ROBERT
W. LOBSINGER ~ small town publisher takes big risk to
fight Scientology
CAN NEWS December, 1991 |
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Knowing
that Scientology often sues persons who criticize the organization,
Robert Lobsinger figured his first news story on Narconon
and Scientology would be his last.
But three
years later, the Newkirk
Herald Journal of Newkirk, Okla. which Lobsinger owns
and publishes remains in business despite its scores of news
stories and editorials critical of Narconon and Scientology.
A keynote
speaker Nov. 1 at CAN's 1991 National Conference in Oklahoma
City, Okla., Lobsinger recounted how his small weekly newspaper
in a town of 2,000 came to be a big thorn in the side of the
Scientology movement.
Lobsinger
and his wife, Susan, first learned of Narconon and its Scientology
links in 1989 about two years after Narconon and leaders of
five Oklahoma American Indian tribes got together to establish
a drug rehabilitation center on the Chilocco Indian Reservation
near Newkirk.
At first,
the Indians and townfolk embraced the project since many of
the Indians have drug and alcohol problems. The Narconon Center
would also have put to use a 167 acre former Indian agricultural
school campus that had been abandoned about ten years earlier.
Now, however, the town overwhelmingly opposes the project,
according to Lobsinger.
Opposition
began to mount shortly after Lobsinger published a news story
on Narconon that was prompted by information from the mayor
of Newkirk. During a meeting of Newkirk's City Commission,
the Mayor told Commissioners about a pow wow he had attended
where an organization called The Association for Better Living
and Education donated $200,000 to the project. Along with
information the Mayor passed out about the donation were materials
from Narconon that discussed the methods of L. Ron Hubbard,
founder of the Church of Scientology.
Lobsinger
said the name sounded familiar, so he asked his wife, Susan,
to research Hubbard.
"She
found many references to L. Ron Hubbard", Lobsinger said.
"We started reading this material and thought 'Boy, have
we got a problem'. Every story came to the same conclusion.
Newkirk, Oklahoma had a problem."
Lobsinger's
fears were confirmed when he learned the Association for Better
Living and Education was a Scientology-backed organization
and that the $200,000 donation to Narconon was merely a publicity
ploy.
In the
meantime, Lobsinger had decided to use his newspaper to expose
the Narconon Scientology links. He said he originally planed
to publish a story which quoted extensively from a READER'S
DIGEST article, but READER'S DIGEST rejected the request.
So Lobsinger
wrote his own story. "We threw everything we had into
that story, because from what we had read, we were quite sure
we were going to be out of business."
To maintain
balance in his news stories and freedom to write his opinions
in his editorials, Lobsinger said he often passed on tips
to other Oklahoma newspapers. They'd write the stories and
he would reprint them.
Lobsinger
described how Narconon officials repeatedly changed their
story regarding where patients would come from, what the treatment
center's sources of revenue would be, and their willingness
to follow state mental health regulations. Because the center
is on Indian land, it does not need to follow state regulations
to treat Indians. It is still unlicensed in Oklahoma.
But state
licensing is essential for Narconon to receive state contracts
and insurance payments. Narconon is scheduled to make a presentation
for state licensing before Oklahoma's Mental Health Board
December 13.
At the
treatment center's grand opening in 1990, Narconon announced
that the center would operate without a state license and
would treat only Indians. Three days later, however, a patient
walked away from the facility and said that of 20 patients
there, only one was an Indian.
Lobsinger
wrote the story and Oklahoma officials went to court to shut
down the facility. But the court compromised and allowed the
center to remain open so long as it took in no new patients
until state licensing was granted.
Shorty
after the court's ruling, a California woman called Lobsinger
about her son, who had been arrested on a drug charge, reportedly
bailed out of jail by a Scientologist, and sent to the Chilocco
drug treatment center. Lobsinger learned that the young man
was admitted five days after the court ruled that Narconon
could take in no new patients.
Lobsinger
said state health officials responded with, "Yeah, we
figured they'd do something like that", but took no action.
As Lobsinger
expected, from his research into Scientology, Narconon supporters
engaged in various forms of deception, harassment and infiltration,
he said. In July, 1991, for instance, Lobsinger believes Scientologists
rummaged through his trash and found copies of his newspaper
circulation list and drafts of CAN Conference brochures he
had printed. Conference speakers began to hear from callers
attempting to dissuade them from appearing at the conference.
All of Lobsinger's subscribers received packs of information
defending Scientology against criticism.
Scientology
investigators also came to town. Lobsinger swore out a warrant
against one, Eugene Ingram, after friends watched him get
out of his car and walk into Lobsinger's office while carrying
a gun in a shoulder holster.
Ingram
was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and impersonating
an investigator after failing to register with state officials
as all out-of-state investigators must do if they work in
Oklahoma for any length of time.
"We
have a whole bunch of cards here on the hassles and harassment
and intimidation that has been attempted on us here in Newkirk",
Lobsinger concluded. "On myself, my wife, the town as
a whole, individuals within the town. But suffice it to say
that the town hung together and, in fact, has been more united
on this issue than I have ever seen this little town of 2,000
people."
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