The Times continues in the role condemned by 11th Circuit;
Fact of Sid Klein’s misconduct withheld
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olice Chief Sid Klein wrote to Church spokesman Brian Anderson on December 5, 1997: “[I]t is time, Mr. Anderson, for you to produce [your] evidence.”
The “evidence” in question: documentation of Klein’s improper and possibly illegal activities in furtherance of his barely concealed anti-Scientology agenda. An agenda which, one should add, has already been deemed “patently offensive to the First Amendment” by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
Well, the Church promptly came forward with voluminous evidence. And it has continued to do so on an almost daily basis. That evidence was provided to Chief Klein, and also to the St. Petersburg Times – the paper which has been content to print Klein’s efforts to dismiss the facts. Ironically, much of the documented proof the Church provided was already in their files, as that was where it came from in the first place.
Even more ironic—yet less surprising—is their refusal to mention those facts. But it isn’t the first time. After all, this is the same newspaper and the same police chief whose actions were condemned by one of the nation’s highest courts. They didn’t tell you that story, either. (See “Federal Court Rules: ‘City of Clearwater Official’s Actions Are Patently Offensive to the First Amendment’”).
The Times was provided with dozens of pages of letters detailing the truth of Klein’s treatment of Scientologists, and even more pages of documented evidence—all of which add up to 17 years of conduct highly unbecoming of a high-ranking police officer. Rather than detail those facts, the Times panders to Klein, assembling a puff profile piece on the Chief worthy of wartime propaganda. The effect is worse than merely condoning what he is doing to thousands of Clearwater residents—the Times has now, in the most cowardly of ways, stepped into the role of advocate.
By way of example, consider the Times ran with a blatant Klein lie that no “far-reaching attempt” was made in going after the Church of Scientology in Clearwater, making it appear that Klein simply lacked the resources to do the kind of investigation he wanted to on Scientology. Yet documents from Klein’s own files show he had a full-time intelligence unit working for at least 13 years trying to put together a dossier on Scientology of unprecedented proportions.
Klein pestered and pressured the State Attorney office to act on this dossier. That office declined. His intelligence unit then went to the Department of Justice in Tampa. They, too, declined. Klein then sent his intelligence men to Los Angeles to attempt to enlist the support of the local Internal Revenue Service office and the local District Attorney’s office. And they declined. His intelligence men then flew to Boston and as far away as Canada in search of support. They even wrote to the government in Australia.
If the Times doesn’t see this as a “far-reaching attempt,” then it only underscores the Times’ employment of Orwellian Newsspeak.
The Times won’t even give you a straight story when it comes to telling you what the Church put on the table. That is, even the facts of what the Church has said, much less documented, go either unreported or highly distorted.
Consider a sampling of those statements and the documented facts the Church provided. The Times and the Chief of Police have been provided with everything you will read of here. Their response has only been silence. Rather than buying the Times’ propaganda line, read the facts and you be the judge.
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