“I didn’t decide to take on the Catholic Church. I decided to pursue a story"

[rug]

By Stephen Applebaum, January 29, 2016

One of the hottest contenders for the Best Picture Oscar is Spotlight, which tells the powerful, true story of how the eponymous team of investigative reporters at the Boston Globe newspaper exposed a decades-long cover-up by the Catholic Church to protect priests guilty of sexually abusing children.

That the investigation took place at all is credited to the Globe's first Jewish editor, Marty Baron (played by Liev Schreiber in the film), who, on his first day at the paper, saw a story that he felt needed to be pursued.

Baron had come from the Miami Herald and was an unusual appointment. "The newspaper had been accustomed to having people who have a strong connection to Boston be in charge of it," he tells me from his office at the Washington Post, where he is now executive editor, "and I think the entire community was accustomed to that as well. I had spent almost no time in the city and so I was labelled an outsider - and made to feel like an outsider."

While being "somewhat the object of wariness" created discomfort, he had the advantage of being able to "see things through fresh eyes", he suggests. "I didn't have any attachments to the community at all. I had no allegiances, no obligations as a result of friendship, nothing like that. So I think that allowed me to approach things with some level of distance and objectivity."

http://www.thejc.com/arts/film/152917/%E2%80%9Ci-didn%E2%80%99t-decide-take-catholic-church-i-decided-pursue-a-story

[LiberalAndProud]

1. Do you think that it might have been significant

that Matthew Storin (Baron's predecessor at the Globe) is Irish Catholic?

No, probably not. Of course not.

[rug]

2. I don't know him or when his tenure was.

I will guess that whatever he knew, whenever he knew it, his background may well have predisposed him not to believe it.

A more pertinent question is how many of the plaintiffs' lawyers were Catholic.

[LiberalAndProud]

3. Why do you think that question is more pertinent?

When Matthew Storin came to the editor’s position in 1993, he sought to make the Globe less liberal, or at least less predictably so. His tenure was marked by both success and scandal. Under Storin, the Globe ended a 10-year Pulitzer drought, winning four prizes. According to a 1999 poll of editors by the Columbia Journalism Review, the Globe was (tied for) the sixth best paper in the country. But in 1998, Storin accepted the resignations of two star columnists who had fabricated quotes and characters.[2] The dual scandals prompted speculation about Storin’s future. He hung on for two more years.

Business side. Meanwhile, the ownership of the paper was changing. In 1993, the Taylor family—owners for 126 years—sold the Globe to the New York Times Company for $1.1 billion, the highest price ever paid for a newspaper. The sale was a blow to a paper that prided itself on independence, and to a city that viewed New York as a rival. As part of the deal, the Times Company agreed not to intervene in the Globe’s operations for five years.

Six years later, it abruptly replaced publisher Benjamin Taylor with one of its own top executives, Richard Gilman. The Taylor family’s day-to-day management of the Globe had come to an end. At a meeting, Globe staffers greeted Gilman with silence; it had “the feeling of a hostile takeover,” according to columnist Ellen Goodman.[3] Gilman was a specialist in circulation and operations, and some analysts saw his appointment as an effort to improve the Globe’s financial performance. The paper, although profitable, had fallen short of goals set by the Times Company. Other analysts said the Times Company simply wanted to broaden control.

By the time Baron took over in the summer of 2001 . . .
http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/caseconsortium/casestudies/14/casestudy/www/layout/case_id_14_id_139.html

Largely, I have been a fan of the Globe's reporting, tarnished as their history may be. Still, I believe the story would have been left unreported for as long as the Taylor family and Mr. Storin stayed. I think it would be safe to assume that they participated in a conspiracy of silence. You may be right that they chose to disbelieve the allegations. Either way, blind eyes.

[rug]

4. There is a big diffence between suing the Archdiocese, deposing a Cardinal, and subpoenaing

thousands of documents, and reporting on it.

Not that investigating and reporting this case was not daunting. The change of editors was indeed key.

[LiberalAndProud]

5. So what's the answer to your question?

How many litigating attorneys were Catholic? That would be an interesting statistic, if we had it.

[rug]

6. I did a quick search and didn't find a quick answer.

If I had to surmise, I'd say the religion of the plaintiff's attorneys is likely not that much different than the Boston area. That is, a fair amount of Catholics.

I do know that Jeff Anderson, out of Minnesota, has been involved in many of these suits.

Anderson raised three children in the Roman Catholic tradition of his first wife, but his work representing abuse victims in the 1980s turned him off to organized religion. He became an atheist but says he regained his faith 13 years ago, when he began confronting his alcoholism at AA meetings.

"I had to look at myself and turn things over to a higher spiritual power," said Anderson, who doesn't identify with a religious tradition and describes his faith as "eclectic."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/26/church.abuse.victims.lawyer/

[LiberalAndProud]

7. It would appear that Mr. Anderson is a man with integrity of some sort.

I would guess that the attorney's names would not be readily available, much less their religious affiliation. It's a question for conjecture. It would also be interesting to know if any attorneys would have declined the case. Also a question for conjecture.

[rug]

8. Whoever they are, hats off to them.

[LiberalAndProud]

9. Evidently, it was no picnic for the defense, either.

"I took the case out of vanity and greed," Mouton said. "I knew it would be a high-profile case and I knew the church had unlimited funds to defend it."

"I honestly believed the church was a repository of goodness," Mouton said. "As it turns out, it wasn't.

"When I decided to take that case, I destroyed my life, my family, my faith. In three years, I lost everything I held dear."

"No one would have believed this nondescript, mild-mannered, soft-spoken person could have done the things he was charged with," Mouton said. "And then he began to speak about these things and being in that room with him was the creepiest experience of my life."

"I didn't know it then, but Gilbert had (the late) Judge Henry Politz on his side," Mouton said.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/05/gilbert-gauthe-catholic-priest/2926325/

[rug]

10. That'a a weird story.

He pled him out to 11 counts of child molestation and he gets 20 years. So far so good.

He's paroled after 9 years. OK

But then he's convicted of a new crime (albeit bot a sex crime) but is not sent back on a parole violation?

And this,

Largely because of Politz's intervention, Gauthe was given his own air-conditioned studio at Wade where he painted signs and portraits. The walls of that studio were glass, so guards could observe Gauthe. But he soon hung portraits on the walls, hiding himself and his teenage assistants from sight.

He was allowed to leave the prison for extended furloughs to visit his mother. Politz visited him regularly and, on occasion, took him and prison officials to lunch at a nearby country club.

is implausible, no matter how well connected the judge.

Maybe it's just USA Today.

This is what happened to a priest in my county. He was charged, though, with possession of child pornography, not child molestation. He was represented by an out-of-county attorney.

http://citizensvoice.com/news/sex-offender-ex-priest-working-at-nonprofit-1.1520909

[LiberalAndProud]

11. Do you prefer the Houston Chronicle, then?

Last edited Sun Jan 31, 2016, 01:57 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news13/1998_11_01_HoustonChronicle_JudgesIntervention_Gilbert_Gauthe_1.htm

I believe the good ol' boys' network is alive and thrives in Louisiana.

Whereas men with integrity left the church, knowing too much, I suppose, Jason Berry's direction has taken a different tack. His behavior brings to my mind the 1976 Jehovah's Witnesses, believing contrary to evidence, compartmentalizing reality, internalizing a fragmented apologia. That isn't to accuse him of having no integrity. He is quite extraordinary. Still, from where I sit there is a disconnect between what really is and what is more a wish.

And Timchak is a Baptist now. I don't even know what to make of that.

[rug]

12. That raises as many questions as it answers.

Gauthe was out of prison when he went to the country clb dinner, which was not clear from the USA Today article. It still doesn't explain why he wasn't sent back to prison on a parole violation after his new conviction, other than suggesting, without explanation, influence by Politz.

This is what I don't get. As reported, Politz should not only have been impeached, but incarcerated himself. Why wasn't he? He was subject to an FBI investigation in 1997, resulting in no charges and no judicial censure. He remained on the Sixth Circit bench in good standing until he died in 2002.

http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1997/FBI-Probes-Judge-Pedophile-Link/id-a8ca90a13de6edb602bc11e42bf65cae

Why? Did they find no substantiation? Was the FBI in on "the old boys network"?

The whole case remains weird.

I have no idea who Jason Berry is and I've gone down enough rabbit holes for the moment.

As far as Timchak goes, I think the answer is simple. He was accepted.

[LiberalAndProud]

13. I agree, the whole case was weird.

Does it make you uncomfortable? To my mind, it's not surprising that the FBI didn't prosecute Politz, but, yes, there are many questions left unanswered here.

Jason Barry is a reporter for the National Catholic Register. He's really is quite remarkable and somehow manages to retain his tie to the church.

Was Timchak excommunicated from the Catholic church? His personal journey from Catholic priest to Baptist congregant would be interesting to me.

[rug]

14. Not really.

I'm more frustrated by how outrageous actions are described so glibly with so little follow-up. If anything, if true, the Judge actually managed to outdo the bishops for once.

That article was the last I saw about him. As far as I know he was not excommunicated.