UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Celia Wexler
Catholic feminist, journalist, former public interest lobbyist

Last month, at the White House Correspondents Dinner, President Obama jokingly called out noted “journalists” in the room – Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Liev Schreiber — who played investigative reporters in the film Spotlight. The story was about reporters who had the resources and the autonomy “to chase down the truth and hold the powerful accountable,” he said. Given the current state of journalism, Obama joked, the film was the best “fantasy” flick since Star Wars.

The film earned its Academy awards through its deft retelling of the story of the investigative reporting team that uncovered the systematic cover-up of sexual abuse of children by priests in the archdiocese of Boston. But Spotlight did not tell the whole story.

The Globe’s exposé was published in early 2002. Nine months before, in March 2001, the…