Spotlight is about the investigative reporting unit of the Boston Globe, a somewhat autonomous journalistic arm of the newspaper. In 2001, Marty Baron, the newly hired editor-in-chief, asks the crew to drop the story they're currently working on and focus on allegations regarding a priest named John Geoghan (who's accused of molesting more than 80 boys). The team initially doubts whether the story will pick up traction with the local community, and are hesitant in pursuing it, feeling that Baron (who is neither locally raised nor catholic) is a bit of an outsider who doesn't understand what news is important to Bostonians. The team talk to lawyers who have or are working on alleged sex abuse cases perpetrated by Catholic priests in Boston (those lawyers including Eric MacLeish and Mitchell Garabedian), known victims (such as Phil Saviano, the head of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)) and insiders in the Catholic church. Through this investigation, they get wind that the problem is not contained to one priest and one victim, in essence changing the focus from the priests to the systemic problem of the Archdiocese not only covering up the abuse but in reality doing nothing to stop it and thus condoning it. The movie is based on a true story.
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Marty Baron pushes his team, telling his reporters and editors that proving single cases of molestation is not enough; he wants to know if pedophilia within the church is a systematic problem, if there is a cover-up, and who should be held
Marty Baron pushes his team, telling his reporters and editors that proving single cases of molestation is not enough; he wants to know if pedophilia within the church is a systematic problem, if there is a cover-up, and who should be held