Episode 148: Walter Robinson - How Journalists Exposed the Catholic Sexual Abuse Story

Walter Robinson is an investigative journalist, an editor-at-large at "The Boston Globe," and is the Donald W. Reynolds Visiting Professor of Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

This is a rebroadcast of episode 42, from 2022.

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(00:00) Intro

(00:58) A path to journalism

(10:00) The power and state of the Catholic Church during the late 80s and 90s

(21:40) "The Boston Globe's" "Spotlight" team

(28:10) The Catholic Church's reputation before the Spotlight team’s investigation

(35:59) What was revealed in the church’s internal documents

(40:56) The Church’s consistent strategy of protecting abusive priests

(46:58) Nearly every bishop in every diocese knew about abuse and participated in a cover-up

(53:27) The role of the Church's celibacy vow in incentivizing abuse

(59:36) What explains the abusive behavior of Catholic Church priests?

(01:04:06) Women's second-class status and the role of a free press

(01:07:55) The need for a full confession from the Church

(01:15:48) The role of investigative journalism today and why it matters

(01:20:43) The importance of investigative journalists to think outside the box