Thursday, September 1, 2011

New Yorker Vs Church of Scientology !

New Yorker dismisses attack from Church of Scientology…

By Joe Pompeo | The Cutline
The Church of Scientology has been known to go to great lengths to retaliate against members of the press who produce skeptical reports about its operations.
Case in point: last summer, when the church produced an entire magazine devoted to blasting Anderson Cooper, and then handed the rag out in front of CNN headquarters.
The church’s latest target is the New Yorker, which published a 25,000-word profile by Lawrence Wright of celebrity Scientology defector Paul Haggis back in February. The piece depicted alleged widespread corruption and otherwise bizarre behavior within the institutional hierarchy of the screenwriter’s former religion.
Six months later, Scientologists are now milling about outside the Conde Nast building distributing a 51-page parody issue of their in-house magazine, Freedom, called “The New Yorker: What a Load of Balderdash” as well as a three-part DVD series attacking the venerable weekly.
The New York Times reports: “The church goes to surprising lengths in attempting to discredit The New Yorker and its staff, naming editors, fact-checkers and others who worked on the Scientology article by name . . . . The church mocks The New Yorker as no better than a supermarket tabloid and even created a fake New Yorker cover with the headline ‘Remnick Denies Alien Baby Claim,’ a dig at the magazine’s editor, David Remnick.”
Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan characterized the lavish character assault thusly: “Here they are, six months later, to get their revenge … The level of work, at least, that went into producing this outraged magazine spoof is impressive. The fact that Scientology’s method of choice for refuting a critical story is to criticize as unstable liars sources who were once top Scientology insiders is less impressive.”
A spokeswoman for the New Yorker told The Cutline: “We’re confident in Lawrence Wright’s reporting and our fact-checking process. And we stand by the story we published.”
Indeed, it would seem highly unlikely that any inaccuracies or mischaracterizations would have eluded the New Yorker’s notoriously rigid fact-checking process. As NPR reported when the piece came out, the magazine assigned five fact-checkers to the article, who submitted a whopping 971 queries to the Church ahead of publication. Wright, the research team and New Yorker editor David Remnick likewise met with Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis and four of his attorneys in an eight-hour session before press time.
You can check scans of the anti-New Yorker pub over at Animal NY.posting about Church of Scientology retaliating against The NEw Yorker!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Call for Submissions -Breakfast Topics! .

Yes, it's a picture of the most controversial cup of coffee that has ever graced the pages of WoW Insider again, so you know what that means. We're looking to you, dear readers, to help fill the WoW Insider Breakfast Topic cup with hot, fresh topics! What's on your mind (and what do you think is on other players' minds) when it comes to the World of Warcraft? Write it up as Breakfast Topic and submit your article for a chance to be published right here on WoW Insider.

We're looking for Breakfast Topics in our usual conversational style, asking the community for their thoughts on a WoW-related topic. Submissions should be between 200 and 300 words. (Watch that top end! Exceeding it substantially could get your submission thrown out, no matter how good it is. Brevity is your friend.) We're looking for strong writing in combination with topics that will spark an interesting conversation. Only the best submissions will be accepted. Multiple submissions from one author are allowed.

WoW Insider does not accept articles submitted under player names or pen names; please use your full, real name and an actual email address. Please include your email address again at the bottom of your submission; the email address will not be published, but it makes it easier for the WoW Insider staff to contact you if there is a need for it. Artwork is not mandatory, but any you choose to include must be your own work or via Creative Commons.

Currently, the Seed program only accepts submissions from individuals living in the United States, and we are not accepting submissions outside of the Seed service.

To submit an article, read up about our guest post program, then sign up for Seed. WoW Insider articles are not listed among Seed's open category listings; click here to view the assignment and submit your article. (You may be unable to see it unless you have a Seed account.) We'll accept Breakfast Topic submissions for this call-out until 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Thurs., Sept. 22. If you have additional questions about this assignment, drop us a line at alex@wowinsider.com.

Have you ever wanted to write for WoW Insider? Your chance may be right around the corner. Watch for our next call for submissions, and be sure to sign up for Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider. The next byline you see here may be yours!