Haggis bffs Lawrence Wright and Tony Ortega
Backpage* Tony Ortega and his b-list celebrity followers Paul Haggis and Leah Remini have gone all Joe McCarthy of late. Just last week, the week of Haggis’ dramatic appearance on his cohort Leah Remini’s reality show, the latter staged a publicity stunt to out and shame an alleged Scientology star she was clearly jealous of. There was one little problem. The alleged Scientology star wasn’t a Scientologist. So, Backdoor Tony attempted to backfill for Leah and Paul. He went all Joe McCarthy and changed the question to “are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the church of Scientology?” He then answered the question himself – with yet another lie.
What’s that got to do with the Backpage/Haggis latest collabaration? It serves to clearly demonstrate what hypocritical cowards Remini, Haggis and Backpage Tony are; how they have degenerated into making a living out of outing people so obsessively that they falsely accuse the outed and even falsely accuse people of plying their own sordid trade.
Two days ago Backpage Tony was called out for publishing what he announced in a bold-face headline would be “An Open Letter To Marty Rathbun” from Paul Haggis. Instead, what he presented was a letter to himself from Paul Haggis. The letter did whine about imagined thought crimes I had allegedly committed against the alter-ego Haggis had created for himself – the courageous, transparency-advocating Scientology crusader.
The crux of Haggis’ complaint was that I had allegedly caused a single sentence from an email to be published that somehow unfairly detracted from the Crusader persona he had invented for himself. So, I did Paul a favor and published the entire email so that all could see the transparent, factual context. Incidentally, the email contained directions from Paul Haggis to me to commit no less than eight misrepresentations of fact to media in an attempt to bamboozle them into buying his phony narrative about himself. That included the Haggis direction to create at least two invented identities to promote Haggis’ heroism and victimhood (conflicted any?).
Apparently, no aid can be offered that does not exacerbate the perceived slights to an oversized ego. In response, this morning Haggis again teamed with Backpage Tony to damn me – just as he damned a number of Scientologist celebrities recently on Leah Remini’s reality show. My Haggis-thought crime? ‘Outing’ one of his friends whom Haggis characterized as carefully remaining securely in the closet for eight years, masking the fact he had bad things to say about Scientology.
The problem with Haggis’ latest panty-twist is that his personal biographer and fellow Anti-Scientology Cult member Lawrence Wright had already ‘outed’ his friend five years earlier. Where? In Paul Haggis’ biography. Hell, he was prominently featured; he even made it into the index unlike Backdoor Tony. So, Haggis in fact damned the conduct of Lawrence Wright. Actually, if Haggis had a single honest bone in his body he would have damned himself. How do you think Wright connected up with the 2012-Haggis-outed “friend” in the first place?
Notwithstanding Paul’s recent obsession with projecting his own intentions and conduct onto me, I like him. I hope that one day he will find the courage to cease habitually blaming everybody but himself for his own condition and creating characters to forward his vanityland hagiography. It may afford him the equilibrium to start the more important quest of finding out who he really is.
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*How Ortega earned the moniker Backpage (from concerned participant on this blog):
The Village Voice was converted into a human trafficking criminal enterprise. Tony Ortega lived off the money of sex trafficking, much of it from minors, for almost six years. This is not gossip, and I am not the first to mention it. It is in a Senate investigation report.
https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/subcommittees/investigations/reports
It has been written about by media watchdog sites.
http://thedailycannibal.com/2012/09/11/the-voice-loves-children-really/
http://gawker.com/5860101/pickets-lawsuits-sex-ads-and-hard-times-at-the-village-voice
http://gawker.com/5642182/village-voice-has-a-child-prostitution-problem
When confronted about it Tony Ortega first denied it, then used the Village Voice to decimate any other journalists who mentioned it. And finally, turned on the victims trafficked there and worked to dehumanize them by calling them “underage prostitutes”. Not children, which they were. There is no such thing as an “underaged prostitute”. Minors who are forced into sexual slavery are not “underage prostitutes”. He tried to poison people against his victims! CHILDREN.
The college he graduated from invited him back to receive an award, with the purpose of motivating students. When he arrived they were out front protesting him. And on this video you hear his acceptance speech, he only talks about himself and then gaslights the students out front by saying “they don’t understand”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H11eXHspSUk
The Village Voice founder’s son even protested in New York in front of Tony Ortega’s office.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN6V1197H8I
With protestors surrounding the building, Tony Ortega denied he had anything to do with Backpage to a reporter at the Gawker.
“As for the protests today, I wish them the best of luck. No one who actually works in this office has anything to do with Backpage, but still, I understand why they picked our building.” Tony Ortega Nov 16, 2011
A blatant lie. He gaslighted anyone who caught on to what he was doing, how he was doing it, bringing his victims to light, exposing him for working as a digital pimp.
A few months earlier he was bragging about Backpage and included himself as one of the managers with a “WE”. And actually tried to change the conversation to wars in Afganistan!
“Our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are receding fast from public consciousness. Our economy is gradually crawling back. Crime remains at record lows. A new presidential campaign is only in its earliest stages.
What’s there to panic about today?”
“Seven years ago, the people I work for were smart enough to start Backpage.com, a competitor to Craigslist. While other newspapers were doing little more than publicly condemning Newmark (Note: Craig Newmark is an American Internet entrepreneur best known for being the founder of the San Francisco-based international website Craigslist.) for the way Craigslist has, for years, eaten into their classified-ads revenue, we decided to fight back. That’s just how we operate.
What happens when two adults find each other through Backpage.com? I couldn’t tell you. The whole point of Backpage.com is that we aren’t involved after two consenting adults find each other through the community bulletin board, which exists solely so that people can freely express themselves—sometimes in ways that make other people uncomfortable. We’re First Amendment extremists that way. Always have been.”
Tony Ortega WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 2011
Attorneys general from 48 states had written a joint letter to Village Voice Media, pleading with it to get out of the flesh trade. An online petition at Change.org had gathered 94,000 signatures asking Village Voice Media to stop taking prostitution advertising. Instead, the company used The Village Voice to mock its critics. One victim who gave a news interview said she thought about using her real name for the article but decided not to for fear that Village Voice would retaliate. The victims became afraid of the Village Voice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/kristof-where-pimps-peddle-their-goods.html?ref=oembed
“I helped turn a weekly newspaper with a web site into a digital enterprise.” Tony Ortega bragged to the New York Times Blog Media Decoder on September 14, 2012 after leaving the Village Voice.
His sadistic disregard for children being raped and trafficked for personal income is revolting. Senate investigations revealed Backpage staff were even coaching pimps on how to word ads so they would not get busted selling minors!
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2017/04/15/emails-reveal-how-backpage-edited-sex-ads-will-it-be-its-undoing/100436762/
And when they were finally caught red handed, coaching men on how to sell children for sex, they did shut down right before they had to appear in court in Washington. And played the victim card. “Their Freedom of Speech” was being violated.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-backpage-shutdown-20170109-story.html
When Amber Lyon did her expose “Selling The Girl Next Door”, which focused on backpage, Tony Ortega gaslighted her and devoted a page in the Village Voice to decimating her.
“Underage prostitution is a persistent problem in this country, but as we established in last week’s cover story, it exists at a level that is nothing like what is being trumpeted by Amber Lyon on the behalf of activists who want to put us out of business.” Tony Ortega
Again he tries to dehumanize children being raped and sold by calling them “underage prostitutes” and says THEY are the problem. Sadistic disregard.
https://www.villagevoice.com/2011/07/06/cnns-amber-lyon-ambushed-craigslist-but-she-wont-talk-to-the-village-voice/
His attack on Amber Lyon was so vicious other news outlets wrote about it.
https://www.riverfronttimes.com/stlouis/cnn-reporter-amber-lyon-focus-of-village-voice-takedown/Content?oid=2494911
I do not understand why he has become a crusader for disappointed hippies that explored the occult. But Leah Remini has followed in his footsteps.
Apparently, she can live with children being raped and sold on the Internet and endorse a notorious child sex trafficker, Tony Ortega, while complaining abuse between adults that explored the occult. And so can Lawrence Wright and Alex Gibney. And anyone else complaining they got a flat tire on the way to Nirvana while tolerating and endorsing Tony Ortega.
I have no idea why he and Leah Remini are comfortable with that yet repelled by adults who chose to explore the occult and were disappointed.
Something does not add up in this picture. How can you have compassion for people disappointed exploring the occult and sadistic disregard for children being tortured?
http://www.iamjanedoefilm.com
