I think I can safely say that the film Spotlight is the best journalism movie since All the President’s Men. It’s the story of the Boston Globe’s award-winning investigation into the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal.
Since the film prominently features former Boston Globe editor Marty Baron, the Washington Post’s current editor, WaPo employees got to attend a special screening a few months ago. I’d like to humbly brag that on the way to the screening, I was with a small group of colleagues who invited Baron himself to ride along to the theater in Georgetown. On the way, he told us some interesting things that happened before and even after filming.
One part of Spotlight I especially appreciated was that the director didn’t gloss over the fact that journalism itself played a role in enabling the abuse to continue. Having the info necessary to launch an investigation years earlier, the editors at the time didn’t thoroughly follow through. Spotlight acknowledges this.
I find this to be an important reminder that this sort of thing happens far more often than journalists would care to admit. Scoops come all the time, but too often they don’t get the attention they deserve – sometimes due to a lack of resources. Yet repurposing viral content and aggregating everything-thats-already-out-there gets the 24-hour treatment. Because… page views.
Bias plays a role, too. What reporter or editor wants to spend any time tearing apart something that conflicts with their own worldview? The Catholic News Agency certainly wasn’t going to beat the Globe to the story.
Now, just imagine if a single person had the audacity to follow up on Kermit Gosnell before he was finally busted for running a pill-mill – the least of his crimes. People did know what was happening, and did nothing (which ultimately led to the firing of Department of Health officials who could have stopped this man – it’s good someone was held accountable). Considering the mainstream media’s lack of response to the case even after it broke, it’s a fair assumption any Gosnell scoop to an average ‘liberal’ publication would’ve been tossed in the trash. Of course, I’m speculating here, but it’s a reasonable assumption, all things considered. We’ll learn about that in 3801 Lancaster: American Tragedy. I’m hoping journalists and anyone in a position to make a difference go and see that film. My hunch is, they won’t, and they’ll continued to be shocked when they learn of pure evil going unchecked for years if not decades, with all they need to crack the story in their Deleted e-mail folder.