Griffin Dugan

COM 304 B

2/26/19

Analyzing Spotlight for Course Content

Spotlight tells the real-life story of the investigative reporting team of The Boston Globe.

When a new editor joins the paper in 2001, he encourages the team to look in to the recent claims

that Boston’s Cardinal Law had knowledge of sexual abuse being performed on young boys by

priest John Geogan. As the team dives further into the case, they discover nearly 90 abuse

allegations against different Catholic priests in the Boston area, and eventually the team is

confronted with the reality that Church leaders knew about these abuses and kept silent. After

months of investigation, they finally publish their findings in the paper. The film ends by

showing how the publication encouraged more victims of sexual abuse by the Church to come

forward.

One of the key themes of the movie is investigative journalism. The Spotlight team

focuses on investigating stories thoroughly and finding the truth about matters, even if it

conflicts with official accounts. The team chooses their own stories to work on, and over the

course of a few months they investigate, check facts, and perform background checks on their

sources. Throughout the film, examples of the team’s investigative journalism are evident. For

example, the journalists spend a lot of time interviewing different victims of sexual abuse by

priests, and they consult experts like the ex-priest psychotherapist. In doing so, they develop a

well-rounded story that is backed by multiple sources and is more credible than simply taking

one official’s word for the truth. Furthermore, the investigative team challenged the Church’s
narrative of the events, and checked their claims against the truth of the abuses by looking at

church records of priests being reassigned. In these ways, Spotlight exemplifies how

investigative journalism involves a long process of fact checking and critical thinking.

Furthermore, the Church engaged in spin throughout the film. As stated above, the

Church covered up accusations of priest molestation by using euphemisms like “sick leave” and

“unassigned” in their records. In addition, the Church emphasized the good work it does through

charity, and this kind of “philanthropic figure” image was used during the interview after 9/11.

Towards the end of the film, one Church representative states that “the cardinal… might not be

perfect. But we can't throw out all the good he's doing for a few bad apples”. In doing so,

members of the Church and their PR team chose to focus on the charity work the Church does in

order to cover-up these molestation accusations. Lastly, when the final story is published,

Cardinal Law refuses to comment on or listen to the Spotlight team’s questions, indicating that

the Church feels it is above this “scandal”. In these ways, the Church spins the information

surrounding the molestation accusations in order to paint the Church as a force for good that is

being unfairly targeted over some rumors.

We also see the journalists’ roles as gatekeepers in the news, especially in how The

Globe handled information surrounding the accusations previously. For example, five years

before the film’s story, the SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) representative

Phil Saviano sent The Globe all the information he had about the molestations, and the

journalists chose to ignore this information. Additionally, the lawyer MacLeish reveals that he

sent The Globe a list of 20 accused priests years ago which the journalists chose not to follow-up

on. In both examples, journalists acted as gatekeepers by deeming the information sent to them

as irrelevant for public consumption. Even if this was done out of fear of provoking the Church,
the journalists did not allow this to be made publicly available, and in doing so exercised their

editorial power to decide what information enters the news.

The film also broaches the topic of declining revenue of the legacy press. The Globe is

a local Boston newspaper that was recently purchased by The New York Times, and the new

leadership of this merger had already cut 15% of the staff, with more cuts looming. With more

people going toward the internet for their news, legacy press was having to cut costs to stay

afloat. As a result, the investigative Spotlight team was definitely not ideal; they took several

months to a year to publish a story. Having these specialists take so much time is more expensive

than just hiring generalists which could cover anything, and this divide between was seen with

the 9/11 attacks and subsequent coverage. As soon as news broke of the attacks, the Spotlight

team was reassigned to cover that story along with the paper’s other reporters, forcing them to

put the Church story on hold. This shows how in this age of media, generalists that can cover

major news stories are preferred over specialist investigators.

Finally, the film highlights how the fragmentation of news stories can have disastrous

consequences. While The Globe did initially cover the Geogan case, they did so briefly and

without any follow-up on the story. In portraying the case as an isolated incident separate from

other molestation claims, the paper lost the chance to draw greater connections between this case

and similar events. Furthermore, in the Spotlight team’s review of newspaper records, they were

able to uncover other isolated stories of molestation by priests. When the team was finally able to

make connections between the accusations they had, they were able to unveil 70 confirmed

priests and many more victims. The final story was published in a way that captured all of these

interconnected instances, and new people were able to come forward to tell their stories of abuse.
All of this serves to show how the fragmentation of news stories into random and unconnected

events prevents essential analysis and connections from being made.

Spotlight provides a standard for how journalism should work in the US. In their

investigation efforts, the Spotlight team exemplified the importance of holding powerful people

accountable for their actions, and providing a voice to the voiceless. I believe a key part of

journalism should involve journalists telling underrepresented stories, and challenging the

narrative of institutions when they are clearly falsified. The investigative team interviews several

sources, complete with background checks, and in doing so ensures that their story is true and

representative of the real world. If anything, it’s a shame the team had to delay their story’s

release due to a lack of manpower to check facts, as a faster publication could have prevented

further molestations. More money needs to be devoted to investigative journalism in the US,

because it prevents oppression and allows for justice within powerful systems.