WEBVTT

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In writing a 365-page book targeting
the Church of Scientology,

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Lawrence Wright sought out a tiny
group of disgruntled ex-members

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led by this man:

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expelled from the Church for
financial misconduct, deception,

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ineptitude and violence.

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Nearly all of Wright's sources

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were dismissed from the Church
for similar offenses,

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including: embezzlement, financial
wrongdoing, sexual misconduct,

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physical abuse and severe violations
of Church doctrine.

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Yet these are the individuals
Lawrence Wright uses to impugn the

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character of the Church
and its leader,

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a man responsible
for a worldwide religion

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and its unprecedented expansion…

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…and under whose stewardship,

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the Church’s social betterment
programs have become

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the largest non-governmental
anti-drug and

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human rights campaigns on Earth.

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But in writing his "so called"
expose on Scientology,

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Lawrence Wright’s sources were
far from credible and Wright knew it.

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Their allegations so far-fetched that
a federal judge and an appeals court

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dismissed them as baseless.

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Lawrence Wright ignored that.

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And when the Church provided
thousands of pages of evidence

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documenting the falsehood
of those claims -–

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Lawrence Wright continued to present
the allegations as fact.

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When asked in a journalist forum,

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“Do you believe that journalism
can lead to truth?”,

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Wright had this to say:

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"Truth is one of those
subjective terms

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that are pointless
to get too tied up about."

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Wright's book was
released in January 2013

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but failed to generate reader interest.

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Still, it found itself immediately
steeped in controversy

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about the veracity of its claims.

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So much so that the book’s publisher
would not release it in Britain,

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Ireland, Canada or Australia because
of their libel laws.

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The chances of losing a lawsuit
were simply too great.

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Now, documentary filmmaker Alex
Gibney has taken Lawrence Wright’s

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book at its word
without question or examination:

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“I utterly trusted Larry. I wasn’t
looking for holes in his story.”

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Over the two years Gibney quietly
worked on his documentary,

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he never once contacted the Church,
visited a Church

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or spoke to any of its members.

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His documentary was in the can before
he even mentioned it to them.

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And to this day, Gibney refuses to
reveal his allegations to the Church.

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Let’s take a closer look at Wright
and Gibney's sources:

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Meet Garry Scarff, spokesperson of the
now defunct Cult Awareness Network,

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a criminal deprogramming group,
many of whose members were arrested

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and convicted of assault,
battery and kidnapping.

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Garry Scarff has admitted
to his participation

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in the seizure, forcible detention,

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imprisonment, beatings and traumatization
of 42 separate individuals.

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What's also been documented as fact
is that Gary Scarff is a serial liar.

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He once claimed in a lawsuit
his mother was born in Israel.

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She was born in Missouri.

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He also maintained he was Jewish when
he admitted later to being… Catholic.

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In media interviews, Gary Scarff professed to
have been a member of the People’s Temple,

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where, he said, he lost his family
in 1978 in the mass tragedy at Jonestown.

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"...She went to Guyana,
as well as did my young son.

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And my father of course
went down to Guyana -

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they all perished, all three."

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He repeated this story over and over
to the press for nearly ten years.

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"I had a sexual relationship on going
with Jim Jones himself

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because Jim demanded it of me."

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Ultimately, Garry Scarff was forced
to admit in a court declaration

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that his entire Jonestown story
was an elaborate hoax:

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“I was never in Jonestown.
I lost no relatives there.

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And my father is still alive.
The entire story was a fabrication.”

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But these and other lies finally caught up
with the Cult Awareness Network,

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which was forced to declare bankruptcy
and no longer exists.

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Even after his
Jonestown hoax was exposed,

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unbelievably Garry Scarff
next invented another story:

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that he was a Scientologist
and a Scientology staff member.

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He never was.

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But, he used this story to sell a series

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of false and defamatory tales
to the tabloid media…

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…so that he could become a
“paid witness" in court cases.

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He provided testimony for a now-disgraced
attorney by the name of Graham Berry.

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This time it did not take long for Scarff’s
lies to be exposed.

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In fact, Lawrence Wright’s
chief corroborator,

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a known suborner of perjury
named Mike Rinder,

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had already exposed Scarff’s lie,
when he wrote to a reporter:

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“Scarff was never a Scientologist
or a staff member of the Church

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any more than Scarff’s wife and child
died at Jonestown…”

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Nevertheless,
enter Lawrence Wright in 2011.

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In rounding up his sources,

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a collection of what’s been reported
as “a posse of lunatics,”

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Lawrence Wright dusts off Garry Scarff,

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apparently without so much
as a background check.

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Wright credits Scarff as the source of a tale
about being a bank teller

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who was forced to comply with a robbery in
order to pay off his debt to the Church.

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But Garry Scarff not only
never was a Scientologist,

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there was no debt and
there never was such a robbery.

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In fact, Garry Scarff himself recanted his
story under oath as a complete fiction…

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Admitting that he had:
“never been a member of the Church…"

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Yet Lawrence Wright presents Garry Scarff
as a “credible source.”

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Even when the Church publicly exposed

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Lawrence Wright’s
journalistic irresponsibility

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in repeating Gary Scarff's false tales,
Wright defended himself by saying

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he believed the man because
his attorney was sitting next to him.

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Attorney, if you can call him that...

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That would be the aforementioned
Graham Berry,

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whose license to
practice law was suspended

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by the state of California for making
fraudulent allegations about the Church…

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… and all as sworn to by his client
Garry Scarff:

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"I provided 17 days of
sworn deposition testimony...

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manufacturing one lie after another
for Berry's use

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against the Church of Scientology."

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“I made up a story that I had
conspired with [church] lawyers

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to murder CAN’s executive director…

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I completely fabricated the story with the
knowing participation of Mr. Berry …“

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“When I became concerned
about my perjury,

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Berry assured me not to worry,
he said he would take care of it.”

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So Lawrence Wright "trusted" Garry Scarff
because his attorney was present--

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the attorney that coached
Scarff to lie under oath.

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By negligence or design,

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Lawrence Wright has chosen to
conceal the truth about Garry Scarff –

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even after Garry Scarff has admitted the
stories he fed Wright were utter fiction.

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So here's what we have:

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Garry Scarff —violent deprogrammer and
self-admitted serial liar to the media,

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to the courts, and to the public.

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Presented as fact by Lawrence Wright,
swallowed whole by Alex Gibney

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and greenlit by Sheila Nevins,

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HBO’s head of Documentaries
and Family Programming...

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…who seems to know what to do
with bad television:

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“And HBO is a great place to sweep your
mistakes under the carpet.”

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In future segments,

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we’re going to show you more of
Lawrence Wright’s “sources"...

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Remember this guy – the ringleader of
that tiny group Lawrence Wright

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befriended and used to tell false
stories about his former religion?

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“Shut the fuck up. I’m tellin’ you
something right now…”

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He was dismissed and expelled from
the Church for criminal activities --

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that's criminal, as in felony.

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His résumé also includes episodes of
shoving, kicking,

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punching and extreme violence.

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And a honeymoon night spent in jail.

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But Lawrence Wright
doesn’t reveal any of that,

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or any other sordid
detail about this man.

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You’ll also meet those
this man calls his "posse":

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Such as the guy he nearly killed, who
he now calls his "best good buddy".

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This guy deserted his children and
ruthlessly attacked his estranged wife…

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…the thief who used to ride shotgun with
the ringleader on his punching sprees.

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Admitted accomplices
in a scheme to suborn perjury –

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getting others to lie under oath.

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And another Lawrence Wright source,
the "lady" expelled from the Church

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for having sexual relations with
someone she was ministering to,

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a violation of professional conduct
in any church. You'll meet her, too.

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…the paid tabloid source and his
wife, whose frivolous lawsuits

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were repeatedly thrown
out of Federal Court

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and the couple ordered
to pay the Church $40,000.

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... and the writer who took advantage
of his Scientology connections to

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take $5 million for writing scripts
he never completed.

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Lawrence Wright and Alex Gibney
could have shown you

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the truth about Scientology.

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For this is Scientology today:

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A rapidly expanding religion with new
churches opening, by the month,

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throughout the world...

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But instead of showing you this,

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Wright and Gibney have chosen
to give you this man...

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Shut the fuck up…

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And his tiny group of followers.

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That’s right – this guy is the leader of
all Lawrence Wright's "sources."

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They are interconnected,
each of them corroborating the other’s

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false stories and lies,
some for big bucks.

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All of them handpicked
to populate the story

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Lawrence Wright and
Alex Gibney want to sell.

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Lawrence Wright, Alex Gibney

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and executive producer Sheila Nevins
know full well who these people really are.

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But you won’t see that on HBO.

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Shut the fuck up…