‘Spotlight’ documents true account of reporters uncovering social evils
Two weeks ago in this space, the editorial commentary focused on how newspapers, in particular community newspapers that are locally owned and operated, if they continue to do a good job of reflecting their communities in their news pages will continue to have readership and the accompanying advertising support.
The commentary gave, by way of an example, a southern Ontario paper that, when it became part of a large chain and was no longer under local ownership and management, lost its way and its readers too. When it came back under local ownership and management and once again focused on its community, its readers returned, bringing with them business support.
This commentary was written by way of a local response to the predictions of the demise of the newspaper industry and of professional news gathering by pundit after pundit over the past six months.
Sunday’s Oscar awards, that gave the Best Picture award to a reenactment of an important and true news story that played out in the newsroom and in the pages of the Boston Globe, serves to underscore the importance of professional, dedicated reporters whose work is subjected to editorial checking for factual accuracy before the paper commits the story to print.
In its way, the Boston Globe is a community newspaper similar to this one or the Sudbury Star or the southern Ontario paper used as the earlier example.
The Boston Globe has a larger circulation, certainly, and it publishes seven days a week.
But its focus is on the city of Boston, unlike the Globe and Mail in this country or the New York Times in the United States that are national publications.
The Oscar winning movie is called ‘Spotlight’ and is based on the experiences of the Boston Globe’s editorial staff in uncovering the abuse of hundreds of children by Roman Catholic clergy in the Boston area over many years.
The paper’s reporters dug deep and found out that the church’s hierarchy was aware of many of the abusive priests and, rather than removing them from pastoral work where they would have access to children, these pedophiles were routinely simply moved to other parishes.
The picture won the most coveted Best Picture Oscar this year because it told an important story, one that will doubtless bring a great deal of pressure on the Roman Catholic Church in particular, but also on any other similar institutions as well, to develop proper policies of dealing with pedophiles they might find in their midst.
But, significantly, the movie was in this case only the retelling, in a more dramatic medium, of a true story that came to light thanks to the diligent efforts of investigative reporters at the Boston Globe.
In effect, the Best Picture Oscar this year has gone to a hybrid drama-documentary about the workings of a newspaper doing the kind of work it, among all other forms of media, is best equipped to do.
The current conversation about the state and future of journalism will go on but the unique prominence this movie award will give to the practice of quality and socially urgent reporting should give the “newspapers are dying” and “reporting can be accomplished by bloggers” points-of-view an excellent reason for the people who hold these positions to reconsider their opinions.
As long as they have the resources, no news institutions are better equipped to accomplish this kind of investigative journalism, the kind that nearly always leads to social change, than are newspapers.
A great deal of the “news” broadcast via social media is opinion or anecdote or information received third or forth hand and then passed on and on.
Yes, the reach of social media is impressive, but with the exceptions that are countable on one hand, there is no investment in the editing process that vets the first draft of a story, and often the second, and sends it back to the reporter with suggestions for more digging.
That’s what newspapers, large and small, do and the Best Picture Oscar about the process at the Boston Globe, as the paper went about covering a story with international implications, shows this off to perfection.
For its work on this important story, the Boston Globe was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, US journalism’s highest honour. For the record, 30 years ago The Manitoulin Expositor became the first weekly community newspaper to win the Canadian equivalent prize, the Michener Award for investigative work that led to significant community changes and so helped address a serious Manitoulin Island social issue. Since that time, there has been only one other weekly newspaper chosen to win this annual National award.
By all means, see ‘Spotlight.’ By all means, think about the importance of sustaining this important news gathering medium.
