Entertainment Weekly fact-checks Tom Cruise

As I've written many times, the plague of modern political journalism is reporters' unwillingness to aggressively fact-check the claims made by politicians (see All the President's Spin for more).

So it's a little depressing to see Entertainment Weekly doing a better job of fact-checking Tom Cruise than the political press does with President Bush (via Defamer):

EW: You are aware that your views about psychiatry come across as pretty radical to a lot of people.

CRUISE: In the 1980s, you were supposed to say no to drugs. But when I say no to drugs, I'm a radical? 'He's against drugs -- he's a radical! He's against electroshock treatments -- he's a radical!' [Laughing] It's absurd!

EW: Yeah, but Scientology textbooks sometimes refer to psychiatry as a ''Nazi science''...

CRUISE: Well, look at the history. Jung was an editor for the Nazi papers during World War II. [According to Aryeh Maidenbaum, the director of the New York Center for Jungian Studies, this is not true.] Look at the experimentation the Nazis did with electric shock and drugging. Look at the drug methadone. That was originally called Adolophine. It was named after Adolf Hitler... [According to the Dictionary of Drugs and Medications, among other sources, this is an urban legend.]

Just a savage beatdown. I love it.

Comments

[Jon Henke]

For the life of me, Brendan, I've been trying to find a reason for the strange infatuation some people have with scientology. I mean, on the surface it sounds so....stupid. Not in a "I don't believe it" way...I mean it in a "your religion is laugh-out-loud stupid" sort of way. I mean, body thetans? These people really believe that we're inhabited by thousands of alien souls?

I'm leaning toward the belief that scientology is some sort of practical joke, dreamed up by Hubbard and John W Cambell, Jr on a bet. And people like Cruise are in on the joke.

Because otherwise, the stupidity is just too much to bear.

[thebizofknowledge]

I stumbled across your blog while I was in the process of doing some online research. The problem is, of course, that Cruise is getting his so called "facts" from a less than objective source--Scientology itself!