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Spotlight · written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy · 2015
Scene 11 of 143 · ≈ 2 min on screen · Act one
The Boston Globe's Spotlight team pries open the Catholic Church's decades-long cover-up of child abuse — one sealed record, one silenced victim at a time.
Robby's Spotlight team operates comfortably inside its own routine, prospecting a modest police-corruption story under a departing editor's cover.
Ben tells Robby that Baron was unreadable in their own sit-down, as the two head into Marty's first editorial meeting.
Marty sits mostly silent through his first 10:30 editors' meeting while Helen Donovan runs introductions around the table.
Mike needles veteran reporter Kurkjian about why Eileen McNamara is in the editors' meeting, and gets brushed off.
This scene
The meeting is wrapping up.
SPORTS EDITOR
...and it looks like Pedro’s gonna
be out until September 1st. Jimmy
says he’ll be back this year, but
the doc didn’t seem so sure.
BEN
When’s the Pats opener?
Laughter. Except Marty.
MARTY
Is that everyone?
HELEN
Yes, that’s it.
MARTY
Great, thank you. Uh, did everyone
read Eileen McNamara’s column this
weekend?
The room reacts. Huh? Editors look at EILEEN MCNAMARA, 50s.
HELEN
That’s the Geoghan case?
MARTY
Yes, what’s the folo on that?
BEN
It’s a column, what kind of folo
were you thinking?
MARTY
Well, apparently this priest
molested kids in six different
parishes over the last thirty years
and the attorney for the victims,
Mr...
EILEEN
Garabedian.
MARTY
Thanks, Eileen. Mr. Garabedian says
Cardinal Law found out about it
fifteen years ago and did nothing.
CANELLOS
I think that attorney’s a bit of a
crank. And the Church dismissed the
claim.
EILEEN
He said, she said.
MARTY
Whether Mr. Garabedian is a crank or
not, he says he has documents that
prove the Cardinal knew.
BEN
As I understand it, those documents
are under seal.
Silence. No one knows what to do. Robby watches.
MARTY
Okay, but the fact remains, we have
a Boston priest abused 80 kids,
we’ve got a lawyer who says he has
proof Law knew about it, and we’ve
written all of...
(checking his notes)
...two stories on this in the last
six months?
(then)
This strikes me as an essential
story for a local paper. At the
very least, we should be going after
those documents.
CANELLOS
How would you like to do that?
MARTY
Well, I don’t know what the laws are
here, but in Florida we would go to
court.
Robby raises an eyebrow. In fact, the whole room does.
BEN
You want to sue the church?
MARTY
Technically we wouldn’t sue the
Church. We would file a motion to
lift the seal on those documents.
BEN
The church will read that as us
suing them. So will everybody else.
MARTY
Good to know.
Off Robby, intrigued --