defeat of the defendent's first
attempt to dismiss the case in November 1992, Judge Stanley
Sporkin of the United States District Court in Washington, D.C.,
said, `...there would have been no reason for Hill & Knowlton to
drop them [the Church] unless you [Lilly] wanted to extort or
exact out of them their right to criticize your drug... So what
you did is... trying to use your muscle to force [the Church] to
give up a legitimate right under the First Amendment of the
Constitution.'
"In March 1994, with the trial approaching fast, the defendents
tried once again to get the case dismissed. This was also
unsuccessful.
"In a 30 page ruling issued on March 21, 1994, Judge Sporkin, for
the first time in a judicial proceeding relied upon the `What is
Scientology?' book as the source for a description of the
Scientology religion in his decision. The judge described in
detail the pressure Lilly put on J. Walter Thompson and WWP to
get Hill & Knowlton to drop the Church account.
The judge then quoted from the defendent's own documents, which
had never before been made public, in describing what transpired.
His decision reveals that in August 1990, Hill & Knowlton drafted
a letter to be sent to the head of WWP Group in an effort to fend
off Lilly's actions to pressure WWP and Hill & Knowlton into
cancelling the Church account. In the letter, Hill & Knowlton's
chief executive implored WWP's boss not to drop the Church
because of Lilly's `client blackmail.'
"The judge also commented in his ruling, `Hill & Knowlton
betrayed this (the Church's) trust by compromising its
representation of CSI for the benefit of WWP's bottom line, and
by giving advice to others to be specifically used against CSI's
interests.'
"Finally, on the eve of the trial, the defendents sought to have
the judge cancel out the Church's claims for monetary
compensation. This, too, failed, and with that the very
threshold of trial was reached. Having failed in all their
efforts to get the case thrown out and to eviscerate the Church's
damages, Hill & Knowlton, Eli Lilly and the others settled the
case with the Church on the day trial was to begin.
"The settlement terms, including the amount, cannot be revealed.
However, not only is the Church pleased with the results of this
case, but in the final analysis ethics was gotten in, which is,
after all, the desired result. The Church will use the legal
system when necessary, but once ethics have gone in, the Church
os always willing to settle lawsuits.
"Scientologists should also be aware that the Church continues to
regard Prozac as a very dangerous drug because of the many
reports concerning suicides, murders and other acts of extreme
violence that are linked to the drug. This has been and
continues to be the Church view based upon evidence we have
recieved and continue to recieve. Nothing has changed that
view."
-- Reprinted article appearing in Scientology Today, Fall 1994,
cheerfully so by R. W. Marcus
THE SUN NEVER SETS ON SCIENTOLOGY!