The station is attempting to save cash after its split from PBS, and is looking to sell the 300,000 square foot studio (valued at $14.1 million) in order to move to a smaller space. Splitting from the Public Broadcasting Network meant a drop in certain iconic programs, as well as a drop in donor contributions.

The Church of Scientology, which has its home base in Clearwater, Florida, already owns several properties in Los Angeles.

h/t Los Angeles Times

The magazine is published by the Church of Scientology and the cover reads, “Anderson Cooper: A History of Lies.” The Church equates Cooper’s definition of an investigation with yellow journalism and accuses him of refusing to speak with church officials. The magazine’s website, which features most of the issue’s print content, states, “Not only did CNN and Cooper refuse to interview these Church executives, including the International Executive Director, but they weren’t even welcome to drop by CNN studios.”

The Church essentially asserts that Cooper’s reporting is a scam:

But what’s absolutely unbelievable is that Cooper thinks he can get away with this hogwash and pull off what even the greatest hucksters in history failed to accomplish, i.e., fool all the people all the time.

In addition to criticizing Cooper, CNN and the show’s interview subjects in print, the magazine has also included videos. One, in particular, attacks not only Cooper’s Scientology series, but his reporting as a whole–and the clothes he wears while doing it:

“When an earthquake reduces Haiti to rubble, there he is, on site in designer jeans or cargo pants, to verify for himself that the villages were indeed reduced to rubble…

[How can CNN] still get away with calling itself the most trusted name in news? Although for that matter, how does Anderson Cooper get away with reporting from disaster sites in silk T-shirts, to blur the line between anchorman and male model?”

Coincidentally, Cooper happens to be back in Haiti in his borderline male model glory. Toward the end of the video (around the 11:30 mark), the Church literally puts words in Cooper’s mouth by manipulating footage of him with audio of what the Church thinks he should have told viewers.

TVNewser reports that the magazine was distributed outside CNN’s Manhattan offices on Monday. The Church’s response is aggressive, but Cooper’s is not the first investigation they’ve attacked. The magazine “exposed” BBC’s Panorama and the St. Petersburg Times in 2007 and 2009, respectively.

Watch the entire video below:

The Church of Scientology and journalists do not get along very well, it’s fair to say. Hard-hitting investigative reports with titles like “Inside Scientology” have become fast-track ways for journos to prove themselves; just a few weeks ago, a spokesman for Scientology stormed off the set of Nightline when Martin Bashir asked him about Emperor Xenu.

But in a cash-starved journalistic environment, Scientology may have the upper hand; a Church of Scientology magazine is hiring investigative reporters.True/Slant’s Matt Stroud noticed this job posting on JournalismJobs from Freedom Magazine, which is published by the Church of Scientology:

Company: Freedom Magazine

Position: INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER NEEDED

Location: Clearwater, Florida

Job Status: Freelance

Salary: Negotiable

Description: Freedom Magazine is looking for experienced investigative reporters for short and long-range assignments. Freedom, published by the Church of Scientology since 1968, covers human rights and social betterment issues and does investigative reporting in the public interest. Projects for this particular assignment are in the Tampa Bay, Florida area for the most part, but investigation can be conducted by phone and through Internet research.

It’s also on Indeed (via JournalismJobs) and Tampa Bay Jobs.

Past investigations by the magazine have included anti-psychiatry exposés and a 9,000 word rebuttal of the St. Petersburg Times‘ investigations of the Church of Scientology, about 7,000 of which criticize them for not interviewing the leader of Scientology.

(True/Slant via Romenesko)