There are few times in my life where I will be a journalist who gets to write about how much I love journalism and feel the power of the written word, and this is one of those times.
So bear with me and the love fest that is about to ensue.
“Spotlight,” is a true story about a true story — a story about the power of journalism.
Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery and the beauty that is Stanley Tucci all star in this film about the Boston Globe investigative team, Spotlight, that exposed the systematic cover-ups of the molestation of children by more than 85 Catholic priests in Boston in the early 2000s.
After a new editor comes in, the Spotlight team is essentially forced to look into a priest whose case just seems a little sketchy. They had no idea they would discover the story of a lifetime.
This team would uncover that the City of Boston and Cardinal Bernard Law had been participating in the molestation cover-up. The reporters attempt to bring down a system of Catholicism in a city that lives and dies for its faith.
I could sit here and give you a play by play of the film, but to be honest, you could just Google that. My time is better spent telling you why you should pay $10 to see this film.
I fell in love with journalism again after leaving the theater, and I would like to believe you all would, too.
I have a love/hate relationship with journalism, as so many in this country do.
There are just plain old bad days for the sanctity of journalism. The day we learn a journalist made something up? A bad day. The day we see a journalist editorializing? Just smack your forehead.
But “Spotlight” reminds us why journalists do what they do and why the world needs them to do what they do. “Spotlight” is one of those great days that makes up for all the years of bad days.
Finley Peter Dunne said it is the duty of a newspaper, and as I say, great journalism, to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” When I come in contact with a piece of fantastic journalism that actually achieves this, I am reminded the best part of the United States is our constitutional right to accomplish this.
This team of journalists sacrificed their emotional stability to achieve this goal set by Dunne by working for the community they write for and trying to expose a system that was deeply harming everyone.
They wanted to comfort the afflicted.
In the process, they afflicted the comfortable. Actually they squashed them, but you’ll have to see the film for that.
For all those who say journalism is dying or journalists are useless, I challenge them to see this film.
“Spotlight” is why we need journalism in these 50 great states.
“Spotlight” is journalism performing its purest function — watchdog journalism.
This film is quite literally comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, which in my humble opinion is the best formula for any perfect story.
