Cult Awareness Network News - March 12, 1992 Behar of TIME honored with Conscience-in-Media Award for Scientology story The American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) has awarded its prestigious Conscience-in-Media Award to Richard Behar, associate editor of TIME Magazine, for his May 6, 1991 cover story, "Scientology: The Cult of Greed." The ASJA award honors those who have "demonstrated singular commitment to the highest principles of journalism at notable personal cost or sacrifice." Behar, before he undertook his Scientology piece, was aware that he would likely be the target of Scientology's "fair game" policy of ruthlessly attacking critics of the organization. The November/December issue of euill Magazine detailed the tactics Behar and other journalists have been subjected to in writing about Scientology. The award was begun in 1975, but because its criteria are not easy to meet, it is not given often, only in those years when someone is deemed worthy. According to ASJA, the writer must knowingly have taken a risk that goes beyond the normal call of duty. The award will be presented May 8 in New York. Past award recipients include I.F. Stone, Don Bolles, Donald Woods, Jacobo Timmerman, Erwin Knell and Jonathan Kozol. For the first time in the ASJA's his tory, a second Conscience-in-Media Award will be presented as well to Paulette Cooper, author of the book, The Scandal ofScientology. Cooper, a long-time ASJA member, published her book in the early seventies, and because this and other writings of hers were critical of Scientology, she became to target of a Scientology fair game operation the cult called "PC Freakout." Cooper was indicted in 1973 for sending bomb threats through the mail. In 1977, after an FBI raid on Scientology offices, documents seized in the raid revealed that Cooper had been framed by Scientology. As the Conscience-in-Media Award had not been conceived by ASJA when Cooper wrote her book on Scientology, the association thought that recognizing Cooper at the same time that the award is given to Behar underscores the courage of both writers and their commitment to writing excellence in the face of personal risk. To Richard Behar, receiving the Conscience-in-Media award is especially meaningful, not just for the personal recognition it brings, but "because it legitimizes and sheds sunlight on all of the cult's victims, many of whom are still terrified to speak up."