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Alex Gibney, a bully with a camera
Alex Gibney likes to throw around the word “bully” about anyone with the temerity to speak out against his lies and fraudulent allegations, such as his recent response in The New Statesman to well-reasoned criticisms of his one-sided portrayal of WikiLeaks’ founder, Julian Assange.
Alex Gibney has made a career of selectively filming only people and events that suit his preconceived agenda, ignoring facts that get in the way. Himself little more than a bully toting a camera who happens to be backed by the resources of an international multi-media conglomerate that revels in his brand of tabloid sensationalism, Gibney tries to foist on viewers his version of the world and the people and institutions he has selected for his hatchet-job treatment.
Yet he objects when his targets cry foul. Those voices may have started with Wikileaks, but they are growing by the day. The Catholic League has denounced Gibney as a dishonest “smear merchant.” Catholic World Report followed suit with this takedown: “The number of outright falsehoods and misleading claims in his film about Church history, teaching and operations could fill a number of articles.” Most recently, the CEO of Apple Computers denounced Gibney for being “opportunistic” for his portrayal of Steve Jobs. Others have joined the chorus. The Daily Beast decried the film as a “hatchet job” and “viciously one-sided” and whose final hour “is an all-out character assassination.”
Every one of these criticisms applies equally to his made-for-TV piece about the Church of Scientology. During the making of that video, Gibney ignored the Church for two years and then attempted to bully the Church into accepting an interview request sight unseen. When the Church sought to provide facts and people with first-hand information on his sources, he ran, all of which you can see in the video below.
In Gibney’s world, the lies and half-truths spewed by him and his “sources” should not be met with holding him to account. All should meekly submit to his skewers.
The world does not work that way. People who have the resources to do so can and do speak up.
Alex Gibney claims he hates bullies. Really? It must be hard to look in the mirror every morning.
