Scientology Lies

The Church of Scientology did not show that the author of a 1991 article in Time magazine was malicious in his description of the organization, a U.S. court has ruled. In affirming a lower court's dismissal of a libel action, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said there was no likelihood that a jury would find "purposeful avoidance of the truth" in an article titled "Scientology: The Cult of Greed" by Richard Behar. The article referred to Scientology as a "ruthless global scam" that "intimidat[ed] members and critics in a 'Mafia-like' manner." The church had argued that Behar's negative view of Scientology had affected his reporting and led him to publish defamatory statements about the church. The article also contained allegations of death threats, a stock scam and a murder-suicide plot.