Yes, yes. Once again, the Oscars took on the ‘I have a black friend’ approach and came off as awkward as ever. Chris Rock’s opening was masterful, but wow, did the lack of diversity get poured on thick for the hour I watched. Finally, I crossed my fingers for Leonardo DiCaprio and watched The Big Short.
By the time I had turned it off, Spotlight had won for best writing and when it was all said and done, it had also won for best movie. It is a powerful movie; you should see it. The best thing the movie has done is raise awareness of the rampant sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic church. The film really does put that into perspective.
But the second thing Spotlight has done is show the casual movie viewer just how influential and important good journalism can be. That team had a year and change to research, develop and bring the story to light. Unless you work at the New York Times or the Washington Post, you don’t have that anymore. In a roundabout way, Spotlight shows that journalism is a shell of its former self. Reporters can work on projects, sure, but now that have to make sure they don’t forget to shoot video and photos (because news companies are deciding that you don’t need photographers) and hit that byline count for the month. In today’s newsroom, Walter Robinson would not only have to oversee his investigative team, he’d no doubt get roped into some administrative-type duties, such as overseeing newsroom contest entries. He sure as hell wouldn’t have time to roll up his sleeves and start researching with his people.
Spotlight is a hard movie to watch in a lot of ways. Maybe one day, it will cause news companies to stop and ponder what they’re doing to newspapers, and will put the cleaver down long enough to realize that they’re turning newsrooms into news sweatshops.
I like to write.
