Today we will be covering the new hit movie Sound of Freedom – based loosely on the work of Tim Ballard, founder of Operation Underground Railroad.
Joining us for the interview will be journalists Anna Merlan and Tim Marchman, who have both been heavily involved in coverage of this story.
Human Trafficking Advocacy | Freedom Network USA
Articles from Vice on Tim Ballard and OUR can be found below:
- 7/13/2023: Tim Ballard Has ‘Stepped Away’ From Operation Underground Railroad, Org Says
- 7/6/23: Anti-Trafficking Group With Long History of False Claims Gets Its Hollywood Moment
- 6/10/22: Operation Underground Railroad Touts Non-Existent Partnership With American Airlines
- 8/24/21: Inside the Shadowy Anti–Sex Trafficking Group OUR
- 6/10/21: Operation Underground Railroad’s Carefully Crafted Public Image Is Falling Apart
- 8/12/21: Anti-Trafficking Charity Operation Underground Railroad Has Another Murky Rescue Story
- 3/8/21: Inside a Massive Anti-Trafficking Charity’s Blundering Overseas Missions
- 12/10/20: A Famed Anti-Sex Trafficking Group Has a Problem With the Truth
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Show Notes:
- Inside the Shadowy Anti–Sex Trafficking Group OUR (vice.com)
- OPERATION UNDERGROUND RAILROAD INC – Full Filing- Nonprofit Explorer – ProPublica
- Operation Underground Railroad – VICE
- Anti-Trafficking Group With Long History of False Claims Gets Its Hollywood Moment (vice.com)
- Arizona Supreme Court: LDS bishops don’t have to report child abuse (sltrib.com)
- anna.merlin@vice.com tim.marchman@vice.com 267-713-9832 (via Signal)
- Human Trafficking Advocacy | Freedom Network USA
- Lynn Packer’s YouYube channel
- (331) American Crime Journal – YouTube
Mormon Stories Related:
So …. are you pro trafficking? I saw the movie and can’t imagine why anyone or any entity ( Disney, Netflix, CNN, and other media) being opposed to the content and message of this movie. It’s a MOVIE and many movies are loosely based on true stories and many have great messages and big impacts for good. I’d feel like I’d need a shower if we’re against the promotion of stopping child sex rings. I’m starting to wonder about this site which I have found enlightening and mostly important in raising issues that need to be discussed. Qanon… which I don’t espouse too wasn’t even a thing 5 years ago when the movie was made.
Hi David, we answer all those questions and concerns multiple times in the video. I hope you can listen to the full thing soon!
I sure hope you give the other side equal time. If sex trafficking is real and OUR is helping to stop it then you better make sure your facts are straight! Otherwise you would be damaging an organization that is doing much good and you would therefore be helping promote sex crimes.
It is hard to believe that someone like Tony Robbins would not have vetted them out before actually going on a sting operation himself and donating $millons.
I am an independent. I think people on the far right and far left look at the world with a skewed reality. You should do a podcast with an interview with someone from OUR, Angel Studios, or the big names that support this organization like Tony Robbins. If this is true I want to know for sure. If it is just politics I don’t trust it.
This just reminds me of the South Park where the parents hire actors to play their druggy kids from the future. The ends justify the means. Except in this case the ends were Ballard getting his action hero moment on the big screen.
I have listened to nearly every episode of Mormon Stories for many years with few exceptions. I listened to some episodes more than once. I have done that because I’m a fan and I appreciate the content. Some episodes are great and others are not as much.
This episode was the most disappointing one ever. I’m shocked that Mormon Stories and its guests would attack and besmirch someone and an organization that are trying to stop a great evil, child sex trafficking, or at least trying to stop some of it.
I’m dismayed at the many innuendos, smear tactics, one-sidedness, very weak arguments, and logical fallacies that were employed in this episode.
This episode is below the standards that I thought Mormon Stories had.
When my metaphorical shelf about the church crashed many years ago, my cognitive dissonance was devastating. I felt so alone and half crazy. I could not talk to anyone about it. Even close friends put up their force fields if I broached with them any of the problems with the church. Discovering Mormon-themed podcasts was a godsend and close to a lifesaver.
Now I’m having cognitive dissonance and painful feelings about Mormon Stories. I’m wondering if my still-TBM wife is right or partially right about Mormon Stories and its intentions. I’m calling into question why I have given it credibility and have listened to it for so long.
Why, why, why would you attack someone trying to save children from sex trafficking???? Not all of them, no. Not every form of abuse, no. At least Ballard has done something. And he’s done it at great risk. I don’t get it!
I’ve heard Ballard, the lead actor, and the director on a few other podcasts. I don’t think Ballard is the evil, egotistical, corrupt, or deluded man you are making him out to be.
You try condensing ten years worth of work into a two-hour movie and see how well you do.
Ballard helped promote the movie. But he didn’t write the script or direct it. In his interview with Tim Poole, Ballard says some of the things in the movie didn’t happen the way they were portrayed. He talks about several of them.
(Yes, my name here is fictitious.)
Let me just add to my comment above that admittedly was already too long, I don’t know if there is any truth to the allegations that were made in this episode or not. I don’t know where Ballard falls on the continuum between a smooth talking con man that has fooled many people, separated them from their money, and caused them to believe wild stories on the one end, and a self-sacrificing hero that is leading a fight against a world-wide scourge on the other. I don’t know him.
I have no idea if child sex trafficking is as prolific as made out to be by the movie or by Operation Underground Railroad. I don’t know anybody that would participate in anything even close to that, that I know of. Those kinds of activities are hard to measure because they are highly secretive. But child porn over the internet can be discovered and measured by authorities and apparently it is all too common.
I don’t know where the truth lies. I have listened to Ballard in several forums and he comes across as genuine to me. I’ll grant you that a good conman always comes across as genuine so maybe I fell for his tricks.
However, this podcast episode did not convince me that Ballard is a fraud. It actually caused me to go see the movie sooner than I had planned. The arguments and logical fallacies against him were very weak. Nearly every bit of mud that was thrown at him and at OUR could just as easily have been thrown at Open Stories and its illustrious founder. The episode came across as hypocritical. The allegations were not backed up by any facts or by any facts that matter.
At this point I lean toward believing Ballard.
Does anyone else see that Ballard fits the psychological profile of a paedophile?
Appears to be trustworthy and respectable. Check.
Has good standing in the community. Check.
Are primarily (but not always) male, masculine, better-educated, more religious than average, and choose jobs, allowing them greater access to children. Check.
Are usually family men, have no criminal record, and deny that they abuse children. Check. He has nine children including ones he adopted.
The marriage is often troubled by sexual dysfunction and serves as a smokescreen for the paedophile’s true preferences and practices.
(I can’t comment on his marriage except that Mormon purity culture messes with psychosexual development and creates sexual issues and deviances. His wife seems keen for her husband to be away from home on his ‘Rambo Jesus’ missions) Why?
He promotes ‘stranger danger’ to distract from the real danger, right under our noses, hiding in plain sight.
He said in an interview that he has to view a lot of images of child abuse.(albeit for his job?) Does he? He seems to do everything from running special ops to being a movie promoter and everything in between.
He said in a recent interview that he mentally superimposed his children’s faces onto the images he was looking at but called it PTSD. WTF!
He ‘pretends’ to be a paedophile in sting ops and fails to see how this creates a ‘demand’ for kids. A paedophile pretending to be a paedophile to ‘catch’ and ‘prosecute’ other paedophiles. Now that’s a clever smokescreen!
He also displays many narcissistic and psychopathological traits and other RED FLAGS.
Superficial charm and charisma
Lies, exaggeration and dishonesty
Need for power, control and dominance
Thrill-seeking behaviours
Disregard for laws, rules and norms
Calculated and strategic planning
Masters of deception
Grandiosity
He seems to care more about ‘prosecuting paedophiles than the aftercare of victims.
Do victims end up ‘rescued, rebuilt and restored’ in Mormon households? See ‘The Nazarene Fund’
He trains his Jump Teams on how to handle ‘sexual urges’ when they visit brothels on sting ops. Do team members buy the services of sex workers to make it look plausible? Is that why they invite ‘guests’ on sting ops?
He collected millions of dollars in tax-exempt donations, but his track record of saved victims is less than 200 annually.
Where did all the money go?
If anyone has any evidence to the contrary, put it forward. If this man is legit, he will stand up under scrutiny. So far, it’s not looking good for Ballard.
Let this not be another Jimmy Saville.