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ROBERT W. LOBSINGER ~ small town publisher takes big risk to fight Scientology

CAN NEWS December, 1991
 

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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