{"id":3609,"date":"2015-11-15T17:25:25","date_gmt":"2015-11-16T00:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/?p=3609"},"modified":"2016-07-21T18:14:35","modified_gmt":"2016-07-22T01:14:35","slug":"truth-and-spotlight-and-the-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/15\/truth-and-spotlight-and-the-news\/","title":{"rendered":"“Truth” and “Spotlight” and the News"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cate<\/a>
Cate Blanchett as Producer Mary Mapes, Robert Redford as Dan Rather<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Spotlight_(film)_poster\"<\/a>
Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Lev Schreiver, and Brian D’arcy James as the Pulitzer Prize winning Boston Globe team<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ultimate goal of every great reporter is to find a terrific story that nobody else has, and report it.\u00a0 Right now, released almost simultaneously, are not one, \u00a0but\u00a0two movies about journalism and how it works.\u00a0\u00a0In one, eagerness to tell the tale combined with politics to destroy\u00a0the story, and several stellar careers. \u00a0In the other, universal caution and\u00a0the power of the establishment combined in efforts to do the same. \u00a0Based on true stories, Truth<\/a><\/em> and Spotlight<\/a><\/em> portray, with fierce and sometimes heartbreaking commitment,\u00a0the professional, ethical and political challenges every good reporter faces.<\/p>\n

Each features a wonderful cast:\u00a0 in\u00a0Spotlight,\u00a0<\/em>Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, and Stanley Tucci; in\u00a0Truth,<\/em>\u00a0Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, Topher Grace, Dennis Quaid, Elizabeth Moss, Bruce Greenwood and Stacy Keach. \u00a0They’re all great.<\/p>\n

Both\u00a0stories beautifully\u00a0illustrate the adventure, pain, excitement, drudgery and teamwork required in the service of a seriously reported story. \u00a0Although Spotlight<\/em> is a far better film, the familiar TV-ness of Truth<\/em>, as\u00a0Dan Rather and his 60 Minutes production team, pursue\u00a0the “George W. Bush Went AWOL from the National Guard” story made it particularly heartbreaking for me. \u00a0I emerged\u00a0agitated and halfway out of breath.<\/p>\n

It’s was just so sad to witness great work sidelined not by corporate\u00a0politics or even overt censorship but by small decisions made in service of a great story and a tight deadline. \u00a0 All good journalists understand the importance of this: “If you don’t have time to check one more way, or listen to the person who still has\u00a0reservations, the story shouldn’t air; if it’s about the President of the United States, even airtight isn’t good enough.” \u00a0Eager to get on the air and armed with several good pieces of evidence, Mapes\u00a0insisted the story was ready\u00a0though\u00a0– and so it aired.<\/p>\n

In this case, although the story was never proven to be false, challenges to errors or lack of clarity in several small details (which were indeed careless or at least a product of selective listening) provided enough ammunition to cost both Rather and Mapes\u00a0their jobs. \u00a0In each case the removal was deeply humiliating. \u00a0 Knowing what was coming, it was\u00a0agony to witness, especially when the entire editorial process was so familiar and the problem elements stood out so clearly.<\/p>\n

Spotlight<\/em>, again drawn from a true story,\u00a0followed reporters uncovering the child sex abuse\u00a0scandal in the Catholic Church, revealed by the Boston Globe’s investigative unit the\u00a0“Spotlight” team at the Boston Globe. \u00a0In this case, the\u00a0adversary wasn’t the\u00a0White House and all the weapons at its disposal, \u00a0Rather, it\u00a0was one of the few\u00a0institutions with more<\/em> power: the Catholic Church and its\u00a0hold over Boston and<\/em> the Globe<\/a>, whose readers were 56% Catholic\u00a0as were much of the editorial staff.<\/p>\n

Piece by piece, through roadblocks and threats, the team\u00a0pulled the story of the abusive priests together, with victims on the record, only to be confronted by their new editor, who wasn’t satisfied that this information alone would bring change:<\/p>\n

Show me that the church manipulated the system so that these guys wouldn’t have to face charges. Show me they put those same priests back into parishes time and time again. Show me this was systemic, that came from the top down.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So they did. \u00a0And their story rocked the Church worldwide. \u00a0Literally.<\/p>\n

To arrive there though, team members had to deal not only with the pain of the victims and horror of the story but also with their own relationships with the Church. \u00a0That wasn’t just deep connection or lapsed faith, but also an emotional and spiritual system internalized by\u00a0these longtime-Boston\u00a0journalists as they grew up\u00a0their very Catholic hometown.<\/p>\n

In this case though, a combination of fierce commitment and great editorial guidance allowed them to resolve any questions that might arise before their initial story ran. \u00a0They ended up writing hundreds. \u00a0And won the Pulitzer Prize.<\/p>\n

So. \u00a0Two news movies. \u00a0Both worth the time and money it will take to see them. Together\u00a0they bring us\u00a0perfect lessons: this is what happens when newsgathering doesn’t live up\u00a0to the tough standards required of the profession, and these <\/em>are\u00a0the remarkable things that can happen when it does.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ultimate goal of every great reporter is to find a terrific story that nobody else has, and report it.\u00a0 Right now, released almost simultaneously, are not one, \u00a0but\u00a0two movies about journalism and how it works.\u00a0\u00a0In one, eagerness to tell the tale combined with politics to destroy\u00a0the story, and several stellar careers. \u00a0In the other, … Continue reading “Truth” and “Spotlight” and the News<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,27,28,1917,9,98,97],"tags":[2470,3553,3532,3544,3538,298,3542,3554,3537,3531,2799,1620,2857,3534,3557,3555,3536,3546,3540,3548,3543,3552,2785,3533,2934,3549,3545,73,3421,3535,3547,930,3539,3551,3118,2978,3541,3556,2207,3550],"class_list":["post-3609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-current-affairs","category-film","category-nablopomo","category-politics","category-religion","category-television","tag-60-minutes","tag-ben-bradlee-jr","tag-betsy-west","tag-billy-crudup","tag-boston","tag-boston-globe","tag-brian-darcy-james","tag-cardinal-bernard-law","tag-cardinal-law","tag-cate-blanchett-robert-redford","tag-catholic-church","tag-cbs-news","tag-child-abuse","tag-dan-rather","tag-dennis-quaid","tag-elizabeth-moss","tag-george-w-bush","tag-jamey-sheridan-billy-crudup","tag-john-slattery","tag-len-cariou","tag-liev-schreiber","tag-liev-schreiber-as-marty-baron","tag-mark-ruffalo","tag-mary-mapes","tag-michael-keaton","tag-michael-rezendes","tag-mitchell-garabedian","tag-movies","tag-nablopomo","tag-national-guard","tag-paul-guilfoyle","tag-priests","tag-rachel-mcadams","tag-sacha-pfeiffer","tag-sam-waterston","tag-sexual-abuse","tag-stanley-tucci","tag-topher-grace","tag-truth","tag-walter-robby-robinson"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4gBq8-Wd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3609"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4573,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3609\/revisions\/4573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}