In 1991 Time magazine followed up with its own blistering cover story on the group, focusing primarily on how much money it generates. But it noted this historical fact:
Eleven top Scientologists, including Hubbard's wife, were sent to prison in the early 1980s for infiltrating, burglarizing and wiretapping more than 100 private and government agencies in attempts to block their investigations.
In 1998 Salon noted that the CoS was urging its members to flood the Web with positive information about the group and distributed kits for building their own Web sites. Installed along with the kits was software that would filter out anti-Scientology content. Here's what Salon had to say:
The Church of Scientology has raided the homes of critics who published portions of their "secret documents" online, and brought lawsuits against people it charges are violating its many trademarks.
The Economist wrote about the battle between Anonymous and the CoS in January of this year.
Scientology's lawyers are vigorous litigants. ...They react sharply to any perceived libel. As a result, public critics of what they derisively term "$cientology" risk expensive legal battles. ....Though Scientology representatives vehemently deny breaking any laws, critics have claimed that they experience intensive harassment and intimidation.
That's just a small sampling of mainstream press coverage over the years. Then there's the infamous South Park episode that got pulled from Comedy Central, the take down notices sent to YouTube and a half dozen other video sites regarding the infamous Tom Cruise video (which only Gawker resisted), and the hundreds if not thousands of Web sites chronicling other alleged attacks.
Quiros also wrote:
The Church is certainly within its legal and ethical rights to question the motives of people who would seek to destroy it and to defend itself with lawful means. Other religions and organizations do this routinely. What the Church has done, is attempt to correct falsehoods when they appear in the media, like I am doing here.
I'm all for freedom of belief. If you want to worship armadillos or hitch a ride to heaven on the next comet, more power to you. But I can't name another organization that has "routinely" infiltrated government offices, tapped people's phones, hired private investigators to dig up dirt, suppressed TV shows critical of its beliefs, and conducted smear campaigns against its critics. Are these all falsehoods? Is this all just a vast media/government conspiracy? What do you think?