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Lesson from the Scientology debate: Let a million Counter Footages bloom

I hope that by now you know about the ongoing ‘Youtubed’ spat between Scientology believers including John Travolta and BBC reporter John Sweeney for the Panorama program on the Scientology cult .

The Cult has often been accused of brainwashing followers, making them undergo series of torturous experiments to wean them away from reliance on Psychiatrists.

As you know, Scientology claims that humans have descended from a race of aliens called thetans.

First to take the charge were the Scientologists who posted videos on Youtube showing John Sweeney loosing his cool when he was accused of being soft on Scientology critics.

Mr. Sweeney reportedly said,

"Now listen to me. You were not there at the beginning of the interview! You were not there! You did not hear or record all the interview!"

This is what we learn from smart Web 2.0 communication masters.
The Scientology people made sure they taped the interview as well to make sure both versions of the interview was available to the public.

There could even be more versions, if it comes to that.

Lesson #1: What if everyone started taping their own interviews?
For example, often in TV interviews, you say some thing else but later they edit it to mean something else.

Carrying a camera phone would be wise and later you can upload your video on Youtube.

Interestingly, BBC is going to broadcast the ‘angry’ part of the interview.

Going back to Scientology debate, I am not a big champion of organized anything other than sports and entertainment.

The other interesting thing about this episode is that while the Scientologists attacked the reporter’s impartiality,even going so far as to send the 100,000 decision makers, they had nothing to say about the content of the program itself.

That’s PR lesson #2 for you. Divert attention.

Labels: controversey, online video, tip

posted by Pramit Singh @ 4:04 PM