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Bigoted Commentary Has No Place in CityWatch

The following letter was published in CityWatch on March 23, 2022.

March 23, 2022

Ken Draper
Editor, CityWatch
ken@citywatchla.com

Dear Mr. Draper,

We are writing concerning Bob Gelfand’s article of March 21, 2022, entitled “LA City Goes Full-On Fascist in Neighborhood Council Forced Indoctrination Proposal,” which contains gratuitous anti-Scientology bigotry.

CityWatch’s “About” page states it applies all accepted journalistic standards. One commonly accepted journalistic standard is to avoid airing one’s ignorance or bigoted views about members of minority religious communities on public platforms. Antisemitism, for example, is no longer considered acceptable in journalism. The same goes for Islamophobia. The same goes for anti-Scientology.

Please have Mr. Gelfand’s article updated to remove the needless, bigoted commentary. Apart from the fact that what he implies is utterly false (one of the first principles of Scientology is that “Nothing in Scientology is true for you unless you have observed it and it is true according to your observation”) it does not appear to be the purpose of CityWatch to alienate its readers, or any other members of the Los Angeles community, regardless of their religion.

Thank you in advance for righting this and upholding CityWatch’s reputation.

Sincerely,

Bari Berger

National STAND Director