rainesco
more about the CNN connection with Scientology
Sat Jul 26 23:13:21 2003
67.30.96.73


I'm not one to pin down specific cases, but I've noticed that more and more oddities occur in saga of Scientology, the mass media, and murder. Turner Broadcasting, then CNN, were a specific venue. How did it just so happen that Greta van Susteren was turned into a household name because of CNN and O.J.? (and the truth about those murders is certainly much more than 98% of us can even guess)

The following is concentrated just on a few media particulars, that crept into everyday life.

One issue which can't be 'cleared up' is whether Clear Channel might be another one.

I'm not going overboard, but there's a lot more to it than average people suspect.

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After a career as a trial attorney in both civil and criminal cases, Greta Van Susteren joined Ted Turner's Cable News Network in 1991 as a legal analyst. Millions of Americans got to know her during O. J. Simpson's 1994 trial for murder, and CNN moved her up to co-host Burden of Proof and then The Point. In late 2001 Van Susteren left CNN, complaining of poor treatment by the network, and went to work for FoxNews as host of On The Record with Greta Van Susteren.

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Letter to Greta Van Susteren from Jim Beebe
http://www.skeptictank.org/gen3/gen02041.htm

"... you are a member of the Church of Scientology and that you are a major contributor to the Scientology IAS ( International Association of Scientologists) 'War chest.' "

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http://www.sptimes.com/News/060301/Worldandnation/Washington_Journal_.shtml

CNN legal commentator Greta Van Susteren and her husband, tobacco litigator John Coale, were among more than 500 clients who invested money with a Church of Scientology member who is now under federal criminal investigation.

Unregistered investment adviser Reed Slatkin of Santa Barbara, Calif., has told Securities and Exchange Commission investigators that he met many of his clients through Scientology. Van Susteren and Coale, who live in Washington but have a second home in Clearwater, are prominent members of the church.

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[[written in 1999, as part of an anti-Clinton, anti-China rant]]

http://members.tripod.com/cic_ops/cescah.htm

Greta Van Sustern's hubby, big time Scientology lawyer, John Coale is representing Julie Hyatt Steele in her law suit against Mike Isikoff, the Newsweek reporter who first broke the Lewinsky scandal.

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[[I don't have more info about Rick Kaplan/Scientology]]

CNN is crawling with Scientology. Rick Kaplan is a staunch Clinton supporter and has stayed in the Lincoln bedroom. So has Ted Turner. Dianetics was one of the major sponsors of Turner's Goodwill Games in 1990 (I don't know if this was the only year). CNN also has Greta Van Sustern, a self declared scientologist. Don't forget Kaplan's instructions to CNN reporters to reduce use of the word "scandal" when reporting the President's, for lack of a better term, scandals.

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I did a web search and found all of the articles CNN has published through its website regarding Scientology. For purposes of this brief I've left out the articles which deal only with celebrities. Those articles are miniature advertisements for Scientology and they have absolutely nothing in their content which could harm Scientology.

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http://www.altx.com/interzones2/gregory.html

If you look at Marcia Clark. Her first husband was on the Israeli air force, and he's a lightweight alcoholic and gambling thug. So she divorces him. Her second husband is Gordon Clark who comes out of the church of Scientology, and they were married by one of the high priests in the church of Scientology, named Bruce Roman. Bruce Roman, for some unknown reason, ends up shooting her first husband in the head. And as we talk he lays somewhere in LA a vegetable. None of that is important except that Bruce Roman's lawyer for that case was Robert Shapiro. So when does conflict of interest kick in? So when you're armed with all this, you start to see this whole manipulation.

[[it is also true that Clark was at that time in some messy situation, divorcing and having custody battles with Clark, IIRC, but she tried to downplay the Scientology connection in spite of the background]]

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[[re the death of Lisa McPherson in Clearwater, Florida, while being held in the "care" of Scientologists]]

http://members.cox.net/batchild1/transcript/qa1.htm

... Scientology trotted out and called up its medical experts, one of which is a guy named Cyril Wecht, who was responsible for doing the autopsy on the alien in Roswell, New Mexico; you might remember he was also on the O.J. Simpson team.

[[and Wecht has been celebrity interviewed many times about other cases]]

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http://www.religio.de/publik/arsreview/120300.html

The Church of Scientology said it would hire pre-eminent experts in its defense, and these are two of the best. Dr. Michael Baden was chief medical examiner in New York City and was hired by the House of Representatives to review the Kennedy and King assassinations.

"DR. CYRIL WECHT: Unexpected, absolutely unpredictable and hence unavoidable deaths--

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[[1996, CNN Interactive ran the Scientologist "defense" ad]]

http://www-cgi.cnn.com/WORLD/9610/17/german.text/text.html

The following is the text of the ad placed by the Scientologists in The New York Times:

Practicing Religious Intolerance

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http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/la90/la90-5.html

Word of the sponsorship has triggered more than 100 complaints from disaffected Scientologists and critics of the church to TBS, the Atlanta-based cable network owned by media entrepreneur Ted Turner. Most have accused the network of providing a global forum for the Church of Scientology.

But Dickinson said that Dianetics, not Scientology, is the event's sponsor and that "we really don't make any value judgment in terms of the product of the sponsors. They have a right to advertise." He added that Dianetics for years has been buying air time on TBS.

[[Ted Turner divorced Jane Fonda when she turned to Christianity. Tolerance only goes so far.]]

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http://www.geocities.com/xenu2000/archive/Ark-Gazette990829.htm


In an article in 1991, "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power," Time magazine made the accusation. Time's cover article said Scientology director David Miscavige, described as "cunning, ruthless and so paranoid about perceived enemies that he kept plastic wrap over his glass of water," is obsessed with obtaining credibility for the church in the 1990s. Among the tactics Time listed were: "Retains public relations powerhouse Hill and Knowlton to help shed the church's fringe-group image; joined such household names as Sony and Pepsi as a main sponsor of Ted Turner's Goodwill Games; buys massive quantities of its own books from retail stores to propel the titles onto best-seller lists; recruits wealthy and respected professionals through a web of consulting groups that typically hide their ties to Scientology."

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http://home.snafu.de/tilman/prolinks/greta.html

Greta van Susteren once said in the Washington Post that she is a Scientologist ("I like the ethics") and in People ("I'm a strong advocate of their ethics"). Ethics in Scientology is not the same as in the real world. It means to "remove counter-intentions from the environment", i.e. to get the job done and apply Scientology. Greta has done this for many years at CNN and before, although she has tried to keep a rather low profile on the Scientology angle of these activities.

The St. Petersburg Times about Greta and John: High profile couple never pairs church and state

The National Law Journal about John's failed RITALIN litigation: Ritalin Class Actions: Fast Start, Big Stumble

Her lawfirm got in trouble twice for active soliciting, commonly known as "ambulance chasing". The second time was after the ValuJet disaster. She showed her arrogant attitude in her CNN show (ask for file 960524.txt). In other reactions, the argument brought by her lawfirm was mostly that "other lawyers are just jealous".

After the Heaven's gate mass suicide, she discussed suing the drug company that manufactured the product used for suicide. This is closely related to the viewpoint of scientology, that psychiatry and drug companies is responsible for every bad thing that happens anywhere.

She represented Amy Frith in her lawsuit against Wellspring, a cult recovery institution. She was not only unsuccessful, but it was also embarassing for her, as she had to admit to an opposing lawyer that she was scared of Amy's abusive husband.

On 12.6.1998 she agreed to represent the Southern Baptist Convention against lawsuits filed by women against discrimination. Greta's argument (also available in RealAudio): she is distressed by outside people who criticize the way a religion wants to run itself, and she would also leave the KKK alone if it was a religion.

According to Graham Berry, Greta van Susteren helped convince CNN to cancel an exposé about the Scientology front Applied Scholastics.

Greta and her husband John P. Coale were investors in the Ponzi scheme of Scientologist Reed Slatkin; they invested $2.1 million and received $2.7 million in payments according to this report by the court-appointed trustee. When being told that even innocent parties (i.e. participants who didn't know it was a Ponzi scheme) are required to return the extra money, John Coale said: "I'll fight this thing for 100 years" because "Most of that money went to the IRS." (Source: The Los Angeles Times from 21.12.2001)


The 100 years fight is already over. John and Greta are settling the case and will pay back $705,000 to the estate in seven semi-annual installments. This is about 80% of the money they made. At the same time, a letter was released that showed that John knew already in 2000 that something wasn't going well.

For years, Greta van Susteren was CNN's inhouse Scientologist and legal talker and co-hosted the show Burden of Proof until December 2001, when the show was cancelled and her co-host Roger Cossack fired. She was hosting The Point with Greta Van Susteren, a news and analysis show, until the end of 2001, when she resigned and signed up at FOXnews. At the end of January, she had cosmetic surgery, which is why people nicknamed her Greta van Surgery. The "new, improved" FOXNews Greta looks quite different from the old "no frills" CNN Greta.

It is unknown to me what influence she had in CNN, and what her responsibility is for CNN's support of scientology was (e.g. cancelling the interview of Richard Behar after TIME won). She donated at least $40,000 to the "war chest" of the IAS (IMPACT #25; donation no longer mentioned on later editions), which is responsible for hate propaganda.

Her sister Lise Van Susteren is a psychiatrist in Washington, DC. Altough Scientologists cultivate a strong hatred for the mental health profession ("Psychiatry kills") and claim that it is a huge scam, Scientologist John Coale even called Lise to get the name of a cosmetic surgeon.

The weird clothing from her CNN days can be explained: it's her husband. He buys her clothes. (An important Scientology concept is not to "invalidate" another scientologists opinion).

Learn more about Greta and her husband, and their "ethics" in the Scientology Celebrity FAQ