UNITED STATES
Arizona Daily Star
By Richard Gilman SPECIAL TO THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Editor’s note: The Star asked Gilman, a Tucsonan who was publisher of the Boston Globe during the period portrayed in the movie “Spotlight,” to offer his opinion on how closely the film sticks to the facts.
Newspaper reporters, at least those of the old school, do their best to stay out of the spotlight. The story isn’t about them.
But there they are up on the big screen, journalists I know and deeply respect being played by movie stars in a full-length feature film getting rave reviews. Goodbye photophobia. Hello, Hollywood!
“Spotlight” is the four-person investigative team of the Boston Globe, circa 2001, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for uncovering the Catholic Church pedophile priest scandal. We all now know Boston was not alone. Similar patterns have since been revealed in city after city around the world.
I was in charge of the Globe in those days. As such, I took considerable pride in our reporting then and have a particular interest in the movie today. “Spotlight” opens in Tucson tomorrow.
The movie is several stories at once:
* The devastating impact on the victims of the abuse.
* A cautionary tale of the conspiracy of silence that existed even among the authorities.
* A monumental ode to newspapers doing their job. And a not-so-subtle warning of what will be lost if newspapers go away.
* A textbook study in investigative reporting. In dramatic form, this is what it takes – in time, talent and methodology – to pursue a big story the subjects don’t want told.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.