Do cults get an unfair level of bad press?

 I was in the Scientology cult for twenty five years. I got out in 2014 and have spent hundreds of hours discovering the true history of Scientology.

I will focus on my experience and knowledge of Scientology for an example of this.

The press has a huge challenge in portraying the Scientology cult. This is because the cult has a history of government infiltration, criminal convictions for Ronald Hubbard and numerous high ranking executives, the fair game campaigns designed to utterly ruin the enemies of Scientology, framing people for crimes, the destruction of thousands of families, the covert effort to use hypnosis to mentally enslave Scientologists by Ronald Hubbard, the efforts to brainwash people in Scientology and the RPF and truth rundown designed to brainwash members, the HOLE, forced abortions, ecclesiastical beatings, and numerous other crimes and abuses.

The whole catalogue of crimes and abuses that Scientology has been a part of, the frequency of the efforts and the harm in all its variety and numerous incidents is extremely difficult to explain.

People have a lot of trouble understanding the techniques used in Scientology, the harm these cause and the fact that in America, and many other places, in modern times Scientology organizations and Scientologists get away with these crimes over and over.

The fact that the Scientology organizations and leader David Miscavige have avoided significant punishment, though Scientology founder Ronald Hubbard was convicted of fraud in France and called an unindicted coconspirator regarding the operation snow white government infiltration case, is shocking to many people.

Given the overwhelming mountain of credible evidence that Scientology has been involved with many thousands of abuses and crimes and that thousands of witnesses have been consistent in describing these crimes and abuses it is stunning to many people when they discover this reality and the fact the law enforcement officials are aware of this and choose to not pursue investigations or criminal charges. It goes against their assumptions that the government is good, the world is just and that the modern developed nations look out for their citizens.

So, in my opinion Scientology gets an overly charitable treatment from the media in part because it is difficult to understand without a lot of serious, dedicated study, which a person who was not in a cult can achieve, but it takes hundreds of hours to develop this education. An ex cult member has an advantage regarding this in some ways but also obstacles due to the influence and harm the cult can inflict.

Then, even if a media member knows the voluminous and varied types of harm Scientology causes they still face an enormous challenge in explaining this to the audience without the opportunity to present several encyclopedia sized references to document everything that is done to people in Scientology and how these techniques harm people.

So, to sum up the media is unfair in their portrayal of cults very often in my opinion. It is extremely unfair to the general public that the media doesn't do a better job of portraying the harm and methods associated with cults. Treating cults as neutral or exotic but harmless or normal organizations is a failure to both understand what they are reporting on by the media and a failure to warn the public about cults, which are a genuine public health threat.

If the media ignored experts on a pandemic or pollution and the public was regularly harmed by known active threats the media could warn them about but failed to we would understand the media needs to understand their ignorance and the knowledge of the experts. They could verify this expertise in the area by consulting studies like The Anderson Report and numerous court cases, certainly regarding Scientology.

The failure of the media to properly cover cults as the menace to society they truly are is grossly unfair, to the public.