A Lesson for All of Us

A scene from the movie "Spotlight" in which editors and reporters struggle to get their arms around the pedophile priest story in the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.

We’ve just returned from watching the new movie, “Spotlight”, which put me in mind of the “must-see” movie I carried across the world for more than a decade while I was working as a trainer/mentor of journalists in countries as diverse at Cambodia, Nepal, Bhutan, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Namibia in Africa.

Back in the day, the story was “All the President’s Men,” about Woodward and Bernstein’s dogged reporting saga that brought down Richard Nixon. I’d have a VHS copy of the film in my briefcase and, when the time was right, I’d produce it for the instruction and entertainment of the journalists I worked with.

“Spotlight” is the new go-to movie for instruction and inspiration for tomorrow’s journalists. What a spectacular accounting of dogged journalism that uncovered the horror of twisted priests in the Boston archdiocese who ruined the lives of countless young men and women. And, as the story unfolds, you come to understand the complexity of the cover-up by the Catholic Church, as well as the difficulties faced by the team of Catholic reporters on The Boston Globe as they struggled to get their minds around the enormity of the crimes.

Back in the day, I would arrange a social evening at each of my stop-overs as I hopped around the globe, working with journalists. I’d provide the beer or soft drinks and chips and we’d watch the movie about all the president’s men.

 I’d pause the movie maybe 20 times so we could dissect the action, the ethical questions, the questions that resulted in ever-more questions, the earning of trust between sources and the reporters, the earning of trust between the reporters and their editors, the endless pressure and abuse that emanated from the highest echelons of the government.  All of that – and more – are repeated and enriched in the saga of “Spotlight”.

And it also highlights – for me, at least – how expensive it is to pay for this kind of in-depth journalism in an era of sinking-and-drowning newspapers. But our country will be the poorer if these kinds of long-term investigative reports are trimmed from the budgets of dying newspapers.