ORIGINAL BROADCAST DATE: Monday July 23, 2007
Okay, whose bright idea was it to keep Dr. Dave out on the street? Did the cameraguy get locked out of the studio? The segment was shot in front of ongoing traffic and it’s mighty distracting…but oh, well. Professor David S. Touretzky once again proves himself capable of handling any interview, no matter what the circumstances.
Keith Olbermann again tackles the controversy surrounding the filming of Tom Cruise’s latest movie in Germany, where he is getting a rather chilly reception. Keith quotes Rev. Gandow’s recent comparison of Cruise to Joseph Goebbels and asks if that’s fair.
Thomas Gandow, 60, the German Protestant Church’s chief spokesman on religious cults described Scientology as a “totalitarian organisation” and said that, because of his position as film star, Cruise had become “The Goebbels of Scientology.”
In his film Valkyrie Tom Cruise, 45, plays Claus von Stauffenberg, a German army officer and aristocrat who tried to assassinate Hitler in 1944 by planting a bomb inside the Nazi leader’s East Prussian headquarters.
However Gandow dismissed the film yesterday as “Propaganda for Scientology”.
He added in a reference to the favorable publicity won by Hitler’s Nazi party during the 1936 Berlin Olympic games: “This film will have the same propaganda advantages for Scientology as the 1936 Olympics had for the Nazis.”
Gandow insisted that Cruise had simply come to Germany to campaign for restrictions on Scientology to be lifted.
For those who are unfamiliar with Rev. Gandow, I’ve met the man several times in Leipzig for the annual Alternative Charlemagne Awards which you can see on XENU TV.