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Spotlight · written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy · 2015
Scene 129 of 143 · ≈ 1 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.
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.
Ben tells Robby to get a draft to Mike before Christmas and press the Cardinal's office for comment through new PR contact Donna Morrisey, as a deadline countdown montage of the team's grinding writing and editing process begins.
Robby knocks unannounced on Jim Sullivan's door on a Sunday night, surprising Jim's wife Karen.
This scene
Jim sits at on a leather couch watching golf. Through a door, we see a Christmas tree. His wife and Robby walk in.
JIM’S WIFE
Look who I found outside.
Jim looks up, less than happy to see Robby standing there.
JIM
Hon, give us a minute, will you?
Jim’s wife looks surprised.
JIM’S WIFE
Sure.
ROBBY
Good to see you, Karen.
She leaves. Jim turns off the TV,
JIM
What’s up?
Robby pulls out a list, hands it to Jim.
ROBBY
I’m out of time, Jim. We’ve got
cover-up stories on 70 priests, but
the boss isn’t gonna run it unless I
get confirmation from your side.
Jim turns off the TV, looks it over.
JIM
Are you out of your mind?
ROBBY
Come on. This is our town, Jimmy.
We all knew something was going on
and no one did a thing. We gotta
put an end to it.
JIM
Don’t tell me what I gotta do!
Yeah, I helped defend these
scumbags, but that’s my job, Robby.
I was doing my job!
ROBBY
Yeah. You and everyone else.
Jim stands, hands Robby the list.
JIM
Get out of my house.