Spotlight

Cardinal Law: "If I can be of any help, Marty, don't hesitate to ask. I find that the city flourishes when its great institutions work together."
Marty Baron: "Thank you. Personally I'm of the opinion that for a paper to best perform its function, it really needs to stand alone."

Marty Baron: "We need to focus on the institution, not the individual priests. Practice and policy; show me the church manipulated the system so that these guys wouldn't have to face charges, show me they put those same priests back into parishes time and time again. Show me this was systemic, that it came from the top, down."
Ben Bradlee Jr.: "Sounds like we're going after Law."
Marty Baron: "We're going after the system."

"They knew and they let it happen! It could've been you, it could've been me, it could've been any of us."

Mike Rezendes: "Six percent is 90."
Walter Robinson: "90 priests?"
Ben Bradlee Jr.: "If there were 90 of these bastards, people would know."
Mike Rezendes: "Maybe they do."

"They say it's just physical abuse but it's more than that, this was spiritual abuse. You know why I went along with everything? Because priests, are supposed to be the good guys."

"We got two stories here: a story about degenerate clergy, and a story about a bunch of lawyers turning child abuse into a cottage industry. Which story do you want us to write? Because we're writing one of them."

"If we don't rush to print, somebody else is going to find these letters and butcher this story."

"This city, these people... making the rest of us feel like we don't belong. But they're no better than us. Look at how they treat their children. Mark my words, Mr. Rezendes. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one."