AUTHOR
Jim Kalergis
Jim is a Los Angeles based screenwriter specializing in edit/rewrite work. In previous careers, Jim was a disk jockey, developed educational materials for industry, and managed a number of broadcast TV studio operations. His free time activities include ham radio and contributing to web-based discussion groups on a wide range of subjects.
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
’Tis the season to spend time with family, exchange gifts, have a feast. But let’s also take a few moments to acknowledge our debt to Jesus Christ, whose birthday we are celebrating.
MEDIA & ETHICS
What if, every time journalism that marginalized religious communities came to our attention, we called it out?
MEDIA & ETHICS
My first personal experience with dishonest media came when I was moving from one apartment to a new residence in the late 1960s, in my early days as a Scientologist.
MEDIA & ETHICS
Freedom of speech is a precious gift bequeathed to us by our Founding Fathers. Anti-Scientologists routinely abuse that right. I could now proclaim that even though I detest what the haters say about my church, I will defend their right to say it. But I won’t. It would be a lie. Why on earth would I want to defend the abuse of this precious right by for-profit hatemongers?
MEDIA & ETHICS
Given The Beast’s record of “poison pen” reporting, I believe it’s fitting to consider Shachtman’s words the Preamble to The Daily Beast’s Code of Ethics.
MEDIA & ETHICS
According to a recent Gallup Poll, mistrust of news and information sources is at an all-time high. In the U.S., only 9 percent of those surveyed have a “great deal” of trust in mass media. Thirty-three percent have “none at all. ” Americans Remain Distrustful of Mass Media (gallup.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
As a 7th grader, I visited the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., where there is a quote in huge letters around the inner dome of the building. It reads: “ I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
TOLERANCE
Those of my generation recall the stories we were told that got us hooked on cigarettes. One-minute commercials told women they’d “come a long way baby,” and they deserved the same rights as men. (The primary withheld right apparently being the right to die an early death.) Men were shown one-minute stories about lone cowboys, riding the range, and lighting up a Marlboro—something manly men just do. The power of story led, at least in part, to millions of men and women’s lives being cut short.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Last week I had an unusual phone conversation with a client I’m doing some screenplay rewrite work for. He was somewhere between amazed and aghast to learn I was a Scientologist! When I asked him, why the surprise, he said it was because I was smart and not weird… at least as far as he could tell.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Psychology’s “soul” was a casualty in the war between the spiritually alive and the spiritually dead.
