BusinessInsider.com
Ashley Lutz
Jul. 17, 2012, 12:05 PM

Since the early days of L. Ron Hubbard, Scientologists have tried recruiting celebrities. But now the strategy has backfired in the form of media scrutiny spurred by the divorce of Tom Cruise.

They promised them connections and A-list roles in exchange for their endorsements. In return, the church imagined they'd get credibility and serious cash, Janet Reitman wrote in her book "Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion."

But with the highly public split of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, that strategy has backfired. Media outlets are paying attention—and the public is weirded out by what they learn about the religion.

BusinessWeek.com
By Caroline Winter on July 18, 2012
(Updated with magazine version. Removes an earlier reference to a Twitter account that is not Thomas S. Monson’s official account, and corrects the title of Sheri Dew's book.)

Illustration by Labour

Late last March the Mormon Church completed an ambitious project: a megamall. Built for roughly $2 billion, the City Creek Center stands directly across the street from the church’s iconic neo-Gothic temple in Salt Lake City. The mall includes a retractable glass roof, 5,000 underground parking spots, and nearly 100 stores and restaurants, ranging from Tiffany’s (TIF) to Forever 21. Walkways link the open-air emporium with the church’s perfectly manicured headquarters on Temple Square. Macy’s (M) is a stone’s throw from the offices of the church’s president, Thomas S. Monson, whom Mormons believe to be a living prophet.

To read the rest of this story, visit BusinessWeek.com

MediaMatters.org

BEN DIMIERO & ROB SAVILLO
July 19,2012

Instead of covering one of the largest banking scandals in history, American television news outlets have focused on the divorce of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, shark sightings, and a chimpanzee attack.

Last week, we documented how television news outlets are practically ignoring an emerging controversy over whether major financial institutions have been manipulating the LIBOR, a key interest rate banks use to borrow money from each other that is "used as a benchmark to set payments on about $800 trillion worth of financial instruments." MIT professor of finance Andrew Lo told CNN Money that the LIBOR-manipulation story "dwarfs by orders of magnitude any financial scams in the history of markets."

The Independent

James Moore , Oliver Wright

Barclays executive del Missier's evidence to MPs seems to contradict his embattled former boss

YouTube.com
Uploaded by PrometheanReachXVI
on Feb 16, 2011

Source: YouTube.com