Scientology Wants to Buy L.A. Public TV Station's Studio
The Church of Scientology is in talks to purchase public broadcaster KCET's historic Los Angeles television studio, according to the Los Angeles Times. KCET, which recently split from PBS to become an independent public station, is desperate for cash, and Scientology is desperate for facilities with which to produce lies.
No deal is done, and the Times says potential terms are unavailable. The studio sits on a 4.5 acre lot, has 300,000 square feet of studio space, and has an appraisal value of $14 million—thought it would presumably sell for more than that. The space has been used for TV and film production since 1912, and formerly housed Monogram Pictures and Allied Artists. Charlton Heston, Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Lauren, and Elvis Presley, among others, have worked there. Fittingly, the studio was home to the production of the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Scientology is obsessed with expanding its capacity to deceive people in print and on-screen. Its communications arm, Golden Era Productions, maintains a huge studio on "Gold Base," the church's headquarters/concentration camp near Hemet, California. And it recently opened a terrifying, state-of-the-art new printing facility in L.A.
