Sandy Smith writing on the BBC'S editors blog does try to give some justification and balance to the story.
As part of his investigations, our reporter John
Sweeney had been shown an exhibition entitled the 'Industry of Death'.
Scientologists believe that all psychiatry should be eradicated, and that it is
evil in every form. Like everything to do with Scientology, their views are
absolute.
In that exhibition John had seen representations of needles being
pushed into children's eyes, he'd seen torture imagery, all of which
Scientologists say is legitimate. He'd been talking to Scientologists and
ex-Scientologists all week, they'd been dogging his every step, following him,
and interrupting interviews that he'd been doing. At one point he was conducting
an interview when a spokesman for the Scientologists turned up unannounced in
the middle of a car park, to challenge John for "interviewing a
pervert".
We are after all,all human
2 comments:
I watched the programme last night and I can understand why Sweeney lost it. He shouldn't of lost it, he knows that, we all know that, but as a human being he'd had all he could take from the Scientologist lot, and snapped.
I would be interested to see the film the Scientologist's made about the whole event, they filmed Sweeney, and that was an interesting tactic. It was a bit creepy how they kept showing up.
What the show did make me do was spend about half an hour trawling the net and reading up on Scientology. I now know a lot more about the 'religion/cult' than I did before, and without Sweeney blowing his top I probably wouldn't have known the show was on.
I think that the Scientologist's film is airing somewhere on You Tube and it would make interesting viewing.
The whole saga has certainly given the cult a great deal of publicity,some positive,some negative.
The BBC were correct in showing the outburst,they have defended quite rightly the actions of Sweeney,his outburst was wrong but it shows the pressures that journalists can come under.
Post a Comment