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Spotlight · written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy · 2015
Scene 110 of 143 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two
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.
Baron's outsider question exposes what the paper has never done: investigate whether Cardinal Law knowingly protected an abusive priest.
The team sets aside its own project and enters unfamiliar territory: survivor networks, a hostile plaintiff's lawyer, and a legal fight to unseal church records.
The team pays the cost of the work — hearing survivor testimony, chasing MacLeish's stonewalling, and combing church directories for a hidden pattern of reassigned priests.
The directory search and Sipe's estimate deliver what they set out for: confirmation that the abuse spans dozens, then eighty-seven, priests across Boston.
Mike fills out a records request for the Geoghan exhibits, but O'Brian tells him the records are sealed and directs him upstairs to a judge when Mike pushes back that the motion is public.
Mike asks a receptionist to see Judge Volterra immediately about accessing the sealed exhibits.
At BC High, Robby and Sacha press President Kemeza and spokesman Jack Dunn on whether the school's leadership knew about Father Talbot, and Robby reveals a victim who played hockey under Talbot's own coaching.
This scene
Robby and Sacha walk from BC High back to the Globe.
SACHA
Does Jack Dunn work for the school?
ROBBY
No. He’s PR for Boston College. They
call him when they need help.
SACHA
And Pete Conley? Why was he there?
ROBBY
Good question. Pete’s a big alum.
But I called Bill directly and I
asked for a sit-down, I never
mentioned anybody else.
SACHA
It’s like everybody already knows
the story.
This hits Robby. He pauses, looks back at BC High.
ROBBY
Yeah, except us. And we work right
there.