For career journalists like myself, watching Spotlight is a bittersweet
experience.
It’s sweet because it shows journalism at its best. The film tells the true
story of The Boston Globe’s 2001-02 efforts to uncover the Catholic Church’s
decades-long cover-up of pedophile priests.
But it’s bitter because one suspects we’ll see fewer and fewer such efforts
in this era of journalistic downsizing.
As the film reveals, uncovering a scandal like the Catholic Church’s
systematic cover-up of priestly misbehavior takes courage and patience. First of
all, though, it takes time. The Globe is able to challenge the church because it has a
four-person team called Spotlight that’s devoted exclusively to long-term
investigative projects.
How many newspapers can afford this kind of luxury in 2015? Competition
from the Internet has led to decreased profits, staff cutbacks and changes of
ownership—which, of course, have led to more cutbacks as the new owners try to
squeeze yet more blood from a shrinking stone. In Central Ohio, we’re all too
familiar with this trend thanks to the recent sale of The Columbus Dispatch.
he attacks in Paris have already created yet another distorting lens through which Western nations view reality darkly. The tragedy on the ground in the city of light is real enough, but the greater tragedy is the greater reality of assuming that the politics of endless war is some sort of answer to the vicious circle it creates and perpetuates. The impulsive rush to war is also a rush to ignore history and context: French colonial control of Syria ended less than 70 years ago, French bombing of Syria is intensifying. 
