Spotlight only won two Oscars last night. But one of them was for best picture. It’s an excellent movie, and a timely one. In an era when so many people are running campaigns maligning journalism and the media, it’s important to remember the role the institution plays in protecting us. Spotlight is about investigative journalists uncovering Church sex abusers more than a decade ago. Since then, I worry we’ve gotten rid of more of the former than the latter. Hopefully this movie serves as a reminder of the importance of hard-hitting local journalism. Here’s the 2002 Boston Globe piece that broke the story.

+ “The story that inspired the movie serves as a wonderful, wonderful reminder why so many of us got into this business in the first place and why so many stayed despite all the gloom and doom and all the left hooks that landed squarely on our chins along the way.” The real Martin Baron reflects on the movie’s success.