Tackling the Scientologists

Last week this clip of a BBC reporter losing his control while talking to a Scientology representative made the news as perhaps a proper example of how not to conduct an interview.

In the clip, the BBC’s reporter John Sweeny is seen screaming at the top of his lungs, taking on the resemblance of a madman at times, as he tried to make his points to the designated official from the mysterious religious organization that many claim is nothing but a cult.

Taken outside of the finished product of the documentary, it surely paints the BBC reporter as someone who perhaps needs a few classes in anger management, but once you view the entire Panorama program in its entirety you might find yourself understanding how things got as nasty as the interviewing process went along.

The finished thirty minute documentary has been airing this week on the BBC News channel available on Satellite TV in Canada, but for those that have missed it thus far, it’s available on Google video.

It presents a rather stark image of the Scientology philosophy as a rather controlling lot, given to a wee bit of paranoia and a definite dark ops mentality which sees representatives of the group following the BBC crew around, filming them as they film their subjects.

By the end of the thirty minutes you begin to understand how the reporter might have lost his cool, they that as a reporter say you should never become the story but when your subject takes great lengths to do just that, you can see how things can go off the rails at times. It's a most fascinating report on a controversial group and one that doesn't seem to like the attention all that much.

Scientology has developed a rather high profile thanks to its unusual beliefs, structure and code of conduct, not to mention the high number of Hollywood’s celebrities that have embraced the organization.

Still, for a group that closely guards its image, the vision of sun glass wearing Men in Black like officials, following around those that dare investigate the organization, surely doesn’t help their cause all that much!