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Spotlight · written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy · 2015
Scene 126 of 143 · ≈ 2 min on screen
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.
The cost comes due: 9/11 steals six weeks, Saviano accuses them of abandoning survivors, sources go quiet, and even finding Law's damning letters isn't enough to end the fight over when to publish.
At the Fairmont bar, Pete Conley leans on Robby, invoking loyalty to the city and the Cardinal's good works, and warns him that Marty Baron won't be in Boston for long; Robby tells him he'll need a comment from the Cardinal when the story runs.
Robby's phone rings with news that Judge Sweeney has ruled in the Globe's favor to unseal the Geoghan documents, stunning the team.
Albano briefs Marty, Ben, and Robby that the unsealed documents likely won't be public until mid-January, and Robby moves to keep Metro's Canellos from running big on the ruling.
This scene
CLOSE ON the letters. Reveal Marty and Ben reading, STUNNED.
MARTY
When did you --
ROBBY
A couple of weeks ago.
BEN
A couple of weeks?
ROBBY
Yeah.
BEN
And you’re telling us now?
MARTY
These are substantial. They clearly
show that Law was negligent.
Ben and Marty stare at Robby. A beat, then --
ROBBY
I need more time. I want to keep
digging.
BEN
For what? This is the goddamn story.
ROBBY
It’s not the whole story.
BEN
(dismissive)
Tough shit. We’re on a clock now.
Even if we don’t run Sweeney’s
ruling, another paper could find
these letters and fuck the story.
ROBBY
Agreed. But we run the letters
alone, Law apologizes, says it’s a
one time thing, he can bury it.
MARTY
How? These clearly show he knew and
did nothing.
ROBBY
Look, I’m close to stories on 70
priests.
We nail that along with those
letters, it’s proof that this is
bigger than Law. It’s the whole
system.
Marty considers.
MARTY
You have multiple sources confirming
the 70 priests?
ROBBY
On some. I can get more.
BEN
Too risky. If we’re not buttoned up
on every single one of them, the
Church’ll pick us apart.
Robby’s up against it. He plays his hand.
ROBBY
I think I can get someone from the
other side of the aisle.
BEN
Someone inside the Church?
ROBBY
Yeah, a lawyer.
MARTY
Will he go on the record?
ROBBY
Deep background. But he’s a solid
source.
Marty considers. A beat, then Ben steps in.
BEN
Rezendes needs time to write up the
story. We don’t want to drop this
at Christmas, not after 9/11. We
could run it just after New Year’s,
before the rest of the documents are
released.
MARTY
Okay. Tell Canellos to bury the
ruling in Metro.
(then, to Robby)
You’ve got six weeks.
Robby nods, gets up and leaves. Ben follows him into --