Tony Ortega (journalist)

Tony Ortega (born 1963) is an American journalist and blogger who is best known for his daily blog about the Church of Scientology.^[1][2] He was executive editor of The Raw Story from 2012 until June 2015.^[3] Previously, he had been the editor-in-chief of the Broward-Palm Beach New Times from 2005 to 2007 and the editor-in-chief of The Village Voice from 2007 to 2012. As of 2015 he was executive editor of the YouTube channel TheLipTV.^[4]

Background and education

Tony Ortega was raised in Los Angeles, California. He received the John Jay Scholarship to attend Columbia University, where he completed three semesters before continuing his studies at California State University, Fullerton where he obtained his B.A. and M.A. in English.^[5][6][7][8] Ortega pursued more graduate work at UC Santa Cruz prior to landing his first journalism job as a freelancer at the Phoenix New Times in 1995.^[7][9] In 1996, Ortega reported on alleged corruption in the office of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, writing a series of stories concerning "misuse of state funds, poor morale inside the department, the high cost of the sheriff's posses and evidence of abuse of jail inmates," for which he was nominated for the Arizona Press Club's Virg Hill Award in 1997.^[10]

As a graduate student at the University of California, Ortega researched the California Agricultural Strike 1933 under the tutelage of Louis Owens. He later wrote an article about his research in the Village Voice. In her review of Ortega's article, Carolyn Kellogg wrote, "When Ortega gets his grandfather and great half-uncle to tell him stories of the strike, it's exactly the first-person narrative he'd been hoping for. But I found, reading the stories in his article, that they were simply personal anecdotes — interesting anecdotes, sure, but simple anecdotes. The men camped under eucalyptus trees. They played clarinet and violin for the strikers."^[11][12]

Career

Alternative weeklies and other media

Ortega spent nearly seventeen years working for various alternative weekly newspapers in the Voice Media Group (VMG). His has worked at the Phoenix New Times, the New Times LA and The Pitch. His earliest positions ranged from staff writer to assistant editor and managing editor.^[5][13][14] He became the editor-in-chief at the Broward-Palm Beach New Times in 2005 and then at The Village Voice in 2007.^[7]

On 31 October 2013, it was announced that Ortega had been hired as executive editor at online news website The Raw Story.^[15]

Criticism of Scientology

Tony Ortega first reported on Scientology in 1995 while working at the Phoenix New Times^[16] and continued covering the subject throughout his career under various media outlets in the Voice Media Group.^[1][2] In September 2012, Ortega publicly announced his resignation from The Village Voice in a post to the Voice's "Runnin' Scared" blog.^[17] According to former staffers, Ortega’s "exit from the Voice was not his decision" and "his relentless pursuit of scoops on the controversial church may have been a distraction during his final months at the paper."^[18][19][20]

The executive editor of the Voice told the Media Decoder blog of The New York Times that Ortega "...did a great job for us and managed a difficult transition in a miserable economy... During that time he became the single most informed reporter on Scientology. No one is better positioned to write the book on that organization.”^{[18][19][20][21]}

Ortega was featured in Alex Gibney's documentary Going Clear,^[22] discussing how Scientology smeared critics. In May 2015, Ortega released a book about Scientology critic Paulette Cooper and her conflict with the organization, entitled The Unbreakable Miss Lovely, which was published by Silvertail Books, an imprint of London-based literary agent and independent publisher Humfrey Hunter.^[20][23][24]

Freelance blog

After leaving the Voice in September 2012, Ortega began writing a freelance blog entitled The Underground Bunker that is focused solely on Scientology.

The blog's webmaster is Scott Pilutik, who also works as Ortega's legal adviser.^[25]

See also

• Scientology controversies
• Scientology and the Internet

References

External links

• The Underground Bunker official blog
• The Raw Story
• Tony Ortega: Village Voice Runnin' Scared blog posts by year