Tag Archives: abuse

Emil Guillermo: Have you seen Oscar nominated “Spotlight” yet? Dying breed of movie on a dying breed of journalism.

Just saw “Spotlight,” nominated for six  Oscars, including best picture.

It’s about an investigation into the cover-up of Catholic clergy abuse in the Boston area in 2002.

There is no nudity. No  sex scenes. No murder. No violence. No car chases or crashes.  No catchy music montage scenes.

There are reporters (played by big time stars)  asking questions, getting documents, doing research, and going over directories line by line and entering data onto a computer spreadsheet.

And it’s better than “The Martian.”

As a former newspaper journalist, I suppressed a tear  when Mark Ruffalo, playing the lead reporter,  broke into an emotional speech about the urgency of publishing the expose on Boston’s pedophile priests.

Seeing the whole journalistic process, ending with the printing of the actual newspaper, was also pretty sentimental for me.

Headlines in print aren’t the first to bring us the news these days. Not like an alert in e-mail or twitter.

At the time the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team published its story, I had just transitioned from TV and Radio to newspapers.

I didn’t realize I was walking into the part of the industry that was falling apart.

There’s some hope the movie could be a shot in the arm for the biz that inspires a new generation of investigative journalism.

It did  make me curious of the current state of pedophilia in the church.

According to the latest survey by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (2014), the total number of new victims was at 330;  new allegations, 336; and offending priests and deacons at  245.

All told the costs related to Child Protection Efforts is at $150,747, 387 for the year. It includes  $119,079,647  in settlements and payments to victims.

Most of the victims say the experience occurred between 1975-1979 when they were between the ages of 10-14.

The movie may boost future numbers as more victims feel the time is right to end the silence and come forward to expose the church.

It took the Globe’s story for the truth to come out in Boston.  And judging from the  long list of dioceses that are on the dishonor roll that play in the movie’s credits, there’s still a lot more truth to expose.

The movie “Spotlight” is reported to have cost about $20 million to make.

It just crossed the $31 million mark at the box-office,  a little more than 14 years from the day the story first published on Sunday, Jan.6, 2002.

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