Like all good movies about an important and controversial event, the story told in the movie “Spotlight,”1 about the role of the Boston Globe in uncovering the breadth of the clergy scandal that impacted the Boston diocese, was no doubt some combination of truth and dramatization. One startling and poignant scene is worth discussing from an ethics point of view. Once the Globe’s investigative team was on to this devastating story which suggested that the priest abuse scandal may have involved up to 70 priests in Boston, the Globe’s Spotlight team editor, Robby Robinson, one of the heroes in the drama, went directly to the home of attorney “Jim Sullivan” who represented the diocese and had skillfully managed to keep settlements, and payouts to victims, under seal. Robinson, as would any good gumshoe, wanted to pry the clandestine open for the world to see, and maybe in doing so bring closure to the abuse.
Standing before Sullivan at Sullivan’s home, Robinson boldly asked if all 70 of the priests on his list had been accused as, without that information, Robinson could not “go to press.” Sullivan (understandably) refused. He was, after all, a lawyer for the diocese. Still, a couple of seconds later, Sullivan, seemingly looking for a vehicle to do the right thing while ostensibly adhering to his professional obligations, found himself at that situs where legal ethics and morality intersect. He emerged from his home and asked to see Robinson’s list. Rather than nodding, or mouthing the words “all 70 of them,” he took a pen and circled the whole list, basically acknowledging to Robinson—giving the reporter a source’s “confirmation”—that indeed all 70 were implicated and that the scandal wasn’t about only a few aberrant priests, however horrific even that would have been.
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