Relentless

Reporting is about the search for the truth. What is the truth? How does it affect the viewers or readers? The toughest truths to uncover are the ones people don’t want you to know. So reporters sometimes have to get through the cover up before they can get to the truth. The newly released movie “Spotlight” is the story of a group of investigative reporters in the Boston Globe’s Spotlight unit that uncovered the sexual abuse of about a thousand children by almost ninety Catholic priests and the church’s systematic cover up. They were pushed by a new editor who thought the paper hadn’t dug deeply enough into the scandal that had broken in Boston in the early 1990s with the conviction of one priest who had molested children and was moved around from parish to parish. We all now know that the Catholic church’s sexual abuse scandal involved hundreds of priests and thousands of victims worldwide. “Spotlight” is the best movie about reporting since “All The President’s Men”.

What these stories tell us is that even the most powerful and intimidating institutions, like the Catholic church and the presidency of the United States, can only be held accountable by news organizations and reporters who are not intimidated, and are relentless in their search for the truth. But this comes with the responsibility to get it right. That responsibility is both to the viewers and readers, and the subjects of the story.

Few stories come along on the scale of the priest sex abuse scandal and Watergate, but the methods those reporters used are fundamental. Having reliable sources, attention to the smallest detail, knowing the history of the people and places we cover are important on every story. Reporters have to be aggressive, yet respectful, and have to have the backing of their organizations to pursue the tough story that can be time consuming and costly.

Big news organizations like network news divisions, and newspapers like the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Boston Globe are still devoting reporters to investigative stories. But local television news is increasingly more interested in someone’s cellphone video of a fire or accident, a celebrity’s arrest, or one of the millions of  YouTube videos posted everyday showing some baby or animal doing something considered so cute it’s gone “viral”. Stories of where I can get cheapest deals on Black Friday, or where I can get the best cheesesteak take up too much valuable time. Most people get that information more quickly on their phone than waiting for a local newscast to tell them.

Television stations spend too much time and energy on community partnerships and phone banks to raise money for a cause, or answer questions about your taxes. This is suppose to show community involvement, and how much your local station and news anchor cares about you. And, of course, maybe it will get people to watch the newscast and increase the ratings. I worked in local TV news for decades. I’m not naive. I know the importance of ratings and advertising dollars to keep the lights on. Those community involvement projects have their place. But reporting on important topics like government corruption, how your taxes are being spent, the background on the state Supreme Court judge you are about to put on the bench for ten years also speak to community involvement.

The next question will be how do you get people to watch those picture poor stories? How do we write the tease or the promo? That’s where smart, creative people are needed. News organizations have to be devoted to going after important stories, and making viewers care by the quality of the work. Carl Bernstein, who broke the Watergate story for the Washington Post with Bob Woodward, said “I think all good reporting is the same thing-the best attainable version of the truth.” These two movies should inspire reporters and news organizations to be relentless in their pursuit of  that truth. A free and informed society is counting on journalists to do their jobs.