Spotlight

How's that going?

The mother's bawling and the uncle's pissed off.

She's not married?

Divorced with four kids.

I guess Father was helping out.

Helping out?

Hey, Mr. Burke, they're in back talking to the bishop.

And Father? We put him in the break room.

Any press?

Some guy from the Citizen but we sent him away.

None of the big papers.

Let's keep it that way.

Who's that? Assistant DA.

It's gonna be hard to keep the papers away from the arraignment.

What arraignment?

You can tell Father Geoghan it won't be much longer.

Now, Sheila, you know what good work the church does in the community.

But I give you my personal guarantee

that I'm going to take Father out of the parish,

and this will never happen again.

We'll just be another moment, Paul.

Of course, Father.

Now, Sheila, I'm going to give you my personal card...

Losing a good reporter is always tough.

But losing one of our best...

Well, to put it as eloquently as I can,

it's a real kick in the ass.

But, Robby here has known Stewart

longer than most of you have been alive,

so, I'll hand it off to him. Robby.

Oh, well, thanks, Ben. I think.

Although I take issue with your reference to my seniority,

I will say that Stewart's departure is especially painful for me

because, uh... For what, Stewart?

Twenty years now?

Stewart's been more than willing to part

with his money at the poker table.

And I've got a kid in college.

Yeah, but I'm gonna keep playing. Oh, problem solved.

Godspeed then.

Now, Stewart, I find the timing of your departure

disconcerting.

The corner office sits empty,

the new editor arrives on Monday,

so I'm sorry, buddy, but I gotta ask ya.

What the hell do you know?

How's the cake?

It's really good. Are you saving yours?

Nah, it's for Mike. I can never eat at those things.

They kind of depress me. I know.

Did you see the numbers from Washington?

Yeah. Very interesting. I think so, too.

I'm not asking if the PD's lying, I know they're lying.

All I'm asking, who's behind it?

Oh. Okay, I get it. You don't want to talk.

No, Dan, I'm not mad, I'm hungry.

I've been talking here so long I didn't eat lunch.

So I'm gonna go get something to eat,

and that'll give you an hour to decide

whether you want to be on the right side of this

or read about it like everybody else.

Bye, Dan.

You think Cahill has something?

Maybe. I just don't think the story's for us.

Ben likes it. Yeah, it's not bad, it's just not Spotlight.

What's just not Spotlight?

The PD numbers. The numbers story. It feels thin.

Oh, you got Cahill to talk?

No, but I will.

Good. Then we'll know if it's thin.

- How'd it go upstairs? - Oh, okay.

- Robby gave a good speech. - Sure he did.

I heard Lubin and Connor are going to the Times.

- Come on, really? - Yeah, I heard that.

They're leeching us.

Well, at least they're sending us a guy from Miami to run things.

That should help.

Has Baron even spent time in Boston?

I don't think he's ever been here before. Maybe we should buy him a map.

I have a friend down in Miami said he cut 15% of the staff.

Great... Hey, Robby.

New boss coming in to make some cuts?

I have no idea.

Aren't you sitting down with him?

Yes, I am. So is it about Spotlight?

I don't know, Mike, but I do know

that Ben needs an answer on the crime numbers story.

I'm telling you, I really don't think that story's for us.

Mr. Baron.

Walter Robinson. Robby.

Thanks for taking the time out of your weekend.

Oh, my pleasure. Appreciate it.

What are you reading?

Uh...

The Curse of the Bambino.

Oh, yeah, it's a great book.

The Globe has season tickets at Fenway

once you're settled in, by the way.

Thank you.

Uh, to be honest, I'm not much of a baseball fan.

I'm just trying to get a feel for the city.

Oh, yeah...

So you're originally from Boston?

I am. Born and raised, yeah.

A lot of the newsroom is from here.

It really feels like a local paper in that way.

And did that change at all after the paper was sold to the Times?

No. No, I don't think that had a big impact.

Good.

And you're an editor for the Spotlight team?

I'd prefer to think of myself as player coach. But yes.

Are you familiar with Spotlight?

No, not particularly.

Well, we are a four-person investigative team.

We report to Ben Bradlee, Jr.,

and we keep our work confidential.

What're you working on now?

We just put out a piece on a shoddy construction outfit,

and right now we're really just trolling around for our next story.

How long does that typically take?

Hard to say. A couple months.

Couple months?

Yeah, we don't like to rush it.

Once we settle on a project, we can spend a year or more investigating it.

Is that a concern? Not necessarily.

Um, but from what I understand readership is down,

Internet is cutting into the classified business, and

I think I'm gonna need to take a hard look at things.

So, do you anticipate more cuts?

I think it's safe to assume so,

but what I'm more focused on right now is finding a way

to make this paper essential to its readers.

I like to think it already is.

Fair enough. I just think that we can do better.

Mr. Bradlee. Hey.

Saw the PD numbers. Looks interesting.

Yeah, there's something there.

How long do you need? Another week.

Where're you going? 10:30.

Since when?

Technically, I am an editor.

Technically.

Your sit-down with Baron go that well?

I couldn't get a read on him. That's a first.

How about you? Oh, he's a barrel of laughs.

Morning, everyone. Let's get started.

Do you wanna say something, Marty?

Uh, sure.

Uh, hello.

As most of you know by now, my name is Marty Baron,

I'm delighted to be here.

Um, if you could tell me your name as we go around, that'd be helpful.

Thank you.

Okay. Peter?

Peter Canellos, Metro.

I've got a major Big Dig closure.

Hey, Steve. Hey. Mike.

Crappy game last night, huh?

Yeah, they can't hit worth a nickel.

Hey listen, what's Eileen McNamara doing in the 10:30?

Do you need something, Mike? No, just curious.

Go be curious somewhere else. I got work to do, huh?

Okay, Steve.

See you. Yeah.

And it looks like Pedro's gonna be out until September 1st.

Jimmy says he'll be back this year, but the doc didn't seem so sure.

When's the Pats' opener?

Is that everyone?

Yes, that's it. Okay. Good.

Thank you. Uh...

Did everyone read Eileen McNamara's column this weekend?

That's the Geoghan case?

Yeah, what's the folo on that?

It's a column, what kind of folo were you thinking?

Uh, well, apparently this priest molested kids

in six different parishes over the last 30 years,

and the attorney for the victims, Mr...

Garabedian. Thanks, Eileen.

Mr. Garabedian says Cardinal Law found out

about it 15 years ago and did nothing.

Yeah, I think that attorney's a bit of a crank,

and the church dismissed the claim.

He said, she said.

Whether Mr. Garabedian is a crank or not

he says he has documents that prove the cardinal knew.

As I understand it, those documents are under seal.

Okay, but the fact remains, a Boston priest abused 80 kids,

we have a lawyer who says he can prove Law knew about it,

and we've written all of, uh, two stories in the last six months.

This strikes me as an essential story to a local paper.

I think at the very least, we have to go through those documents.

How would you like to do that?

Oh, uh...

I don't know what the laws are here,

but in Florida we would go to court.

You want to sue the church?

Technically we wouldn't sue the church.

We'd file a motion to lift the seal on those documents.

The church will read that as us suing them.

So will everybody else.