Newsrooms are applauding the Oscar glitter that is now showering the movie "Spotlight."
Yes, this movie stands alongside "All The President's Men" as a textbook on good journalism.
We see reporters and editors enduring sleepless nights, personal abuse, self-doubt, and the overwhelming, intimidating shadow of power.
The facts have forced us to question our beliefs in people and institutions and our basic definitions of trust.
Yes, the movie "Spotlight" moved me, but not just because it helped expose the real danger of predatory priests.
I choked back some emotion at the end, seeing the presses rolling out the story … the truth. And I was thinking, "Yesssss."
I've been in the news business since the '60s. I still believe in newspapers. And that's what I saw.
Marty Baron, who was the editor at the Boston Globe, said in an interview, “I hope that ‘Spotlight’ will cause us all to listen to people who are essentially voiceless, and listen to them closely. I would hope that it would cause editors and owners to rededicate themselves to investigative journalism.
"And I would hope that it would cause the public to understand more fully the kinds of resources that are required to do it.”
There it is. Another "spotlight" — this time on the news industry.
Baron was politely saying the newspaper industry has its own cover-up to deal with. It's time that newspapers worry less about the stories they do print and concentrate more on those that are hidden — not being told. And every community has them.
If newspapers fail or fold when following this mission, at least they have failed for the right reason.
I’m Lonny Cain, and that’s my Perspective.
