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Panorama spat shock drama
By SEBASTIAN LANDER
[Picture caption: "Rage ... John Sweeney"]
A BITTER row has broken out after a veteran reporter blasted a Scientology group member on a TV show.
During filming of BBC current affairs programme Panorama, reporter John Sweeney lost his temper and shouted at Scientology representative Tommy Davis.
And footage by the Scientologists, dubbed an "attack video" by Mr Sweeney, was posted on website YouTube ahead of the documentary's broadcast tonight.
The incident has prompted a bitter spat between the BBC and the Church of Scientology.
John Sweeney has claimed he was goaded into an "elephant trap" when his temper erupted.
[Picture caption: "Blast back ... Tommy Davis (left) and Sweeney"]
But the reporter admitted he resembled an "exploding tomato" as he "lost it" and he raged at a Scientology representative: "Now listen to me!... You cannot assert what you are saying!"
Meanwhile, the BBC's own footage of Scientologist Tommy Davis becoming angry has also appeared.
The documentary row has been referred to as one of the first examples of "video ambushing" - when the subjects of an investigation turn the tables on those doing the investigating.
The BBC has also denied allegations that it orchestrated a demonstration against the group in which a "terrorist death threat" was supposedly made.
Writing on the BBC's website, Mr Sweeney said: "The battleground is YouTube and Scientology’s weapon is a clip of me losing it in the Mind Control section of a gruesome exhibition.
"Scientology has fought many battles to keep its secrets off the web, now they are using it to attack my investigation into them.
"Scientology has prepared an attack video, and they have shown the Scientology v Sweeney shouting match to anyone who would watch it."
While making the film, Scientology And Me, Sweeney claimed he was shown an exhibition, which included torture imagery, and that his interviews had also been interrupted.
He also said that he was, "shouted at, spied on, had my hotel invaded at midnight, denounced as a 'bigot' by star Scientologists, brainwashed - that is how it felt to me - in a mock-up of a Nazi-style torture chamber and chased round the streets of Los Angeles by sinister strangers."
Mr Sweeney also claimed that in Britain, strangers had called on his neighbours and mother-in-law's house and his wedding was spied on.
Speaking on behalf of the Scientologists, official Mark Rinder told a national newspaper: "It became clear to us that his story was pre-written.
"He wouldn't let the facts get in the way, so we decided to do a John Sweeney on John Sweeney."
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