Update 12/11/02: As lawyers release more files on abusive priests, the Spotlight Team is being forced to cover cases that its members previously rejected as incredible or otherwise undeserving of public attention.  You can see how Spotlight reporters are dealing with their earlier misjudgments by contrasting Globe coverage of the case of Rev. William Scanlan with stories published elsewhere in the press.  For insight into the dangers promoted by the Spotlight Team's males-only perspective, see Episcopal Bishops' Warnings on Homophobia in the Catholic Church.

Update 12/8/02:  Same Old Same-Sex Story:  SUNDAY GLOBE MAGAZINE A gay former priest tells his story    "Christopher Schiavone, who worked for eight years as a clergyman in the Boston Archdiocese, speaks out about secrecy, scandal, and being gay in the church." --The Globe's idea of putting a face on the scandal -- publish a cover story on a former priest who carried on an inappropriate relationship with a young seminarian.  Any qualifications included?  See for yourself. 

 Update  12/6/02: In a front-page story on Rev. James D. Foley, Michael Rezendes and Stephen Kurkjian had to figure out how to report on records that show that the Church tended to minimize crimes committed against girls and women while taking crimes committed against boys at least somewhat more seriously.  Click here to see how they solved this problem.

Update 12/4/02:  Globe's First News Story on a Priest Who Preyed on Girls 

Question: Will the Spotlight Team stop insisting that the "overwhelming majority of provable victims are men?"

Update (11/28/02)

Sacha Pfeiffer, a Spotlight reporter, is rumored to be writing an article exploring why so many female victims have failed to speak out.  However, since the Spotlight Team has already spoken to an untold number of female survivors, and its members have consistently chosen not to write our stories, we think that Pfeiffer would learn a whole lot more about our supposed silence if she looked into Spotlight files.

Moreover, if this story ever appears, you will know that Pfeiffer proceeded to write the piece even though many Boston-area survivors refused to cooperate with the Globe until we had a chance to meet with the paper's editor, Martin Baron, to discuss the Spotlight Team's reprehensible response to female victims.

Anyone who is tempted to blame us for not advancing the immediate objective of Spotlight reporters, which is, at least as far as we can tell, to lock up the Pulitzer Prize, should read A Tangle with Walter Robinson, editor of the Spotlight Series.

The Latest (11/27/02)

The criticism offered here is not directed at the Globe in general.  My purpose is only to point out failures in the investigative reporting of the Spotlight Team.  In contrast to Spotlight coverage, Globe columnists such as Eileen McNamara* have provided compassionate commentary on female victims of clergy sexual abuse.  For example, in Misplaced Sympathy, a column on an AP story that the Globe published on 11/25, McNamara underscores the tendency among Church officials to minimize the harm done to female minors who have been raped by priests.

However, as insightful as she is, even McNamara can't help but misinterpret the issue thanks to the distortions promoted by Spotlight reporters.  "Is it any wonder," she asks, "that female victims of predatory priests are reluctant to report their sexual abuse?"  In fact, to a large extent, it has been journalists, rather than female survivors, who have been reluctant to report these crimes.  Moreover, the invisibility of women in this picture is, it should be emphasized, peculiar to New England because a disproportionate number of these closed-mouthed journalists happen to work at the Globe.

*McNamara's consistently informative columns on the crisis have just been added to the Spotlight web site.  Note that for all of the valuable information on female victims that is included in her columns, McNamara could not rely on Spotlight reports.

Another notable exception to the Spotlight rule is Bella English, a Globe reporter who had started working on a story on female victims only to be stopped by Spotlight editor Walter Robinson.  Click here to read more about Robinson's efforts to sidetrack this piece.

 

More Missed Opportunities (11/25/02)

In a front page story, Seminary ouster of outspoken gay points up issues, Sacha Pfeiffer recounts the dismissal of Gavan Meehan, a gay seminarian, and details the backlash against homosexuals that has been fueled by the scandal in the Church.  While virtually all of the articles on this topic published elsewhere quote experts who emphasize that focusing on gays is a grave error, Pfeiffer leaves the question up in the air:

As for homophobia, Meehan said he sometimes heard students make cruel jokes and derisive comments about homosexuals, especially after the sex abuse scandal erupted in January and the issue of whether gay priests are partly to blame for the scandal became a matter of public debate.

Although Pfeiffer implies that this issue is generally unsettled, the Spotlight Team has been given a great deal of definite commentary on the role of homosexuality in the crisis in the Church.  For example, Gary Schoener, a psychologist who has warned against blaming gays in view of the significant number of female victims, is frequently quoted in the national press, but Spotlight reporters have chosen to exclude his opinions. See Schoener's comments on dealing with the Globe.

On the same day, the Globe included an item from the Associated Press, Priest quits over sex abuse of girl.  While this is the fourth time during the past year that the Globe has published a news story about a priest who had molested a female minor, the case was, as usual, ignored by the Spotlight Team.*  In other words, the Spotlight Team's 100% failure to focus on women who were victimized as children remains unchanged.

* I can't provide a link to any of these stories because they are not included on the Spotlight web site and, unlike the stories in the Spotlight Series, these news items are available only through a paid subscription. 

Business as usual at the Boston Globe (11/24/02):

At a press conference held by Survivors First and other groups working on legal strategies to combat clergy sexual abuse, I made a short statement on the Globe's failure to report on female victims of predatory priests.  Globe correspondent Peter DeMarco interviewed me afterwards and, when I pointed out that the Globe had never published my story or those of any other women, DeMarco apologized and said that he had nothing to do with the Spotlight Team's editorial policies.

While Globe employees have disputed this version of events, there is no disputing what Globe editors chose to leave out of the article published the following day.  In contrast to other reports on the press conference, Demarco's article did not did not mention my statement, nor did it bring up any of the concerns expressed by female survivors: Tougher Clerical Abuse Laws Urged.

Compare DeMarco's story to the article that appeared in the Boston Herald: Laity Steps up Sex-Abuse Fight: Groups Lobby for New Laws