The False Claims Behind an Anti-Trafficking Group’s Hollywood Moment
CYBER
VICE
4.0 • 645 Ratings
🗓️ 14 July 2023
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A movie about a Mormon anti-trafficking activist made headlines when it beat Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny at the box office. But Sound of Freedom’s box office numbers aren’t all they’re cracked up to be and the group behind the movie, Operation Underground Railroad (OUR) has a long and troubled history.
Motherboard Senior Staff Writer Anna Merlan joins us this week on Cyber to explain OUR and Sound of Freedom.
Stories discussed in this episode:
Tim Ballard Has ‘Stepped Away’ From Operation Underground Railroad, Org Says
Anti-Trafficking Group With Long History of False Claims Gets Its Hollywood Moment
A Famed Anti-Sex Trafficking Group Has a Problem With the Truth
Inside a Massive Anti-Trafficking Charity's Blundering Overseas Missions
Anti-Trafficking Charity Operation Underground Railroad Has Another Murky Rescue Story
Operation Underground Railroad’s Carefully Crafted Public Image Is Falling Apart
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's got the code. |
| 0:07.0 | It's going to launch. |
| 0:10.3 | It's a unit system. |
| 0:12.8 | I know this. |
| 0:14.7 | It's how all the files of the whole park. |
| 0:16.9 | It tells you everything. |
| 0:18.7 | Sir, he's uploading the virus. |
| 0:21.4 | The Eagle One. The package is being delivered. |
| 0:24.3 | Hello out there on the internet. |
| 0:26.2 | I am Matthew Galt, and this is Cyber. |
| 0:29.4 | Do you hear that? |
| 0:31.1 | Why, it's the sound of freedom. |
| 0:33.8 | That is the title of a movie that is doing numbers at the box office, but you maybe haven't heard of it. |
| 0:39.9 | Or if you have, it's probably because you are aware of several controversies about the film. |
| 0:45.8 | It's a story. |
| 0:47.0 | The story that we are going to tell today has it all. |
| 0:50.8 | Sex trafficking, Internet-born conspiracy theories, Glenn Beck, Afghanistan, |
| 0:55.4 | and of course, Jesus. Here with us today to talk about it all is Motherboard Senior |
| 1:00.3 | Staff writer Anna Merlin. Anna, how are you doing? I'm great. I'm maybe not the most qualified |
| 1:06.3 | person to talk about Jesus specifically due to the obvious, but I will do my best. |
| 1:12.4 | Well, the main character in The Sound of Freedom, the new hot movie in America, is played by Jesus himself, is he not? |
| 1:23.2 | Jim Caviesel, yes. The actor who plays Tim Ballard and the new movie Sound of Freedom also previously played Jesus in Passion of the Christ. |
... |
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