Paper attacks police, Times

by Wayne Garcia, Thomas C. Tobin

©St. Petersburg Times, published March 11, 1994

The Church of Scientology is sending out 125,000 copies of an eight-page newspaper praising its good deeds but attacking the Clearwater Police Department and accusing the Times of biased reporting.

The Scientology publication, labeled a special edition of its Freedom magazine, also criticizes the tax-exempt status of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, the not-for-profit educational institution that owns the Times.

The newspaper began appearing on doorsteps in Clearwater and St. Petersburg on Thursday. It was distributed by the Tampa Tribune as part of its alternative delivery system to non-subscribers, said Jeffrey Green, the Tribune's advertising director.

The Tribune also will run the Scientology newspaper as a paid advertising insert in its Pinellas editions today, Green said. He would not disclose how much the Tribune was paid for printing and distributing the Scientology publication.

Richard Haworth, a Scientology spokesman in Clearwater and author of the newspaper, declined to answer questions about the special Freedom issue.

"Do you call other media outlets when they write stories?" Haworth said. "It's a publication. What can I tell you?"

Clearwater police Chief Sid Klein responded to the publication, saying: "The subscribers of the Tampa Tribune are indeed fortunate to have received such an excellent quality fish wrapper."

Andrew Barnes, the chairman of the Times and the Poynter Institute, said Scientology's accusations of bias were unfounded, as were questions about the Poynter Institute's legitimacy.

"We have been examined repeatedly by the Internal Revenue Service and every examination has found nothing," Barnes said. "The Times, of course, pays full local, state and federal taxes before it ever sends dividends to its owner, the Poynter institute."

Scientology makes its international spiritual headquarters in Clearwater. The worldwide organization calls itself a religion, an assessment its members say is backed up by the 1993 Intemal Revenue Service decision granting it an exemption from income taxes.

Critics and some former Scientologists, however, say the group is a cult or money-making scheme that uses thought control on its members. Some have successfully sued Scientology and recovered millions of dollars.

The Scientology newspaper leads off with "The Untold Story of Scientology in Clearwater," in which Haworth says church members have contributed positively to the community for nearly 20 years.

Many of the articles in the eight-page tabloid provide basics about Scientology and the group's work in the community. Haworth mentions Scientology's Winter Wonderland and its Drug-Free Marshalls campaign, both of which have been covered by the Times.

"You probably never hear about these or other activities of the Church in our community," the article says. "You certainly did not read much about them in the St. Petersburg Times - and what you did read made them sound controversial, and you were probably left with many questions."

Haworth's article then accuses the Times, the now-defunct Clearwater Sun and city officials of conspiring and "pursuing a vendetta and throwing away hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' dollars. They never told you how much was wasted."

Barnes said the idea of the three entities working in concert is ludicrous.

The Freedom special edition comes after the Times in January revealed that Clearwater police keep voluminous investigative files on Scientology, although they never resulted in a criminal prosecution. Scientology and the city are now involved in a federal lawsuit over Scientology's request to purge those files and shield them from public view.

Scientology officials criticized the police probe and the Times for writing about it.