Werner Erhard In The Media

 

"Werner Erhard, founder of the Hunger Project, recipient of the Gandhi Humanitarian Award, and the creator of est – a highly successful personal growth seminar experienced by over a million people – is a classic example of a teacher who has been adversely portrayed in the media."
-V.J. Fedorschak, The Shadow on the Path, Holm Press, October 1999.  

Over the years, Werner Erhard and his work have been the subjects of newspaper stories, magazine articles, television and radio programs, books, and even movies. Erhard’s work and the interest of the media made him a cultural icon. While the majority of these pieces were positive and acknowledgements of his work, a number of these stories were founded on, or themselves published as inaccuracies and complete misrepresentations.

A glaring example of this was a CBS 1991 “60 Minutes” program. The Los Angeles Times reported that this broadcast was the culmination of a conspiracy generated by the Church of Scientology to ruin Erhard’s reputation through the media.  CBS took action to correct its mistakes as reported in The Believer in May 2003, “The 60 Minutes segment from March 1991 was filled with so many factual discrepancies that the transcript was made unavailable with this disclaimer: “This segment has been deleted at the request of CBS News for legal or copyright reasons.”