· · ·
turning to page one
turning to page one
Spotlight · written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy · 2015
Scene 95 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.
Marty spots the burning Twin Towers on TV and tells staff to get every reporter into the newsroom immediately.
The newsroom watches Cardinal Law address the public after 9/11 as Ben pulls the Spotlight team off the Church story to cover the terrorist attack and its Massport fallout.
Garabedian answers his phone at his desk.
This scene
Mike speeds frantically down I-95 towards Providence, phone to his ear. It’s ringing.
MIKE (INTO PHONE)
Mitch, it’s Mike, I’ve been trying
to reach you...
GARABEDIAN (OVER THE PHONE)
I don’t have time to talk to you,
Mr. Rezendes.
MIKE (INTO PHONE)
Did you refile those documents yet?
GARABEDIAN (OVER THE PHONE)
No, I just got the order, it takes
time.
MIKE (INTO PHONE)
Okay, great. Can you to hold off on
refiling them?
GARABEDIAN MIKE
Hold off? I have to go to Florida, once
you refile, they’re public,
other newspapers will be able
to get a hold of...
GARABEDIAN (INTO PHONE)
Other newspapers are not my concern.
I received a judicial order, I told
you the Church is watching me...
MIKE (INTO PHONE)
Mitch, please, I just need a few
weeks.
GARABEDIAN (INTO PHONE)
I can’t make any promises. Goodbye.
Garabedian hangs up.
MIKE (INTO PHONE)
Mitch? Mitch! Shit!