UNITED STATES
Suffolk Times

by Grant Parpan | 03/05/2016

There’s a scene late in the Academy Award-winning film “Spotlight” in which a reporter visits a courthouse to secure a document sure to break open The Boston Globe’s investigation into the Catholic Church’s cover-up of allegations that priests had molested children.

Before he eventually obtains the information he is seeking, reporter Michael Rezendes, portrayed in the film by actor Mark Ruffalo, is stonewalled by what seems like every bureaucrat in the building.

The often menial task of acquiring court documents crucial to the telling of a news story is something that plays out every day in newsrooms and courthouses across this country. The lack of enthusiasm from the government worker on the other side of the transaction is something familiar to journalists who have flocked to see the film, which took home Best Picture honors at Sunday’s Oscars.

In the…