Tampa
Tribune
3/13/94
Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil [excerpt]
by Steven Girardi
The
Retold Story
The
Church of Scientology, forever dissatisfied with media coverage, solved
that problem last week.
The
Scientologists printed their own newspaper, an eight-page tabloid called
Freedom, and paid The Tampa Tribune to stuff it inside Friday's Pinellas
editions and to drop another 100,000 copies on doorsteps around town.
If
you haven't read it, let me summarize: It says - in many, many more
words - Scientology is good; those who criticize it are bad.
Big
surprise.
It
extends the olive branch: "It is time to stop listening to the
voices of discord and to put old animosities behind us," in the
words of Scientology public relations man Richard Haworth.
It
then uses it to whack assorted local people, including but not limited
to: Clearwater mayor Rita Garvey and former city commissioners, Police
Chief Sid Klein and former detective Ray Emmons, anyone involved with
the 1983 public hearings into Scientology, the St. Petersburg Times and
assorted executives, and the Clearwater Sun - a newspaper that no longer
exists - over events dating back to the 1970s.
"I believe the people of Clearwater want to know the truth about
what is going on here in Clearwater and also want to know the real story
about the Church of Scientology," Haworth says.
No
question about that.
Haworth laments that the newspapers never told the real story about
Scientology.
He
probably just forgot how residents eventually found out that the United
Churches of Florida, which bought the downtown Ft. Harrison Hotel in
1975, was really the Church of Scientology.
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