WEBVTT

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Alex Gibney claims to be a documentarian…

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But Alex Gibney’s idea of a documentary

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on the Church of Scientology?

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Start with a book written by his buddy
Lawrence Wright.

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Disregard that the book was filled with
unsubstantiated innuendo,

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unsupported rumors,
and allegations so outrageous

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a federal judge dismissed them as baseless.

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Ignore the fact that the main source for the
book was this man Marty Rathbun —

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leader of a tiny failed cult
whose members had all been

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expelled from the Church
for discreditable activities.

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Then spend two years in secret
turning that book into a film…

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and never once present
any allegations to the Church.

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And to ensure that the media
would consider it tweet-worthy,

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include something new and sensational,

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tease the audience that a secret person
not in the book will be revealed.

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Someone the Church would have
no chance to respond to.

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Someone just like Sara Goldberg.

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Her tearful tale of a broken family

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playing a featured role in
Alex Gibney’s documentary

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in which he casts her as victim.

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But Sara Goldberg isn’t the victim
of the collapse of her family...

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Sara Goldberg caused it.

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And it hurt a lot of people.

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This is the story of a family.

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And Alex Gibney only allowed
one of their voices to be heard…

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because anything any other
family member had to say

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wouldn’t have fit the story he wanted
his audience to believe.

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I was married to Sara for over 16 years

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and she in fact is the one
who broke up our family.

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Sara Goldberg was
in the center of a conflict

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between her daughter—
a young wife and mother—

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and her son, who had been
abusing drugs and alcohol.

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Goldberg watched as her son’s behavior
tore at the fabric of the family,

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ignoring the needs of her daughter Ashley

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who was struggling to raise
a special needs child.

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Nick was making more money
than my mother,

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yet she was paying his bills
and not charging him rent

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and we were dealing with a serious
medical issue with my daughter

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and we were paying rent...

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...and I asked her about getting Nick to

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pay her rent to help her,
and she vehemently refused.

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When my son and daughter and my
grandchild lived in Sara’s house,

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for which she was charging rent;

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the son would sleep all day, get up,

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come over to the kitchen, in front of me,

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take food off the table, stuff it
in his mouth and then go out drinking.

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But Nick Lister’s destructive behavior
would take an even darker turn

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when he began associating with that
disgraced Texas cult leader, Marty Rathbun

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and his henchman, Mike Rinder.

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Lister used profits from his business

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to help finance Rathbun and Rinder's
bizarre failed plot

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to overthrow Church leadership,
for their own personal gain.

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It was during this same period

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that Nick Lister was arrested
for DUI and drug possession.

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My brother, continued what he was doing,

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and my mother continued
supporting him, while he was doing that

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and not taking effective action to get him

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back on the straight and narrow…

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My brother was... not living an ethical life,

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living a criminal life...

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I was not going to
condone someone who was

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manipulative and an alcoholic

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and had a drug use history.

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And when Lister bottomed out...

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Ashley decided that for the safety
of her young daughter,

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she would not expose her family
to any further contact…

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But Sara Goldberg chose a different path.

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She tore apart her family
by joining with her drug-abusing son,

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who had been expelled by the Church
for his amoral activities...

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not to mention his association with the
violent and emotionally disturbed

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Marty Rathbun and his obsession
with breaking up families.

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Sara Goldberg turned to the media—

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tearfully blaming the Church for what
she and her drug-abusing son

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did to break up the family.

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But her former husband
tells a far different story

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and exposes Sara Goldberg’s tale
as “absurd.”

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...by her actions and
with the truth coming out,

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she’s guilty of what
she’s saying somebody else is doing.

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And it’s a lie in the extreme.

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Alex Gibney could have spoken to Sara
Goldberg’s family members…

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Something any honest documentarian
would have welcomed.

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In fact, friends and family
flew across the country

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to HBO headquarters to do just that.

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I went to New York
with a group of people trying to

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get an interview with them

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so that I could state my feelings
and we were denied.

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Alex Gibney doesn't want to hear
from the rest of the family.

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He wants you to believe that Sara Goldberg

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is just a sweet old grandma
with a heart-wrenching tale

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of family separation…

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And to make sure her story tears
at the heartstrings of his audience,

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Alex Gibney does the unforgivable:

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At the film's premiere

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he repeatedly exploits Ashley’s
special needs daughter

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by including in his documentary
personal family photos of the child...

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I'm disgusted that she is using myself

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and my daughter to elicit sympathy...

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And I was never asked if it was okay
to use my daughter's photograph.

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Part of me wants to scream and yell at her,

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and tell her that she is never ever,
ever to use my face,

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my name, my daughter's name,
my daughter's face

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in any of her personal attacks
on the Church.

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Absolutely not okay with me.

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It was not me or my daughter
who caused this.

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It was her and my brother.

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So here’s what we have:

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Alex Gibney, refusing to inform
the Church of Sara Goldberg’s claims…

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silencing the voices of any family members
who knew the real story…

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and taking advantage of Ashley’s
special needs daughter

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to generate sympathy in support of
his fabricated storyline.

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This is not the work of an honest journalist.

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"I think we got the story that we wanted."

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The story Alex Gibney wanted –

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a malicious work of propaganda
presented as fact.

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And so it goes with Alex Gibney's
idea of a documentary...

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ignoring all evidence:
court documents, police records,

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testimony of family, former friends
and colleagues…

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anything that doesn’t fit
the story he wanted…

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while including only the
long-discredited fabrications

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of his hand-picked crew of bitter expelled
Church members and their cronies.

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Remember this guy –
the leader of that tiny failed cult

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who turned Sara Goldberg
and her son against their family?

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He put a fist in his wife’s face
right before he abandoned her.

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You’ll also meet those
this man calls his "posse":

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His minion, Mike Rinder –
this guy deserted his children…

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broke into his elderly
ailing mother’s apartment…

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and ruthlessly beat up his estranged wife.

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Then there’s the thief
who abandoned his wife,

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but not before he blew through her
inheritance without her knowledge.

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And another Alex Gibney source,
the drama queen

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who began a secret affair
with one of her business clients,

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destroyed her marriage and turned her
two children against her husband.

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Alex Gibney could have shown you
the truth about Scientology.

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For this is Scientology today:

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A rapidly expanding religion with new
churches opening, by the month,

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throughout the world...

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But instead of showing you this,

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Gibney has chosen to give you this man...

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“Shut the fuck up…”

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And his tiny group of followers.

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That’s right, this guy is the leader
of all Alex Gibney's "sources."

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“Shut the fuck up…”

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They are interconnected,

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each of them corroborating
the other’s false stories and lies,

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some for big bucks.

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All of them handpicked to populate the story

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that Gibney wants to tell.

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Alex Gibney knows full well
who these people really are.

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But you won’t see that on HBO.

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“Shut the fuck up…”