UNITED STATES
East Bay Express

By Kelly Vance

For most Americans, especially those in law enforcement and news gathering, the public opinion tipping point on the issue of child sexual abuse by adult authority figures came on January 6, 2002, when the Boston Globe published a bombshell investigation of pedophilic crimes committed under the nose of the Roman Catholic church in that city. Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight tells the story and the story behind the story in a brisk, businesslike fashion from the newspaper’s point of view, buoyed by sharp performances from a large cast of character actors.

Ask anyone who has ever worked in one — there’s no place in the world quite so alive as a newsroom an hour before deadline. A flurry of activity but also of ideas, people pinging off each other, a clatter of opinions, the talk of the town. Of course, print publications are…