Mark Bunker (born May 23, 1956) is an American politician, broadcast journalist, videographer and documentary filmmaker. He won a Regional

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

in 2006 from the Pacific Southwest Emmy Awards division of the

National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), also known as the National Television Academy until 2007, is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of televisio ...

. In 2020, Bunker was elected city councilman for Clearwater Florida's 2nd district, and was selected as

vice-mayor The deputy mayor (also known as vice mayor and assistant mayor) is an elective or appointive office of the second-ranking official that is present in many local governments. Duties and functions Many elected deputy mayors are members of the loca ...

on April 4, 2023. He is a critic of the

Church of Scientology The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religiou ...

, having previously worked for Bob Minton and the Lisa McPherson Trust, and is the founder of ''Xenu TV'', a website and YouTube channel featuring videos and commentary critical of

Scientology Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by the American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It is variously defined as a scam, a Scientology as a business, business, a cult, or a religion. Hubbard initially develo ...

Early career

Mark Bunker worked in radio in the Midwest. In the mid-1980s, he then moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

to work as a theater actor and as an actor in television commercials. He also worked for a company doing market research for Hollywood studios, and trained as a video editor with

KNBC KNBC (channel 4) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast of the United States, West Coast flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network ...

Broadcast journalism

In 2006, Bunker along with

KUSI-TV KUSI-TV (channel 51) is an independent television station in San Diego, California, United States. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate KSWB-TV (channel 69). The two stations share studios on Viewridge Avenue (near I- ...

reporter Lena Lewis, won an

from the Pacific Southwest Emmy Awards division of the

, for a story on border issues in the

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

area.

Criticism of Scientology

Bunker started Xenu TV in 1999 and moved to

Clearwater, Florida Clearwater is a city and the county seat of Pinellas County, Florida, United States, west of Tampa, Florida, Tampa and north of St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies T ...

, where he produced videos for the Lisa McPherson trust. In 2001, Mark Bunker and Jeff Jacobsen, a fellow critic of the Church of Scientology, were refused service by businesses operated by Scientologists in Clearwater. Together they filed discrimination complaints with the Pinellas County Office of Human Rights. The Office of Human Rights rejected their complaints, ruling that the church members had not broken any laws in denying them service. Bunker, Jacobson, and other members of the Lisa McPherson Trust saw this as a sign of the escalating control the Church of Scientology held over the town. Ray Arsenault, a

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States, and other campuses in St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg and Sarasota, ...

professor and then acting president of the Pinellas chapter of the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...

, also viewed the denials as acts of discrimination. "It really is a way of trying to bring pressure to stop them from exercising their First Amendment rights." Since 2010, Bunker has been producing a feature-length independent documentary film entitled ''Knowledge Report: Scientology's Spies, Lies, and the Eternity Prize'' concerning the

. According to Bunker, the planned release date is May 2016. This film is being funded by Bunker himself and through

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...

Project Chanology

In 2008, Bunker posted a video to

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

critical of the Internet-based group "

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" and asked them to tone down their campaign against the Church of Scientology; a movement called "

Project Chanology Project Chanology (also called Operation Chanology) was a protest movement against the practices of the Church of Scientology by members of Anonymous (group), Anonymous, a leaderless Internet-based group. "Chanology" is a portmanteau of "4chan" ...

". In the video "Message to Anonymous", Bunker urged the group to work legally and pursue peaceful ways to protest Scientology. According to

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

's ''

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 a ...

'', Bunker has "become a revered voice to many members of Anonymous", and they refer to him as "Wise Beard Man". Anonymous has adopted a slogan referring to Bunker: "Wise Beard Man. His words are wise, his face is beard." The refrain along with a picture of Bunker has become an

Internet meme An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...

on the website

4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from video games and television to literature, cooking, weapons, mu ...

. When actor Jason Beghe decided to leave Scientology in 2008, he contacted Andreas Heldal-Lund, founder of

Operation Clambake Operation Clambake, also referred to by its domain name, xenu.net, is a website that published criticism of the Church of Scientology. It was launched in 1996 by Norwegian Andreas Heldal-Lund, and maintained by him until his death in 2024. Opera ...

, who convinced him to meet with Bunker. Heldal-Lund and Bunker went to Beghe's house, where Beghe participated in an interview about his experiences as a Scientologist. Bunker published a 3-minute portion of the 3-hour interview to YouTube in mid-April 2008, and in the video Beghe calls Scientology "very dangerous for your spiritual, psychological, mental, emotional health and evolution". He also comments "I don't have an agenda. I'm just trying to help. I have the luxury of having gotten into Scientology and after having been in it, been out. And that's a perspective that people who are still in and not out do not have." Bunker had posted a 3-minute teaser video about the Beghe interview on his YouTube channel, receiving 595,000 views in just four days. But on April 17, 2008, the day before Bunker had planned on posting the full interview, his YouTube account was taken down due to a DMCA claim for an unrelated video. In an uproar over the loss of the channel, 45 of his over 10,000 subscribers reposted the video clip on their own channels by the following day. Bunker established a

Vimeo Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...

channel to post the full Beghe interview and by June his YouTube account had been restored after Bunker filed a counter-notification and the original DMCA claimant declined to press charges. On February 24, 2009, Bunker and another person were cited for trespassing after a

citizen's arrest A citizen's arrest is an arrest made by a private citizen – a person who is not acting as a sworn Police officer, law-enforcement official. In common law jurisdictions, the practice dates back to medieval England and the English common law, in wh ...

by Church of Scientology's Catherine Fraser. Bunker was part of a group of five demonstrators walking outside the entrance to Scientology's

Gold Base Gold Base (also variously known as Gold, Golden Era Productions, Int Base or Int) is the ''de facto'' international headquarters of the Church of Scientology, located north of San Jacinto, California, United States, about from Los Angeles. The h ...

in Hemet, California following a meeting earlier in the day of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors where protesters and church members debated a proposed anti-picketing ordinance. Two months later, the

district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

announced charges would not be pursued due to insufficient evidence.

Clearwater City Council

On June 21, 2019, Bunker announced that he would be running for Clearwater City Council in the March 2020 election. Among his campaign issues were demanding accountability and openness from the leaders of the Church of Scientology. His campaign was endorsed by Scientology and the Aftermath hosts Leah Remini and Mike Rinder. On March 17, 2020, Bunker was elected to the Clearwater City Council for a four-year term. When the mayor abruptly resigned, the city council chose Bunker on April 4, 2023 to fill in as

until the next election, a position that is rotated amongst the council members. Bunker ran for re-election to the Clearwater City Council, and in March 2024 he lost his council seat to Ryan Cotton.

Personal life

Bunker was born on May 23, 1956, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Awards

References

External links

* *
About
an
Resume
pages from archived markbunker.com
2024 election campaign website
(archived) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bunker, Mark Living people Critics of Scientology American male journalists American television producers Scientology and the Internet Articles containing video clips American male non-fiction writers 1956 births Commentary YouTubers YouTubers from Wisconsin