MASSACHUSETTS
Pro Publica
[with audio]
by Cynthia Gordy
ProPublica, Nov. 2, 2015
After a Boston priest was convicted of sexually abusing more than 100 children, a team of Boston Globe reporters published an investigation that shocked the city. The Globe’s investigative unit, known as the “Spotlight” team, revealed in 2002 that Catholic Church leaders knew about child abuse by dozens of priests for decades and covered it up, reassigning the abusers to new parishes while paying millions in settlements to a trail of victims. The new film Spotlight, in theaters on Nov. 6, chronicles the Pulitzer-winning investigation that exposed the scandal.
On this week’s podcast, we’re joined by four key players in the Globe’s investigation: reporters Walter “Robby” Robinson, Sacha Pfeiffer and Michael Rezendes, and deputy managing editor Ben Bradlee Jr. In a conversation with ProPublica editor-in-chief Stephen Engelberg, they take us inside their experience of reporting this story nearly 15 years ago and what it felt like seeing it depicted in a movie that sticks closely to the actual events.
Highlights from their conversation:
On making the drudgery of investigative journalism exciting for film
Sacha Pfeiffer: We created what we call our database of “bad priests,” where we tracked over a course of 20 years various priests and where they were assigned. If they were accused of abuse, they were yanked out and put on what’s called “sick leave,” which is a euphemism for sexual abuse. This was a tedious, monotonous three-plus weeks of losing our eyesight as we went through small type and the equivalent of an Archdiocesan phonebook. But the movie makes it look quite riveting. They’re good at showing the reality of the work but also dramatizing it for film. (1:34)
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