Spotlight won the 2016 Best Picture Award at the Oscars. The film hit theatres in Goa recently. Though there are only a few shows, with late-night timings, it is worth watching. The true-life narrative follows the work of a special team of four investigative journalists of The Boston Globe that won the 2003 Pulitzer award for its expose of rampant child abuse in the local Catholic Diocese. This film is vital viewing for an Indian audience for two reasons. One, it exemplifies solid print journalism ethos. Two, it makes the audience acknowledge that nothing “ not even religion - is more sacrosanct than individual conscience.
Spotlight was the name of the longest-running investigative reporting unit of The Boston Globe. The film begins with the entry of editor Marty Baron, as he leaves Miami for Boston to head the newspaper in 2001. He orders the Spotlight team to keep other stories on the side and focus on child abuse cases by priests after reading a column in which lawyer Mitchell Garabedian has alleged that Cardinal Bernard Francis Law was aware about the pedophilic tendencies of Fr. John Geoghan but did nothing to stop him. (Geoghan was later convicted of molesting around 130 children.)
Baron’s Jewish faith is brought into play at points in the story, but, as Garabedian says in the film: “It takes an outsider” to ask the right questions. Not sure of their boss’s advice, the team begins looking into the Church cases anyway. As the investigation proceeds, Spotlight must face its own past shortcomings. The same clippings and reference material they are now using to build their investigation was available to them five years back. All their sources were willing to talk and share painful details. They were just waiting for someone to ask the right questions.
Was it journalistic cynicism that made the Spotlight team ignore Phil Saviano, a survivor of priest abuse who had approached them several times? Or was it a subconscious fear of uncovering a truth so brutal, so troublesome, that looking away seemed a less-painful choice? Or was it oversight, simply?
The film captures poignantly how the four reporters - Mark Ruffalo, Sacha Pfieffer, Matt Carroll and Walter Robinson - struggle as the investigation reveals more and more heartbreaking details. Sacha Pfeiffer (played by Rachel McAdams) is worried how her nanna, a devout Catholic “who goes to church three times a week” will react when the story is run. Mark Ruffalo looks crushed when he says he actually liked to go to Church as a child - and hoped that one day he would return. Matt Carroll, a father of two, is aghast to find that a probable pedophile priest stays a block away from his house. Team’s head Walter Robinson, meanwhile, must meet powerful friends in the avatar of a dispassionate reporter. He must ask tough questions and risk losing society in a city he has spent all his life in.
Consider the film in the context of some recent cases. The Hindustan Times reported police investigation developments in the rape cases against Godman Asaram Bapu and his son Narayan Sai where they found that some disciples collected sums up to Rs. 25 lakh to hire a shooter to kill key witnesses. Till now, nine Asaram witnesses have been attacked of which three have died. Move on to the stories of alleged mass-castration operations of Baba Ram Rahim’s followers that were carried by major news media around the time of the Godman’s controversial film debut. The ex-disciples willing to come on record had said that the self-styled Sikh Godman with a huge political clout encouraged castration and other rather sadistic and masochistic measures to ensure that his disciples were docile and obedient.
Just like Spotlight had alarming resources at its disposal, it is possible that Indian news media have more than enough reference material, sources and evidence against these Godmen. Commitment and courage, however, are clearly lacking. The Indian media might also be lacking strategy, patience and discipline. Most news pieces excel in their shock-value but fizzle away soon after. We just have cacophonous holier-than-thou anchors. Where is the Spotlight in India?
There are two distinct moments in the film that Indian media can learn from. There is difference of opinion on the time of the story’s release and on its reporting peg. First, Mark Ruffalo gets furious because in spite of having the necessary evidence, Robby is asking them to find more sources to build a stronger case. Second, even when the reporting team feels it is ready, the editor asks them to rework their angle, nail the story “top down” and prove of the Church’s knowledge in prevalent abuse, instead of focusing on individual cases. The rush to get in print and the hurry to find sellable angles kills the soul of important stories in India.
An article by Alexander Stille, “What Pope Benedict Knew about Abuse in the Catholic Church,” published in The New Yorker on January 14, 2016 outlines many issues uncovered by the Spotlight team and is worth a read. Beginning with a list of three suspected priests, Spotlight narrowed down to 87 priests in Boston alone at the end of their investigation. The film offers a sneak peek into the exhausting lives of journalists as they get weighed down by the issues they cover and captures the essence of a (good) newsroom. Is it too much of a long shot to hope for such solid investigative journalism coming from India?
