Spotlight, And What’s Missed

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.

Continue reading “Spotlight, And What’s Missed”

That Time I Volunteered for CASA, and What I Learned

From 2003-2005, I was a court appointed special advocate, or CASA, for Montgomery County, MD. I was given one client, and I spent two years with him before the case was closed.

When I first met him, he was living in a group home, away from his mother as the living conditions at her house weren’t deemed suitable by the county, to put it nicely.

Continue reading “That Time I Volunteered for CASA, and What I Learned”

This is Disgusting

Here’s a passage in an opinion article about a man brutally murdering someone on a subway in D.C. last week.

“Spires is not a large man. Court documents describe him as a 5-foot-5, 125-pound black man. Did unconscious bias make the teenager seem bigger or make his odds seem better than the nearly dozen people around him?”

Continue reading “This is Disgusting”