Scientologists demanded “fair and equal treatment” from the A&E cable channel this week after company executives canceled plans to broadcast a controversial documentary series devoted to the Ku Klux Klan while continuing to air a program critical of their church.
The channel’s decision to pull the plug on its planned KKK series in light of recent complaints is hypocritical, an attorney for the Church said in a letter sent Tuesday to A&E, particularly given its reluctance to take similar action against the program “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.”
A&E announced Christmas Eve that it had abruptly canceled plans to air a new docuseries, “Generation KKK,” after learning that a third-party production company had violated A&E policy by paying some of the program’s participants.
According to the Church of Scientology, A&E should act similarly on “Aftermath,” an eight-episode docuseries starring Ms. Remini, an actress and comedian who has been an outspoken critic of her former church since defecting in 2013 after nearly three decades.
Ms. Remini and others who appear in “Aftermath” have either received monetary compensation or “in-kind payments in the form of free advertising and promotion for anti-Scientology books they have published,” Church attorney Gary Soter said in Tuesday’s letter.
“This quid pro quo aimed at gaining access to these individuals is similar in effect — although more substantial — to the ’nominal’ payments made to the Ku Klux Klan members which caused A&E to pull that series,” Mr. Soter wrote. “A&E has applied its policies and practices in an invidious and discriminatory manner. We can think of no justification for A&E’s hypocrisy.
“It is hypocritical for A&E to proclaim its intent to ’expose and combat racism and hatred in all its forms’ in cancelling the KKK show and at the same time promote Leah Remini’s program which promotes the hatred that A&E claims that it wants to stop,” the letter said.
The Church of Scientology has received more than 100 hate-filled messages, including at least 50 threats of death or violence, since A&E began airing “Aftermath” in November, Mr. Soter wrote, the likes of which he claims contain “unproved and disputed allegations” voiced during Ms. Remini’s program.
“The Church of Scientology respectfully demands fair and equal treatment. There is no reason for A&E to depart from its stated ’policies and practices” with regard to the Remini program,’ the attorney wrote.
Ms. Remini, 46, has previously vowed not to give in to the demands of the church.
“This cult or another cult, I don’t want people to feel powerless because something seems more powerful than you,” she said in the most recent episode, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “It doesn’t intimidate me, it makes me want to retaliate because I’m not going to [expletive] stand for it.”
The Church of Scientology did not immediately respond when contacted by the Hollywood Reporter, and A&E declined to comment, THR reported.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.