WASHINGTON (DC)
Boston Globe
By Kevin Freking ASSOCIATED PRESS MARCH 29, 2016
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Monday again bemoaned the political environment surrounding this year’s presidential elections and called on journalists to hold candidates and themselves to a higher standard, highlighting the work that was the basis of the movie “Spotlight” as an example of the kind of journalism Americans want to see.
“Hollywood released films about getting stuck on Mars, and demolition derbies in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and you even had Leo DiCaprio battling a grizzly bear. And yet it was a movie about journalists spending months meticulously calling sources from landlines, and poring over documents with highlighters and microfiche, chasing the truth even when it was hard, even when it was dangerous. And that was the movie that captured the Oscar for best picture,” Obama said.
“I’m not suggesting all of you are going to win Oscars,” Obama told the crowd at the Toner Prize presentation. “But I am saying it’s worth striving to win a Toner.”
“Spotlight,” which won best picture at the Academy Awards, was based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe investigation of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
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