"Spotlight" Showcases Journalists in the Light and the Dark

"Spotlight" is a movie that fully captures the ebbs and flows that a journalist goes through in their daily life as well as the difficulties they encounter, problems, and roadblocks when working on cases and stories. From beginning to end, the storyline exhibits grit, stress, motivation, drive, and the failures that journalists encounter day-in and day-out, in the office and outside of it too. The easiest way to explain the lifestyle of a journalist is to picture a maze. Journalists are constantly faced with redirections, detours, bumps in the road, and sometimes finding themselves right back where they started.

Starting early in the film, the stereotypical journalist's office is laid out; cubicles crammed with people, each with their computer, and coffee everywhere. Down where the "Spotlight" team works, many of the same stereotypes are located. They don’t have cubicles but there are three people in one room with no privacy and one office located in the back where Robby Robinson, the editor of "Spotlight", is located. The environment is incredibly fast-paced, it’s even shown as Sacha Pfieffer and Matt Carroll are racing back from the retirement meeting. Pfieffer is scarfing cake down before they get back in the office and they are speed-walking back as if they knew that news wasn’t going to stop for a retirement party. As they enter their team office, papers are stacked, scattered, and strewn about the office but still in an order that they would know where everything was located. They all have pens and notepads on their desks knowing that news pops up at any second and they have filing boxes lining the walls like they have a copy of every important document that belongs on the earth; resembling much of what everyone’s thought of a newsroom would be.

This movie also portrays the stress that can impede a journalist’s life in the office and outside of it. Deadlines, persons of interest, constant late nights, and difficulties in the overall chase of a story contribute to incredible amounts of stress. As we can see in "Spotlight", the team members don’t have children, just smaller families. Instead, Pfieffer is seen with her mother and husband while Carroll and Mike Rezendes are usually alone outside of work. Amounts of stress can vary from case to case but adding on family and late nights could make any case a stressful one. A person of interest can make a journalist question their ethics versus the organization’s ethics. For example, Pfieffer’s mother was a member of the Catholic Church and went three times a week. For Pfieffer to be a part of a legal team trying to sue and attack the Catholic Church System, she struggled with the person of interest knowing that her mother was a member and she cared about the church.

As the "Spotlight" team began their search and voiced their interest in following-up with the Geoghan Case, many people at the Globe questioned their motives and tried to talk them out of it in the slightest ways. Rezendes goes to a baseball game with Carroll, Ben Bradlee Jr., an editor, and Steve Kurkjian from the Globe as well. Rezendes mentions, “We got another Preist, Liam Barrett,” and Kurkjian answers, “We reported on him…” then again Rezendes says, “Sacha found this guy from a victims’ organization, Phil Saviano,” and Kurkjian answers again, “From SNAP? We reported on him too” (25:57-25:00). This is a struggle that I feel most journalists may go through at some point in their careers. Not everybody is going to agree or feel like a story is worth it, but a journalist knows best, and it’s best to follow what they think is right. The "Spotlight" team, in my opinion, did the right thing by ignoring the rest of the Globe and pursuing the Geoghan case. If they wouldn’t have put all the hard work and effort into the case, who knows when this horrible act and crime would have been uncovered. Along with the co-workers inside the Globe, there was persuasion from people on the opposing side, the Church, as well. This is also a struggle that arises with many stories. As there are always two sides to a story, journalists must stay true to themselves and the story they are producing. Pete Conloy, who seems to be the spokesperson of the church, meets with Robinson at a bar so Robinson can get a statement from the Cardinal to put in the story. In this scene, we can see the persuasion tactics used to try to get Robinson to stop the story and turn against Marty Baron, the new boss at the Boston Globe. “...You know the cardinal, he might not be perfect. But we can't throw out all the good he's doing over a few bad apples. Now, you know, I'm bringing this up to you because I know this is Baron's idea. His agenda. I gotta tell you, I mean, honest to God, I mean, he doesn't care about this city the way we do. I mean, how could he?... Marty Baron is just trying to make his mark. He's gonna be here for a couple of years and he's gonna move on. Just like he did in New York and Miami.” (1:41:00-1:42:00). It’s heavily seen in this scene that Conloy doesn’t speak for the cardinal and his actions but instead, he was sent to talk Robinson off the ledge and get him to not tarnish the churches image with this story, as they both know how heavy the story is and how much damage it could do.

Movies can be exaggerations of careers, stories, or a person’s life, but I think "Spotlight" explored a journalist’s career and day-to-day life better than any portrayal had before. One of the most important rules of journalism is the use of on and off the record. Before watching "Spotlight", I had never seen it used seriously in a movie until the scene with Rezendes and Mitchell Garbedian where they are sitting on a park bench and Garbedian says, “off-the-record?” and continues to. Give information on the unsealed documents. In classes, we are taught the importance of on and off the record but to see it at an intense time of a film exactly portraying what could happen in an average day of a journalist is eye-opening.

Examining other road bumps that journalists go through while creating a story is the battle with ongoing news. For instance, just as "Spotlight" was wrapping up the story and getting final sources, 9/11 happens which completely put the Geoghan Case on hold. Unfortunately, this has to happen often. As stated before, the news doesn’t just stop when another story is bigger. This tragedy of 9/11 even showed the team then struggling with the deadlines and figuring out when was the best time to release the story. It’s a constant competition to give the public the best story possible with the correct sources and details they need to fully understand the situation at hand, but it’s a continuous race against competing organizations to see which can provide the public with the best story and who can do it faster. One of the reasons that "Spotlight" struggled to get this story out sooner was one, the number of priests they uncovered who needed to be charged, and two, the need for sources proving every one of them. Having an adequate number of sources will never get a journalist in trouble, instead, having too little could ruin a story if facts or stories aren’t supported.

One of my favorite parts of the film is when the "Spotlight" team, Baron, and Bradlee Jr. are meeting on the story, figuring out the next steps and how close they are to publishing. At this point, this story has consumed their lives, they have endured late nights, rejections, and have completed extensive research for this one story. Everyone has shown their frustrations and at this point, a blame game begins amongst the members as they question why people work for the church and why they covered the case up. Baron says, “Sometimes it’s easy to forget that we spend most of our time stumbling around in the dark. Suddenly a light gets turned on and a fair share of blame to go around” (1:50:00-1:55:00). This quote not only explains the difficulties that happened in the film, but it goes to represent everyone in their own lives. It’s a relatable quote that each person can look at and reflect upon.

After watching this film, it made me appreciate the dedication that Journalists have for the career. This job isn't for anyone and it’s easy to get caught up in a career that you don’t like. Dedication and drive need to be present for a journalist to succeed. Mike said it best when he wanted to put out the story early. “It's time, Robby! It's the time! They knew and they let it happen! To kids! Okay? It could have been you; it could have been me; it could have been any of us. We gotta nail these scumbags! We gotta show people that nobody can get away with this; not a priest, or a cardinal, or a freaking pope!” (1:36:00-1:37:57).

McCarthy, T. (Director). (2015). Spotlight [Motion picture on DVD]. USA: Participant Media.