Cowboy Kiwi Journalism with an Insidious Agenda - Part 2

Part 2: The church, media, and anti-cult organisation nexus

 

Continuing from Part 1: Blatant misconduct by a media house and their representatives

 

So, the question to ask is, how do you go about strengthening fake news? You employ experts of course! When you do so, instant credibility is added to the journalistic thread, just as the two presstitutes Steve Kilgallon and Tony Wall of Stuff are weaving for their readers…It appears as if they have thoroughly researched the smear article on Kosmic Fusion and its Founders but upon closer inspection is it so?

 

Their ‘expert’ selection

A star expert quoted frequently in the article is Mark Vrankovich, described as “the Executive Director of cult monitoring organisation Cultwatch.” When examining the ‘about us’ page on the Cultwatch site, its Christian foundations and purpose are crystal clear.

It goes on to state "Cultwatch is a para-church organisation made up of people from different Christian denominations." "Cultwatch is a Christian based organisation dedicated to helping people from all walks of life." This last part could also be known as helping to get more Christian conversions…

Naturally, the site is heavily based on Christian doctrine. So basically, they are trying to lure people away from their personal, legitimate spiritual choices by making themselves God! How grandiose can one organisation be that they are superior to any spiritual organisation they choose to target that doesn’t follow their ideas (even Christian churches are not immune). It also begs the question, just who is watching Cultwatch?!

The official document of the “Charitable Trust” called “Cultwatch” shows it was registered in 1995 and to quote the purpose of Cultwatch is, “to endeavour to reinforce Christian doctrine and to teach Christian people and Christian leaders concerning the adverse effect of mind control" and "to defend historical and orthodox Christian doctrine.” Say what? They are a Charitable Trust, which means people give them money to support what can only be called a malignant narcissistic organisation who is openly targeting those spiritual organisations it feels threatens them. Ok, thanks for making it clear Cultwatch.

Now this character or rather questionable character Mark Vrankovich conveniently has close ties with Ian Mander, cults.co.nz website manager. They state that their “list will be of most use to Christians in New Zealand, as the list entries have been written from a Christian perspective with New Zealanders in mind.”

Those that make their hit list are any non-affiliated Christian doctrines they wish, alongside yoga, astrology, and anything related to Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism) which is outrageously classified as dangerous. How insecure could one organisation and individual be? Perhaps they seeking some kind of spiritual kingpin notoriety? Call me simple minded but isn’t targeting others with views different from your own, nothing short of good old-fashioned bullying? How befitting is their behaviour of these Christian organisations and is it aligned with any Christian doctrine?

A third so called expert quoted in the article is Peter Lineham, a professor of religious history at Massey University. Although just a smidgeon of desk research illuminates me that Peter takes a rather narrow religious interest, in solely preaching Christianity, which he does across a variety of media, including in this podcast interview.

 

The notably absent experts…

Of glaring omission is the expert on Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), where had one been contacted, they could have given their expert opinion about the cycle a person who suffers from NPD follows, of love bombing/idealisation, devaluing and discarding and how and why they would conduct a smear campaign against those they feel have wronged them. This would have gone a long way towards presenting a balanced article, given the two main sources were ousted as narcissists after their abuse to other programme participants came to light. The NPD expert would have informed the journalists about narcissistic shame and how it leads those with NPD to take revenge.

Rather questionably, where was the expert on Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism), who could have validated the authenticity of the teachings that were imparted to the Facilitators in Training? Either this is the freaking laziest of reporting or a highly skewed and calculated narrative against Sanatana Dharma, which will be discussed more in Part 3 of this series.

So, as you can see the NZ’s biggest online news (Stuff) joined hands with two rather questionable Christian-based organisations with open agendas of targeting organisations with spiritual beliefs not aligning with their own. Extremely biased reporting, is it not, and to top it all off, these journalists did not even reveal the ardent Christian background and insidious objectives of these so-called experts…

 

Continue with Part 3 of the series: Insidious agenda – NZ media inciting Hindumisia