{"id":3,"date":"2010-03-09T13:01:51","date_gmt":"2010-03-09T13:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/scientologists-get-the-non-hollywood-treatment.html"},"modified":"2010-03-09T13:01:51","modified_gmt":"2010-03-09T13:01:51","slug":"scientologists-get-the-non-hollywood-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/scientologists-get-the-non-hollywood-treatment.html","title":{"rendered":"Scientologists get the non-Hollywood treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientology has suddenly made lots of news lately — without the usual focus on Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and the religion’s other celebrity adherents. Last month, newsrooms were buzzing about the church hiring three investigative reporters<\/a>, including a Pulitzer Prize winner, to critique the St. Petersburg Times’ coverage<\/a> of the Florida-based church. A few days ago, the Sunday New York Times ran a front-page story reporting on ex-Scientologists who accuse church leaders of abusing the staff <\/a>psychologically, physically and financially.<\/p>\n

As a GetReligion blogger points out,<\/a> coverage of Scientology isn’t necessarily balanced, focusing more on the faith’s science fiction roots (aliens are involved) than any positive contributions its members have made. But as a religion reporter, I can vouch for the fact that this church just doesn’t provide the kind of access that journalists routinely get from other faiths. (Undercover reporting has its place – check out this NYT piece from November for a peek inside the church’s Manhattan center<\/a> – but it’s not a great way to cultivate a beat.) Basically, Scientology hits all three categories that make religions wary of the press: it’s tiny, it’s young, and it’s secretive. This recent surge in stories may simply reflect that the group has now been around long enough to have defectors, and to become more media-savvy.<\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/p>\n

*Click here to <\/span>subscribe to Belief Beat <\/span><\/strong><\/a>and <\/span>click here to <\/span>follow Belief Beat on Twitter<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientology has suddenly made lots of news lately — without the usual focus on Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and the religion’s other celebrity adherents. Last month, newsrooms were buzzing about the church hiring three investigative reporters, including a Pulitzer Prize winner, to critique the St. Petersburg Times’ coverage of the Florida-based church. A few days ago, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nScientologists get the non-Hollywood treatment - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/scientologists-get-the-non-hollywood-treatment.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scientologists get the non-Hollywood treatment - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scientology has suddenly made lots of news lately — without the usual focus on Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and the religion’s other celebrity adherents. 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