LA WEEKLY
L. Ron Hubbard Strikes Back

As reported in the Weekly a few weeks back ("The Learning Cure" by Sara Catania, November 14-20), the folks at Scientology-affiliated textbook publisher Applied Scholastics think pretty highly of their L. Ron Hubbard-inspired pedagogy. In their push to qualify a series of five Applied Scholastics texts for public school use statewide, the company has touted the books' ability to help students think, speak and write for themselves.

It seems odd, then, that the honchos at Applied Scholastics apparently don't trust their own followers' expressive abilities. A misrouted fax rolled into our offices the other day, from one Margaret McCarthy at Applied Scholastics headquarters to one "Daryl at Player's Choice," a trophy shop in Santa Ana. By all appearances, Ms. McCarthy is directing Daryl on what to write in a letter to the editor of the Weekly.

We'd like to print the entire five-sentence fax, but we can't. As litigious as it is secretive (never mind vindictive), the Church of Scientology recently won a Supreme Court decision against critics who posted copies of Hubbard's "doctrine" on the Web, a decision that put new limits on what's known as "fair use" of private correspondence and writings.

So, by way of summary, McCarthy opens the missive to "Daryl" with instructions for her to re-type an enclosed letter to the editor on her own company letterhead. And then things get weird. McCarthy uses some secret symbolic notation - two vertical lines alternating with two dots - to warn Daryl against making mistakes in the letter. As in: "Be careful of typos, etc. This is a [secret symbol] publication and you know they'll nail us for any boo boos."

We never got the chance. We called McCarthy and asked if she was orchestrating a letter-writing campaign against the Weekly, but she wouldn't say. Nor would she explain for us the meaning of the secret symbol. (If anyone can tell us, we're dying to know.) McCarthy said it was "impossible" that her fax to Daryl arrived here mistakenly, and demanded to see a copy of it before she would answer any questions. So we sent it back and waited for her call. We're still waiting.

Other articles from LA Weekly:

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - December 12-18, 1997
SCIENTOLOGY DECODED - Dec. 19, 1997
THE LEARNING CURE - Nov. 14, 1997

Copyright © 1997, Los Angeles Weekly, Inc. All rights reserved.