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Why rely on facts when innuendo is so much more effective? The Spotlight Team's Assault of Paul R. Edwards
The Globe's vicious campaign to
destroy the credibility of Paul
R. Edwards, a Massachusetts resident who claimed that
Monsignor Michael Smith Foster and the late Rev To cast doubt on Edwards' contention that Foster had abused him in an upstairs bedroom in the rectory of the Sacred Heart Church in Newton, Robinson repeatedly reported that it would have been impossible for Edwards to have spent any time in Foster's quarters because there were strict rules against allowing visitors above the ground floor. However, recently released documents show that these rules were seldom observed. When asked in an internal Church inquiry whether Edwards had ever visited him his bedroom, Foster answered in the affirmative and also noted, "Adults and kids moved in and out freely'' in all parts of the rectory, including the living quarters upstairs. Attacking Edwards' credibility on another front, Robinson played up the accuser's "penchant for fanciful invention" by recounting that Edwards had returned from a stay on Martha's Vineyard and bragged to his friends that he been given a part in the popular movie, Jaws, which had been filmed on the island that summer. As Robinson pointed out, "the hit movie opened a year later - without Edwards." Robinson failed to indicate, not only that the film crew had used crowds of vacationers as extras, but also that Edwards was seven years old when he allegedly started to fabricate what the article described as "critical details about his career." Having overblown Edward's childhood remarks on his professional achievements, Robinson went on to cloud facts related to Edward's health, reaching for the term "self-described paraplegic" to refer to a documented medical condition that has kept Edwards largely confined to a wheelchair since 1993. Similarly, Robinson gleaned from Foster's supporters that Edwards had "feigned deafness" during adolescence, but never bothered either to mention or perhaps to find out that Edwards had taken a sign language course in order to communicate with hearing-impaired friends at his high school. Robinson listed as another of Edwards' "tall tales," the alleged victim's claim that he had worked as a police officer on Martha's Vineyard. Although Foster's supporters insist otherwise, this supposedly dubious assertion was not only confirmed by the Edgartown Police Department, it was mentioned in an undated letter of recommendation that Foster wrote for Edwards. In praise of Edwards, Foster declared, "Whether here at the parish, his summer work with the Edgartown Police, or his interaction with his peers, Paul Edwards exhibits a sensitivity and respect for others.'' In the short run, thanks in part to Foster's silence on the false information that his supporters fed to the Globe, the Spotlight Team's campaign against Edwards succeeded. After Edwards checked into a psychiatric clinic, Edwards' lawyer withdrew from the case. Meanwhile, after having been reinstated only to be removed again, Foster was, as the Globe reported in a jubiliant article, finally cleared by Church officials and allowed to celebrate mass for a cheering crowd at Sacred Heart. Now, however, the Spotlight Team must confront a problem that is cropping up with alarming frequency: how to report on cases that its members previously misjudged as insignificant or false. Newly released files show that Church officials responded to Edwards' charges against Cummings, who died of AIDS in 1994, not by maligning him in the manner of the Spotlight Team, but by affirming his story. As noted in the Boston Herald, when Edwards told the Rev. Rodney J. Copp in 1991 that Cummings had molested him, Copp replied, "First of all, Paul, I believe you.'' Copp's reaction to Edwards' allegations against Cummings, which was never reported in the Globe, clearly adds to the accuser's credibility. On the other hand, Foster's decision to let stand the many lies that his supporters spread about Edwards raises grave doubts about the veracity of the monsignor's version of events. Also missing from the Globe was Foster's troubling admission that he could not recall if Edwards had ever talked to him about being raped by Cummings. The fact that a high-ranking Church official such as Foster, a cannon lawyer who serves as judicial vicar of the Archdiocese of Boston, would forget whether a teenage friend of his had spoken of being raped by a fellow priest would certainly raise giant red banners in most people's minds. Foster's casual approach to crimes against children did not, however, catch the attention of the Spotlight Team. Rather than marking anything disturbing in the new information on Foster, Spotlight reporters Matt Carroll and Michael Rezendes did their best to resurrect the Globe's previous skepticism about Edwards' allegations. According to Carroll and Rezendes, in his interview with Church officials, "Edwards described a friendly relationship with Foster that evolved into horseplay, wrestling, and incidents in which the two napped together in their underwear. During the interview, Edwards cited just one incident in which he said Foster became sexually aroused. His account contradicted the numerous incidents of sexual molestation he had claimed in his lawsuit." O rdinary people would probably be upset by the image of a half-dressed priest in bed with a minor, but Carroll and Rezendes seem to have been preoccupied with another issue, namely, how to minimize the importance of the revelation that Edwards, contrary to previous reports, had visited Foster's quarters. Thus, as if on cue from the public relations firm that Foster hired soon after the accusations surfaced, Carroll and Rezendes paper over earlier assertions that Edwards could not have spent time upstairs by repeating the monsignor's new excuses: "while it is possible that Edwards might have been in his living quarters in the rectory, it would never have occurred without others being present - including Edwards' own parents during one Christmas party at the parish, Sacred Heart in Newton."In sharp contrast to Robinson's pointed commentary on Edwards' credibility, Carroll and Rezendes gave Foster's illogical defense--the presence of Edwards' parents on one occasion hardly precludes criminal activity on another--a veneer of rationality by focusing on the monsignor's dismay over the circulation of the edited transcript: ''This is a helluva way to restore my reputation,'' Foster said, referring to the archdiocese's promise to take steps to do so." If new revelations about the Spotlight Team's misjudgments continue to pour out at the present rate, perhaps Robinson and his colleagues could ask for help from Bishoff-Solomon Communications, Foster's PR firm. Such a move might not restore Spotlight reporters' credibility, but at least they and Fosters' handlers share similar perspectives on the importance of promoting accurate understanding of the scandal in the Church. Survivors' Group Calls for Reopening Foster case -- Boston Herald, 12/14/02 Who gets the credit for maligning Paul Edwards? Click here to find out. Another refutation of Robinson's case against Edwards
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. William J. Cummings
sexually abused him during the early 1980's,
offers remarkable insight into the Spotlight Team's
hostility towards victims
of clergy sexual abuse. Rather than seeking to verify any of
Edwards' allegations, Spotlight editor Walter V. Robinson,
who authored most of the