The Fourth Estate Analysis

“Journalism can never be silent: that is the greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.” The managing editor of TIME Magazine and the editor-in-chief of Time, Inc., Henry Anatole Grunwald spoke those words in reflection to what journalism ought to be. Journalism must tell the truth and stay loyal to the citizens. That is journalism’s ultimate goal; the ultimate goal to act as the self-appointed name of being the Fourth Estate, where journalists have the same equal power and status as the other three branches of government. The Fourth Estate is essentially, “the faith in the press as the guardian of truth, the watchdog …show more content…
This is a prevalent theme and idea throughout the film. The film is based on the true story of how investigative journalists at the Boston Globe in 2002 were motivated to find the truth in a scandal that had appeared between the Catholic Church and law. Being the Fourth Estate became the key motivation for these journalists to discover the truth and to tell the world the heartbreaking story of the results of their investigation of the child molestation scandal by Catholic priests and how the local Catholic Archdiocese in Boston covered the traumatic molestation to protect the Church. Having the role as the Fourth Estate became an important aspect along the journey for these journalists. These journalists had to have facts, credibility, sources, and had to produce the truth. Being the Fourth Estate embodied them and became them and they wanted to share this story with the world. This story was a story that had to be heard. As Mark Ruffalo’s character, journalist Michael Rezendes puts it, “We gotta show people that nobody can get away with this; not a priest, or a cardinal or a freaking …show more content…
Boston Globe received a new editor, Marty Baron, portrayed by Liev Schreiber, who suggested the idea to a group of editors in a meeting. Many of them worried about his idea, believing that the story had nothing to go on. Furthermore, when Baron discovered that the Church had documents under seal and how those documents could possibly prove that the Catholic Archdiocese knew about the children molestations and did nothing, Baron suggested to go to court and request for the documents to be open to the public. However, journalists and editors feared of how the Church would consider Baron’s suggested action to be suing the Church and that that would cause The Boston Globe to lose the great majority of their readers—Catholics. Baron ignored them though and hired the Spotlight team to investigate the