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Spotlight · written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy · 2015
Scene 127 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.
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.
Marty and Ben are stunned to learn Robby has been sitting on the D'Arcy and Gallant letters for weeks, and press him to explain why he wants to hold the story until they can confirm seventy priests using a source inside the Church.
This scene
Ben and Robby walk out.
BEN
Tell Mike I want a draft before
Christmas. And we need a response
from Lake Street. Who does PR for
the Cardinal? Still John Walsh?
ROBBY
No, somebody new, Donna Morrisey,
she came from TV, she’s young.
BEN
Good, get a quote, we need something
from Law to appear even-handed.
ROBBY
Got it.
BEN
And Robby? Next time give me a
goddamn heads up?
Ben exits. Robby takes it on the chin then walks off. As he does, we hear a child’s voice start into SILENT NIGHT...
157 INVESTIGATION/WRITING MONTAGE
As a second child joins in, we see a SERIES OF SHOTS...
157A MIKE’S COMPUTER. 41 days until deadline. The very 157A start of the story. FIND Mike in SPOTLIGHT, pecking out the story on his COMPUTER. Matt, coat and briefcase, walks out...
157I Sacha with Phil, Crowley and another guy at a shitty 157I DINER, sad Christmas decor. Sacha doesn’t eat, she writes on a pad.
157Fa MIKE’S COMPUTER. 21 days until deadline. The story 157Fa is further along...
157Fb Matt drives down the street in HIS CAR, eyes on an old 157Fb man, putting down salt on the front walk of the TREATMENT CENTER.
157E In BEN’S OFFICE, Mike watches Ben and Robby read the 157E story. Cross outs. He hands it back to Mike. Not there yet.
157F A SMALL HYDE PARK LIVING ROOM. A man in 40s cries, 157F talking to Sacha. A Christmas tree in the background.
157J MIKE’S COMPUTER. 8 days until deadline. More edits on 157J the story. FIND Mike in his APARTMENT. Editing. A beer
157Ja An E-MAIL to Robby from Ben: ‘Where are we on your 157Ja source? It’s time.’ Find Robby IN HIS OFFICE, staring at the computer.
157M A night mass at an EAST BOSTON CHURCH.
As the children’s choir finishes Silent Night, we FIND Mike, in the doorway, standing there. Watching. Cut to --