h, how the mighty have fallen!
Well, mighty may be too strong a word. Ashleigh Banfield is, after all, a has-been reporter on a never-been network.
And the anti-Scientology bigot recently learned the hard way that when you use your position to launch a vicious, on-air vendetta against a religion, you can kiss your career goodbye.
It’s how so many others have bitten the dust, too.
Her career offers a step-by-step case study in what not to do if you’re trying to pass yourself off as an actual journalist.
Once upon a time, Banfield was scooped up by MSNBC after her work won a local Emmy award in Dallas.
Then, during the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, Banfield was reporting just blocks away as the towers collapsed behind her.
How convenient!
It’s how she made a name for herself—and proceeded to travel the world to cover terrorism stories. In 2012, she joined CNN to host the network’s morning show and then Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield.
Her career looked blazing hot—until it wasn’t.
Banfield was unceremoniously laid off from CNN. From there, she clawed her way onto NewsNation—the last stop before oblivion—where she hammered the final nails into her professional coffin.
Her career offers a step-by-step case study in what not to do if you’re trying to pass yourself off as an actual journalist.
Banfield invited Claire Headley on air to spew hate against the Church of Scientology. Wait—it gets worse. Headley’s not just any anti-Scientologist—she’s a proud member of the criminal cyberterrorist hate collective Anonymous, which declares: “We ruin the lives of other people simply because we can.”
Claire and her husband, Marc, were expelled from the Church two decades ago after it was discovered that Marc had stolen Church audiovisual equipment, sold it on eBay and pocketed the proceeds—a felony offense.
Even more to the point of Banfield’s “reporting,” Claire and Marc’s anti-Scientology lies were already put to the test in court—and hurled out. Their twin cases were rejected on summary judgment, in a ruling unanimously upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Headleys’ suits were such blatant efforts to harass, the court ordered Headley and his wife to pay the Church $42,000.
“The record overwhelmingly shows that the Headleys joined and voluntarily worked for [the Church] because they believed that it was the right thing to do, because they enjoyed it,” the judge found, shutting down the pair’s credibility forever.
Claire Headley herself freely admitted to Banfield on air, “My husband and I did file a lawsuit and we did lose [to the Church], and in fact, we paid those fees—so that was the outcome.”
And this is Ashleigh Banfield’s “source” on Scientology.
Another is Mike Rinder, a man who beat and permanently disabled his own wife; who admitted on national television to abandoning his entire family; who championed rapist Paul Haggis and shamed his rape victims as “not credible”; and who described himself as “destructive,” “untrustworthy” and a “psychotic” person with a “totally criminal moral code.”
Rinder even told a CBS reporter: “I can’t convince you one way or the other whether I am lying now or then or both.”
As for Rinder’s “objectivity” on religion, he described Scientologists as “cornered rats” and “menacing, antagonistic and rabid vermin” who would ultimately “be wiped out entirely.”
Seems like Banfield never met a Scientology hater she didn’t love!
Funny how that works… expose yourself as a hateful, anti-Scientology bigot and there goes your job.
When the time came for Banfield to platform her final, rabid anti-Scientologist, she informed the Church less than four hours prior to the broadcast, before complaining on air that her stunt prompted a phone call from the Church.
A veritable masterclass in professionalism.
So this year, karma finally came calling for Ashleigh Banfield.
Booted off NewsNation and kicked to the curb, Banfield tried—really tried—to spin her disgrace into a victory.
She took to YouTube to describe how delighted she was to be fired, and how “liberating” it is to be freed of an actual career—a career that kept her “trapped in a studio” where “you can’t get anything wrong. It all has to be factual.… It’s exhausting.”
Banfield went on to complain that she couldn’t “tell people to f—k off” on TV like she now can on YouTube. She also couldn’t ramble. “I just ramble. I really do,” she says. “This is me, in real life. My husband can’t stand it. You’ll get sick of it.”
Too late. We already did.
Banfield claims that, now, she’s “focusing on building a merch store.… That’s the kind of thing that I’m super excited about.”
Yes, we’re sure people will be running—tripping over themselves in a mad dash—to buy the “merch” of a certified bigot and washed-up, has-been non-journalist.
Banfield’s not the only one who’s been “liberated” into an “exciting” new life of joblessness and anonymity after spewing anti-Scientology bigotry. The “Bigot’s Curse” has taught a painful lesson to many would-be journalists who exploited their platform to attack members of a peaceful religion.
Roger Friedman, once an entertainment writer for Fox News and The Hollywood Reporter, was also a virulent anti-Scientologist whose career died a dramatic death, leaving him shrieking to no one in a small corner of the internet. Sound familiar? Just like the fate of Daily Beast former writer Sean Craig, and once-upon-a-time In Touch editor James Heidenry.
Even Dan Wakeford of People, Us Weekly and Life & Style watched his career go up in flames after spending time cozying up to virulent anti-Scientologists.
If only Banfield had gotten the memo—you know, the one that reads, “Spew bigotry at your own peril, because that kind of ‘journalism’ is a guaranteed career killer.”
And kill her career it did.
Funny how that works… expose yourself as a hateful, anti-Scientology bigot and there goes your job. In a flash, you can fall from prime-time newscaster to being a “sometimes” fill-in on low-prestige afternoon shows—if you’re lucky—right on down to YouTube, where you “excitedly” market merch no one buys until you’re finally just a vague memory.
Bye-bye, Ashleigh. Can’t say we’re sorry to see you go.
And judging by the pitiful level of viewership you “enjoyed” while hanging on by a thread at NewsNation, we’re not alone.
