By Dan Kennedy • The press, politics, technology, culture and other passions

Tag: Ben Bradlee Jr.

“Spotlight” is “All the President’s Men” for a new generation

MV5BMjIyOTM5OTIzNV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMDkzODE2NjE@._V1__SX1152_SY632_On Thursday night I had a chance to see an advance screening of “Spotlight,” sponsored by Northeastern’s School of Journalism and the College of Arts, Media and Design. And I was blown away. How often does a movie for which you have high expectations actually live up to them?

As soon as it was over, Northeastern’s Barry Bluestone said something that I was thinking: this is “All the President’s Men” for a new generation. It is at least as good a piece of filmmaking. And it underscores the vital role that journalism plays in hold powerful institutions to account — in this case the Catholic Church, which at one time was the most powerful Boston institution of all.

After the film, five of the Globe journalists portrayed in the film — Walter Robinson, Michael Rezendes, Matt Carroll, Sacha Pfeiffer and Ben Bradlee Jr. — stuck around for a brief discussion. (By the way, I know Robinson fairly well, and Michael Keaton is scary-good at capturing his demeanor.) Two of them, Robinson and Carroll, are Northeastern graduates. Robinson also worked as a journalism professor at Northeastern for seven years before returning to the Globe in 2014.

Congratulations to everyone involved in “Spotlight.” I hope it helps the public understand why the work that great journalists do matters to all of us.

Ben Bradlee Jr. on Ted Williams’ ‘immortal life’

Ben Bradlee Jr.

Ben Bradlee Jr.

Veteran investigative reporter Ben Bradlee Jr., a former top editor at The Boston Globe, discussed his biography of Ted Williams, “The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams,” at Northeastern on Wednesday. I live-tweeted the talk at @NUjournalism and Storified the results. Please have a look.

Photo (cc) by Dan Kennedy. Some rights reserved.

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