In apparent preparation for International Drum Month, Marina Hyde, writer for the British daily newspaper The Guardian, beat out another cacophonic journalistic mess. Her latest offense involves parroting a canard about Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard that is so blatantly false and has been so loudly, roundly and precisely disproven time and again over the past many decades, that any attempt to dredge it up yet again must be taken as nothing short of deliberate, prosecutable libel.
Ms. Hyde has a history of incurring legal expenses for her superiors at The Guardian. Sir Elton John sued the publication in 2008 over Ms. Hyde’s snide and supercilious hatchet job targeting the performer. Then, some years later, The Guardian printed a front-page falsehood, under Ms. Hyde’s byline, that a competitor rag, The Sun, had sent a reporter to “doorstep” a member of the Leveson Inquiry, thus “blowing a giant raspberry” at that official probe into British journalistic ethics. Ms. Hyde, not content with that colorful language, outdid herself, adding that this was tantamount to “casually defecating on his lordship’s desk while doing a thumbs-up sign.”
Ms. Hyde has a history of incurring legal expenses for her superiors at The Guardian.
The Sun’s managing editor, Richard Caseby, responded by sending a toilet roll accompanied by the simple note, “I hear Marina Hyde’s turd landed on your desk” to his counterpart at The Guardian. It is unclear whether the toilet roll was proffered in response to Ms. Hyde’s fabrications, her command of the English language, the very clear direction of her journalistic instincts or all of the above. At any rate, The Guardian issued an apology for Ms. Hyde’s sins.
The Sun, itself no stranger to fearless gutter journalism, knows a kindred spirit when it sees one. That is doubtless why they hired Ms. Hyde several years earlier, and then summarily sacked her when they caught her corresponding with the editor of a rival paper.
But Marina Hyde has graduated from petty peccadillos, betrayals and phony gossip. She has, in her latest opus, by attempting to track mud on a religion comprised of millions of people, none of whom have harmed her, upped her game to providing a platform for antireligious bigotry at The Guardian.
While the Church of Scientology, a worldwide religion, gains friends and admirers for its partnerships with humanitarian organizations across the globe offering help to communities throughout the pandemic, Marina occupies her time and talents rehashing long-disproven lies.
The organizers of International Drum Month suggest that one commemorate the occasion by gently squeezing a half-empty soda can at a steady tempo while tapping the can on the table. We urge Ms. Hyde to follow this advice as a more productive use of her fingers.