If you’ve seen the movie Spotlight ...
you’ll know what Marty Baron stands for: tenacious, ambitious journalism. Invaluable, distinct work that only journalists can do.
The man who was the catalyst behind The Boston Globe Spotlight Team’s investigation into sex abuse in the Catholic Church is now at The Washington Post, the storied newspaper of Woodward and Bernstein and Watergate. Baron and the Post are embracing the digital age with an unwavering commitment to meaningful journalism.
Marty Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post, in conversation with CBC’s Robyn Bresnahan
Baron packed the house at Carleton on Feb. 3, 2016. The former Boston Globe editor spoke eloquently about journalism’s mission just weeks before the movie Spotlight, which was based on work he and his team did at the Globe, won an Oscar for Best Picture.
The movie put journalism front and centre in a way that hadn’t happened since All the President’s Men was released in the 1970s.
The Spotlight Team
How Baron and the Boston Globe‘s investigative journalists pursued the story
On Investigative Journalism
“Not holding powerful individuals and powerful institutions accountable is the single most irresponsible thing we can do as journalists.”
On Journalism’s Future
In order to succeed we have to learn some new things. And the world has changed, so I think we simply have to embrace that … it doesn’t mean we have to give up our principles. It doesn’t mean we have to give up ambitious journalism.”
Questions from the Audience
From how a profit-oriented business model can accommodate investigative journalism … to advice for journalism students
From the Ottawa Citizen
Newspapers ‘irresponsible’ in failing to hold the powerful to account, says Pulitzer winner
“Newspaper managers who use the excuse that the lack of resources prevents them from investigating powerful institutions or individuals are shirking their responsibly to the community they serve, says a prominent American news executive.”
Read the full story by Robert Sibley
Under Marty Baron’s stewardship as executive editor, The Washington Post has won three Pulitzer Prizes since 2014. He previously led journalists at The Boston Globe to six Pulitzers, including one for the Globe’s Spotlight Team investigation into a pattern of concealing clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church.
Prior to the Globe, he held top editing positions at The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Miami Herald. Under his leadership, The Miami Herald won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Coverage in 2001 for its coverage of the raid to recover Elián González, the Cuban boy at the center of a fierce immigration and custody dispute.
Baron was named Editor of the Year by Editor & Publisher magazine in 2001, and Editor of the Year by the National Press Foundation in 2004.
The CBC’s Robyn Bresnahan is the host of Ottawa’s number one morning radio program, Ottawa Morning. An award-winning experienced journalist who has travelled the world, Robyn now hosts the same program where she began her career a decade ago. While she was in her final year at Carleton University’s School of Journalism in 2001, Robyn joined CBC Radio in Ottawa as a reporter and Associate Producer. She has worked for CBC Calgary, and regularly produced documentaries for The Current, Definitely Not the Opera and The Sunday Edition.
She then worked for the BBC World Service as a host and Senior Broadcast Journalist. She began with World Today, and over the years has hosted every daytime show on the World Service, including the Sony-award winning Newshour. Her work has taken her to the heart of some of the biggest stories in the world, which she reported for radio, television and online.