In 2002, The Boston Globe’s investigative team published about 600 stories on the sex abuse scandal surrounding the Catholic Church. The reporters accused nearly 250 priests and brothers of molesting children in the Boston Archdiocese. The Boston Globe believes there are over 1,000 sex abuse survivors in Boston alone.
In 2015, Open Road released the film “Spotlight.” I highly encourage anyone interested in journalism to watch the movie. It explores the process reporters go through to uncover information that powerful people spent decades trying to bury.
The film gave a voice to survivors. It warned those who commit and cover up atrocities that journalists will hold them accountable. It reminded other journalists of why they go to work every day.
The Boston Globe created a fascinating section on their website dedicated to the movie. Here, you can read stories by the real journalists and see how the movie was made.
Want to learn more about the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team? Watch this video to get a behind the scenes look at some of the most powerful investigative journalists in the world.
PBS News Hour aired a six-minute segment about the movie and the newspaper that won a Pulitzer Prize for its impactful reporting.
Boston’s PBS affiliate, WGBH, aired a discussion with journalists to find out what they thought about the movie and the future of journalism.