The excellent movie Spotlight
brings back the past on several different levels. First, the movie delivers an old fashioned
plot presented straight up with no fancy cinematic devises. Second, it follows the decades old story of
the Boston Globe newspaper exposing the cover up of sexual abuse in the
Catholic Church throughout the greater Boston area. Lastly, Spotlight,
is a stunning example of the importance of investigative journalism in a
democratic society.
The movie
derives its title from a small unit
in the Boston Globe’s news division that is given the time and resources to
deep dive important topics that cannot be vetted by the regular
journalists. It was not uncommon for the
Spotlight crew to take over a year to put an expose together before going to
press. Some of the over eager young journalists
would beg to release a story. The older
editors knew it was prudent to wait and gather all the background so that the
quarry could not escape the net.
The acting in Spotlight
is superb. Many critics think it will be
nominated for best picture at this year’s Academy Awards. As I watched, it occurred to me how rare
investigative journalism is in today’s 24/7 news world.
On the internet and cable news, we are fed the shallow
headlines, over and over, until the details are fixed in our memory banks like the
ever present drug commercials. To
demonstrate our knowledge beyond the news bites, we read countless commentary
and opinion articles, usually the pieces that support our political and social
views. Conspiracy theories abound
with few facts to support them. Even the
reporters on 60 Minutes now seem to have multiple journalistic
responsibilities, subtracting from this pioneering show’s past pedigree of
substance.
Somehow there must be a place in modern journalism for slow
and careful door knocking, interviews with reluctant witnesses and the tedious
inspection of old and dusty written records, all by reporters with no agenda
other than to expose the truth. Faster
news is not necessarily more responsible news.
Uncovering institutional corruption takes time and patience.
Spotlight may
encourage some young journalists to seek out investigative reporting as a
career. The real challenge is to convince news organizations to invest in a
type of product that does not provide instant gratification to the public or an
immediate financial payback for the corporate bottom line.
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