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Spotlight is a team of investigative reporters who are employed by The Boston Globe newspaper. Tim Leland first established the Boston Globe Spotlight team in 1970. The Globe Spotlight team is known internationally for their investigative reports which revealed the Roman Catholic Church concealed over 100 accounts of child sex abuse from the public. "The Archdiocese of Boston" was aware of at least "70 priests" within Boston who had sexually violated children. The five members working on this investigation at the time realized that the public had a right to know about ongoing acts of child molestation by church officials. Their editor, Martin Baron believed that continuing to hide allegations of child abuse was a “systemic issue” within the Roman Catholic Church, not just in Boston but internationally.

From January 2002 to March 2003, Spotlight reporters continued to write countless articles that related to this investigation. Some of which focused solely on priests in Boston that were accused of abuse. Spotlight's first printed report on this investigation was titled “Church allowed abuse by priest for years”. They wrote six-hundred stories about this investigation.

In order for Spotlight to be successful, members will typically choose to work on one project at a time. Active members have to commit entirely to the story until it is completed. This can take as long as a year. In the past, Spotlight members have left to either to focus on their individual work at the Globe or transferred into other industries.

History
The Boston Globe was originally founded by Charles H. Taylor’s family in 1872. As the paper expanded over time, Catholic citizens within Boston made up the majority of their readers. In 1993 the Globe was sold to The New York Times. This change in ownership increased the diversity in subscribers. Another shift was made in company ownership when John W. Henry bought the newspaper for $70 million in 2003.

The Boston Globe Spotlight team was created in 1970 by Tim Leland. From the beginning, there hasn't been an exact amount of members assigned to Spotlight. The number of people working on a project at a time range between four to five. Reporters and editors within the Boston Globe can offer to be a part of Spotlight journalism investigations but must keep their findings confidential. At times, Globe employees would place their efforts into their own job while also assisting Spotlight. Spotlight stories can take several months to complete before they go to print due to the extensive amount fact-checking and research that must be verified.

Michael Rezendes
Early in his journalism career, Rezendes was a reporter for the Washington Post and the Boston Phoenix. Since 1989, Michael Rezendes has worked for the Boston Globe as a successful news reporter and Spotlight team member. He has been known for covering corruption, and political events including presidential campaigns, as well as countless stories on the Roman Catholic Church child abuse scandal. He even worked as Boston's City Hall Bureau Chief.

Rezendes was assigned to work on several breaking news stories, such as the terrorist attacks that took place on September 11th, 2001 in New York City. Islamic extremists hijacked two airplanes that crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. Close to 3,000 people died because of this directed attack on the United States.

In his earlier years, Rezendes was a reporter for the Washington Post and the Boston Phoenix. in 1989, Michael Rezendes joined The Globe as a writer. Rezendes eventually started working as an investigative reporter for Spotlight. In addition to being an investigative reporter, Rezendes also worked as an editor at the Globe.

While working on the Roman Catholic Church sex-abuse investigation, Rezendes placed much of his time and research towards John Geoghan. Geoghan was a Catholic priest in Boston for 30 years. After looking into Geoghan’s background, Spotlight had discovered that Geoghan had sexually abused more than 100 boys. While working as a priest, Geoghan was transferred constantly through several different parishes in Boston. Shortly after Spotlight’s initial report was distributed to the public, Geoghan was prosecuted and found guilty of “indecent assault and battery”. In 2003 he was murdered in prison by another inmate.

Sacha Pfeiffer
Sacha grew up in Columbus, Ohio with her family. After being accepted into Boston University, Sacha resided in Boston where she eventually received her Bachelors Degree in English and History.

Pfeiffer was hired by the Boston Globe in 1995 shortly after she graduated university. While working at the Globe as a reporter, Pfeiffer has shown great interest in criminal and civil court cases. She began her investigative work when joining Spotlight in 2000. While working as an investigative reporter she has covered many important cases, including Boston Celtics player Reggie Lewis, who died of a heart attack at the age of twenty-seven. His family filed a lawsuit against Lewis' cardiologist after his death. The trial ended due to a jury deadlock.

Another significant time in her career was when she worked with Spotlight to investigate the Catholic Church's efforts to conceal clergy abuse. While working as a reporter, Sacha interviewed many people who were victims of sexual abuse by priests. After verifying data on clergy members in Boston, Pfeiffer and her team concluded that at least 90 priests had abused children in Boston alone. As their research progressed, Sacha attempted to find these priests in order to ask them questions pertaining to the current allegations. Some of these priests included John Geoghan, Paul Stanley, Mathew Walsh, Thomas Kennedy, James Talbot, John Hanlon and Robert V. Gale. She went door to door to speak with some of these priests. One priest in particular was “Father Ronald H. Paquin”. After stating her credentials, Pfeiffer revealed to Paquin that he was being accused of previously molesting boys at St. John the Baptist church. He replied saying, “Sure, I fooled around but I never felt gratified myself…I never got any pleasure from it, that’s important to understand…I want to be clear I never raped anyone. There is a difference. I should know, I was raped.” This conversation gave Pfeiffer proof that several unreported accounts of sexual abuse which occurred in the Catholic Church were accurate.

Pfeiffer has continued to cover courthouse cases. In addition to her work on Spotlight reports, Pfeiffer has reported a whole range of topics at the Globe, including travel, non profits as well as exposing financial and corporate abuse within organizations. Pfeiffer has since expanded her journalism skills from working in print to now broadcasting. More recently she has accepted a job as a reporter for NPR and will be working for their national investigations team. She previously appeared on NPR while hosting NPR’s “On Point” and “Here & Now”. During this time Pfeiffer had temporarily left the Globe for NPR. In 2014 she rejoined the Boston Globe again as a reporter.

Matt Carroll
Matt Caroll started his career as a news reporter for the Boston Globe in 1987. He was an active member of the Spotlight team for several years. During his time working on Spotlight projects, he assisted in the groundbreaking Catholic Church sex abuse investigation in 2002. Though he was a reporter, his skills in IT and understanding data led him to create the first ever "internal website" at the Globe. Due to his great knowledge in information technology, reporting on topics relating to expanding technology came naturally to Carroll.

Carroll left the newspaper industry in 2014. He is now employed at the MIT Media Lab, which is a "research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology". Carroll now lives in West Roxbury.

Walter V. Robinson
Through his lengthily career in journalism, Robinson has worked as a political reporter. As a reporter he had the opportunity to report on White House grounds while President Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush were in office. His experience in news expanded beyond politics when he decided to write about pieces of art that were saved from World War II. As a youth, Robinson attended "Boston College High School" which is nearly across the street from the Globe. Though before joining the Boston Globe, he attended Northeastern University, located in Boston. While still attending University, Robinson decided to enlist in the Armed Forces. During his time overseas he was assigned as an "intelligence officer with the US Army in Vietnam".

Walter Robinson has spent the majority of his career at the Globe's newspaper. He was previously made an “assistant managing editor” at the Globe. At the same time he worked with Spotlight as their editor from 2000-2006. Robinson worked with the team to investigate corruption and abuse within several public and private institutions. Robinson temporarily left the Globe to work as journalism professor at Northeastern University, the same university he attended. After seven years of teaching, his passion for journalism brought him back to the Globe in 2014. He will continue working as the editor-at-large.

Ben Bradlee Jr.
Ben Bradlee Jr. was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he graduated from Colby College. His father, Ben Bradlee was well-known as the editor of the Washington Post. Since moving to Boston, Bradlee married and had three children. As for his career, Bradlee Jr. has proven to be a prominent member of the Spotlight team. He has had several positions within the newspaper. He worked on Spotlight as a reporter, mostly covering politics and local news and investigations. He spent the next 15 years as an editor. Bradlee Jr. managed Spotlight projects and helped with other continuing investigations at the Globe. Additionally, he would assist staff with stories related to national news, since he was a "national correspondent" for four years. He has worked at The Boston Globe for close to three decades. Bradlee Jr. is the author of "The Ambush Murders", published in 1979, "Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North" in 1988, and is the co-author of "Prophet of Blood".

As of 2004, Bradlee Jr. is no longer at the Globe, he chose to dedicate his time to being a writer. His latest biography is on the Boston Red Sox's Ted Williams which was placed on The New York Times' best seller list. In October 2018, Bradlee published a new novel titled,” The Forgotten: How the People of One Pennsylvania County Elected Donald Trump and Changed America”.

Spotlight Reports

 * "Church allowed abuse by priests for years" - Dated January 6 2002
 * " A revered guest; a family left in shreds" - Dated January 6 2002
 * "Geoghan preferred preying on poorer children" - Dated January 7 2002
 * Scores of priests involved in sex abuse cases - Dated January 31 2002
 * Church cloaked in culture of silence - Dated February 24 2002
 * Hundreds now claim priest abuse - By Walter Robinson - Dated February 24 2002

Spotlight Reporters

 * Sacha Pfeiffer
 * Michael Rezendes
 * Matt Carroll
 * Ben Bradlee Jr.
 * Gerard O’Neill
 * Scott Allen
 * Jenn Abelson
 * Heather Allen
 * Bruce Butterfield
 * Marcella Bombardieri
 * Nils Bruzelius
 * Christine Chinlund
 * Francie Latour
 * William Doherty
 * Richard J. Connolly
 * Peter D. Cowen
 * Alexander B. Hawes
 * Brian Mooney
 * Thomas Palmer
 * Dolores Kong
 * Robert E. Walsh
 * Beth Healy
 * Hank Klibanoff
 * Patricia Wen
 * Dan Golden
 * Peter G. Gosselin
 * Richard S. Kindleberger
 * Peter Mancusi
 * Mitch Zuckoff
 * Bruce Molho
 * Robert Poterfield
 * Francie Latour
 * Johnathan Saltzman
 * Mary Thornton
 * Andrea Estes
 * Jenna Russell
 * Arthur Jones

Spotlight Editors

 * Timothy Leland
 * Walter Robinson
 * Stephen Kurkjian
 * Dick Lehr
 * Gerard O’Neill
 * Timothy Farragher
 * Scott Allen
 * Martin Baron contributed to the Spotlight team when he was hired as editor of the Globe in 2001. He initiated the Catholic church clergy abuse investigation.

Spotlight The Movie
The film "Spotlight" is based on a true story about how a team of six investigative journalists uncovered evidence which proved that hundreds of children were sexually abused by priests in Boston. The people who broke this story are known as the Boston Globe's Spotlight team. Though they had worked on several other ground-breaking stories, this team of investigative reporters revealed a world of secrecy that had forced silence upon victims and their families using financial settlements.

Plot Summary
In 2001, The Boston Globe was working with a new editor, Marton Baron, who suggested they stop working on their current project and investigate priests in Boston who’ve been accused of sexually abusing children. Through their research, Sacha Pfeiffer and Michael Resendez speak with victims and priests who were involved in a string of ongoing sexual encounters. While working alongside attourney Mitch Garabedian who has represented victims of sexual abuse. Rezendes uncovers documents purposely hidden to the public by the Catholic Church officials. One letter in particular was written to Boston's Cardinal by a Catholic mother who explained that seven boys in her family were abused by priests and that her family received no form of justice.

Actors and Film members
· Mark Ruffalo plays Spotlight reporter Michael Rezendes.

· Rachel McAdams plays Spotlight reporter Sacha Pfeiffer.

· Brian d'arcy James acted as Matt Carroll.

· Michael Keaton acted as Walter Robinson

· John Slattery plays editor Ben Bradlee Jr.

· Liev Schreiber acted as previous Boston Globe editor Martin Baron·

"Spotlight" Film Awards
Spotlight has been nominated for a total of 138 awards.

In 2016, Spotlight won an Oscar for Best Motion Picture of the Year. Film producers, Michael Sugar, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin and Blye Pagon Faust received this award. Writers Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay for their work on Spotlight.

Comments by Spotlight Team
“The biggest change is the awareness of child sex abuse and of clergy sex abuse, and it’s profoundly significant.We think of all the tens of thousands of survivors who have been able to step forward and tell their stories as a result of this work, but there are also untold thousands of young people who have not been abused who otherwise would have been.” - Michael Rezendes

"Most of our sins were sins of omissions. We all missed the story for years because we weren’t looking in the right direction. We missed clues because we didn't want to believe that the church, this high moral authority in our lives, was capable of doing this. We were nearly all Irish Catholics on the paper — like 53% of our readers — and we didn't want to believe it. To this day it seems unimaginable.” - Walter Robinson

We give a voice to people who are voiceless. -Walter Robinson

“The moment came when I was investigating Geoghan. I thought I’d find out what his most recent assignment had been. When I saw he had been put in charge of altar boys, even though the church knew he had been abusing children, I thought, This is depraved.” - Michael Rezendes

"The other thing that was so striking about that was, on paper, these priests tend to look like monsters. But then Paquin answers the door, and he's this kind looking old man, and I think it speaks to how troubled and disturbed some of these priests were."

- Sacha Pfeiffer

“The archdiocese of Boston created these directories of all their priests, it listed what their names were, where they were assigned, and what their status was. We began to realize that when priests had been removed by a parish from a sex molestation complaint, they would be listed suddenly on sick leave. When we eventually went to the church with our list of questions, they not only told us they wouldn tanswer our questions, they told us they didn’t want to know what our questions were. But I think that speaks to how differential people, including the media, have been to the church for so many decades.” - Sacha Pfeiffer

Recognition
The Boston Globe won the “2003 Pultizer Prize in Public Service” for their investigative reports which proved Catholic priests were sexually abusing children in Boston.

Spotlight won several awards for their investigative reporting on this story. These awards include: " The George Polk Award for National Reporting, the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting, the Associated Press Managing Editors' Freedom of Information award, and the Taylor Award for Fairness in Newspapers."

Criticism
Certain authors have responded negatively towards Spotlight's reports on the Catholic Church sex abuse investigation. This criticism is written in the following journal articles: "Victim Gender in News Coverage of the Priest Sex Crisis by the Boston Globe", by Mary Marcel. Marcel believes the Boston Globe has shown bias in their articles by previously showing supporting for the church, before incidents of clergy abuse was published. She further criticizes the church for allegedly being "misogynistic" and showing "homophobic bias" while writing about this Spotlight investigation in particular.

Roman Catholic Church Involvement
In their journal, "CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, How Situational Crime Prevention Strategies Can Help Create Safe Environments" Karen J. Terry and Alissa Ackerman discovered that incidents of “child sex abuse” were coming to light in the late 1900’s. Their findings were based on the articles Spotlight had written about John Geoghan. As well as the "record numbers of individuals" who contacted Spotlight after their first article which exposed the Church was published.

Cardinal Bernard Law was one individual within the church's hierarchy that Spotlight focused on. With the help of Mitchell Garabedian, Michael Rezendes uncovered irrefutable evidence which proved that Cardinal Law was aware that John Geoghan was sexually exploiting children. Including seven boys in one family. The Cardinal allowed Geoghan to continue his regular duties. Such evidence included court documents that were purposely hidden from the public by the Catholic Church. Garabedian previously attempted to gain access to these documents which were part of the Geoghan case. While the Boston Globe was trying to do the same. Instead, the Globe decided to sue the Catholic Church in order to unseal these documents. Further documentation included Geoghan's explanation as to why he molested his victims. There were additional documents uncovered which showed material that implied that Cardinal Law was aware of many priests within Boston parishes who had sexually abused and raped children. A total of “249 priests” were “accused of sexual abuse within the Boston Archdiocese.”

Cardinal Law was “the former Archbishop of Boston”. It was decided by the Cardinal that these particular priests who were currently working in Boston, were to be assigned to different parishes. Another course of action made on behalf of the Cardinal, was to place priests on sick leave or send them to "treatment programs" for those who have demonstrated "sexually abusive behaviour". After this information was made public, Cardinal Law “resigned” in late 2002. However, Cardinal Law still remained a part of the Catholic Church after moving to Rome. “He was reassigned to the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.” This church is known to be “one of the highest ranking Roman Catholic churches in the world.”