Why doesn't Scientology want you to see its wealthy donors, including Grant Cardone?
Scientology’s latest takedown demand of images we’ve posted at the Underground Bunker is a bit of a head-scratcher, but we figured we’d raise a stink about it anyway.
This time, church attorney Gary Soter complained to the Internet provider of our original website, tonyortega.org, about two posts from 2021 and 2022, before we had started posting our stories here at Substack.
Gary sounded particularly miffed that we had posted a couple of dozen images from Impact magazine which featured the 2022 New Year’s celebration, which in that pandemic year was held at the Fort Harrison Hotel auditorium in Clearwater, Florida, Scientology’s holiest site and leader David Miscavige’s refuge during Covid restrictions.
The issue featured photos of donors who had showed up for their trophies, as well as more casual shots of others who couldn’t make the trip.
We had posted the images, of course, under the Fair Use exception to copyright law because of the news value of these images. It’s news when Scientology reveals which wealthy donors are getting trophies for donating $1 million or more (sometimes much more) to Dave’s legal slush fund, the International Association of Scientologists.
And even though we know the law is on our side, we don’t have the resources to fight these battles and risk possible litigation with the likes of Scientology. We’d rather just take down the photos and keep on doing what we do, day after day.
But before we took down the images, we looked through them to try and determine which one had irked Dave and justified having Soter do all the work to get them down.
The images of Dave basking in the glory of a standing ovation? Maybe.
Or was it the photo of Grant and Elena Cardone and their two daughters along with a huge trophy for reaching Platinum Laureate With Honors for forking over $13.5 million, and also featuring Miscavige?
How did the Cardones rate having C.O.B. on stage with them? Well, it turned out they had given the most of any of the donors who had actually showed up for the ceremony. The bigger whales (Alan & Sheila Atkinson-Baker, Tom & Victoria Cummins, and of course Trish Duggan) didn’t make the scene.
Does Dave now regret having to stand on stage with a wanker like Grant, who only got the honor because Trish didn’t show up?
And isn’t it fun to dream up reasons for why Dave is unhappy with the Underground Bunker? Come on, do it yourself and let us know why Scientology is so hopping mad!
Also, hey Dave, thanks for reading!
Here again is the list of whales we featured in that 2022 story. Let’s make sure they get another round of Internet glory for their bowling trophies!
Gold Meritorious ($1 million)
Joe Baba (Kansas)
Ben & Adi Klevit (Oregon)
Teresa Coyle (California)
The Rawner-Parselle Family (East Grinstead, UK)
Stu Rosenbaum & Marie Guenat (Palm Harbor, Florida)
Stuart Guy & Ruaraidh MacLeod (East Grinstead, UK)
George Malnati (Clearwater)
Kevin & Julie Adney (Palm Harbor)
Gary Camp & Cheryl Caputo (Clearwater)
Gold Meritorious With Honors ($1.75 million)
Sean & Shannon Noll (Clearwater)
Platinum Meritorious ($2.5 million)
Greg Kingdon (Hat Yai, Thailand)
Dominique & Laurence Dambrin and Family (Sarvon, France)
Stephen & Urania Duque (Tampa)
Rob & LeAnn DeMotts (Clearwater)
Diamond Meritorious ($5 million)
Warren & LeAnn Meyer (Belleair, Florida)
Norm & Terri Novitsky (Clearwater)
Steve Fabos & Peggy Oppenheim Fabos (Golden, Colorado)
Platinum Laureate With Honors ($13.5 million)
Steve & Wendi-Lynn Hechtman (California)
Grant & Elena Cardone and Family (Miami)
Patron Excalibur ($20 million)
Alan & Sheila Atkinson-Baker (Florida)
Platinum Maximus With Honors ($37.5 million)
Tom & Victoria Cummins (Clearwater)
Patron of Legend ($300 million plus)
Trish Duggan (Florida)
Soter also submitted a takedown demand for a video we posted in July, 2021. We described it as a “hype video” to get Scientologists amped up to visit the Freewinds, Scientology’s cruise ship that plods between a couple of ports in the Caribbean.
At the time, the pandemic was still hanging on and we were all still dealing with various restrictions. But Scientology was anxious to advertise that it had set up an “OT Bubble” at the ship, and after a period of quarantine ashore, Scientologists could come on the ship and doff their masks.
There’s no narration to the 1 minute 40 second video, but these are the title cards that come up while we see happy folks cavorting on the old barge…
The world is in confusion
But guess what?
We’re not!
So take off the mask
Get in a hug
and cast off on your journey
TO OPERATING THETAN
Enter the OT UNIVERSE
Take the Helm of Your Life
Gain the Confidence To Succeed
Step Aboard Your OT Ship
Freewinds OT Bubble
Well, we hate to see that video go, but we’re sure that if you don’t recall it, you can still get a sense of what it was like with these title cards and some of that cheesy 90s thumping disco that Dave insists on putting in every video.
Thanks for reminding us of it, Dave!
Apostate Alex immortalized
OK, this is cool.
Says Alex: “The famous French magazine Charlie Hebdo recently published a feature on the Paris Ideal Org opening, in which they describe me as a 'SLAYER of Scientology'. I like it.”
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Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:
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What happens when the European 'right to be forgotten' law runs into 'fair use'? Why do the Whales want to be 'forgotten'? Because being a $cieno Whale is not something to be proud of. How can Cardone or any other Whale jump into the political fray while $cientology is in their history? No Whale wants to be Ebola coated Kiddie Porn. Especially if they can hide it.
To expand what Ze Mooo said. The take down of big donors shows the effectiveness of Tony’s reporting. I’d say it’s not about Miscavige getting bent out of shape. It’s about the donors objecting through word of mouth information that their photos are featured on a big SP JOURNALIST’S WEBSITE.
For them it takes away from their super win of being such a BIG BEING, a cut above all the other “best people in the world.” These donors are Uber narcissists. On the list I personally know Norm Novitsky and Grant Cardone. My experience with both verifies that point.
This take down means more and more Scientology cannot spew its BS propaganda to the world without immediate repercussions. And so the continue to shrink.👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼