As many of you no doubt know, Mike Rinder, Marty Rathbun’s punching-bag-turned-best-friend, has just appeared on an Australian TV show called Today Tonight. I figured some of you might want to know what I thought, so… here it is!
I think it was a pretty good showing. Nothing in the interview is really news to those of us who participate in or follow either the protest movement (or Independent Scientology, for that matter) but to the uninitiated, I think it makes Scientology out to look like a crackpot organization (which it is). The piece doesn’t differentiate between Scientology (the practice) and the Church of Scientology (the organization); the result is that Mike appears to be saying some rather negative things about Scientology in general, which is good for some lulz.
I was concerned about Mike pushing the M&M agenda (blame everything on Miscavige while whitewashing Hubbard), but if he tried that, virtually all of it wound up on the cutting room floor. The only bit that crept in was Mike’s plea at the very end of the interview for David Miscavige to “let people get on with practicing Scientology so that it actually helps them.”
The fact is that most of the population probably doesn’t realize this is a three headed race or that there are people practicing Scientology outside of the Church. I think the net effect of the piece will be to keep people away from Scientology – so it would appear that Mike has scored a major victory for all of us who protest Scientology. VWD*, Mike!
* VWD: Very Well Done, a common Scientology compliment.
As you’d expect, Marty’s flock is treating it as a major victory for the Independents. And to the extent that it exposes the evils of David Miscavige, I suppose it is. Incidentally, one of the tactics that Church-sponsored Marty-h8rs have been using is to accuse Mike and Marty of attacking the Church for profit. The show ends with a disclaimer that while Today Tonight did pay for Mike to come out to Australia for an interview, he did not receive any other compensation. In your face, DM!
If you haven’t yet seen the interview, you can watch it on XenuTV.com.
ML,
Caliwog
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