Navigating both emotional pressure and key breakthrough moments with internal church directors, award-winning journalist and former Deputy Managing Editor of The Boston Globe Ben Bradlee Jr. ’66 P ’10 ’11 oversaw the Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal from July 2001 to August 2002.
On Feb. 10, Mr. Bradlee visited the Upper School (US) to share his experiences and insights with students and faculty. US English Teacher Talayah Hudson organized the Q&A-style event to complement her senior English elective, Prize- Winning Literature, which is primarily focusing on Pulitzer winners this year.
Mr. Bradlee answered questions about the barriers, emotional toll, and aftermath of the Globe’s investigation.
“We helped a lot of people, particularly the victims of sexual assault,” he said. “There was strength in numbers and courageous voices.”
Their research sparked other major papers across the United States to investigate their local archdioceses. Mr. Bradlee said the investigation hinged on the information from the church directories and victims’ stories.
“With the internal church directories, we could draw conclusions because they would say reassigned or counseling. Then, we developed sources. We went out of our way to protect the victims because the story had more impact with their names attached.”
The experience was made into a movie, “Spotlight,” which won the 2016 Academy Award for Best Picture. Bradlee was awarded the Pulitzer for his reporting in 2003.
“It’s the gold standard in journalism. Everyone was honored and astonished by the picture award for ‘Spotlight,’” he said.
Eddie Jiang ’25, a student in Prize-Winning Literature, said speaking to Mr. Bradlee connected well with the class.
“I think his work connects to our class by just giving an example of what sort of topics can win
awards, how deep and interesting it has to be for it to be awarded.”
Lena Ishii ’25, another senior taking the elective, found Mr. Bradlee’s talk interesting after reading an article on the Catholic Church scandal in class, she said.
“It was just so groundbreaking, and it definitely makes sense as to why they won the prize.”
Mr. Bradlee’s passion for his work stood out, Lena said.
“I was shocked by how confident he is, which is really important when you’re writing a story, and a lot of people may not believe in you or may not believe your story is going be important,” she said. “It’s so important to have confidence in yourself. You can see that he believes that a lot of things go undervalued in his work, and it was just interesting to hear about that and how it connected to prize- winning lit.”
Eddie also thought Mr. Bradlee made it clear what the story meant to them and how winning the Pulitzer validated The Globe’s efforts, he said.
Prior to the event, students in Prize-Winning Literature discussed what makes literature worthy of a prize, whether through work, craftsmanship, language, content, or a combination, in addition to brainstorming questions for Mr. Bradlee.
Bringing in a variety of speakers allows students to explore different careers, Lena said. She said a key takeaway from her experience was that her future is not determined yet.
“He didn’t really know he wanted to go into journalism in the beginning … So I think one of the bigger takeaways I had was that you don’t have to know what you want to do right now, and there are so many things you can experience in college and so many classes you can take.”
Elsbeth Kasparian ’27, who attended the Q&A because of Mr. Bradlee’s success in journalism, agreed.
“I thought his entry into journalism was interesting,” she said. “He shared that while he was part of the Peace Corps in Afghanistan, he received a job offer to be a journalist from a colleague. I think his career serves as a nice reminder that you don’t have to take the most direct route to become really good at your craft. You can branch out and try different things that are meaningful to you.”
Elsbeth was familiar with his contributions to journalism beforehand, she said.
“As impressive as his work is on the Catholic Church scandal, his accomplishments span well beyond the piece with many books and other articles in investigative journalism.”
Mr. Bradlee’s personality also stood out during the event, she said.
“He had a great sense of humor. Someone asked him if he and the Spotlight team received backlash from other people at The Globe, and he said something along the lines of, ‘No … we won the Pulitzer. Everyone was thrilled.’”
Ms. Hudson said she was glad that the event was available to the whole US.
“I enjoyed and appreciated that we were able to open up to the entire campus community, including writers and editors of our own student publications, which is incredible.”
For students, it’s important to see where alums go, Ms. Hudson said.
“I think it’s tough when you’re in high school to think about your life outside of high school and even outside of college, but it’s cool to see, ‘Hey, this guy’s an alum and look what he’s done,’” she said. “I also think it’s important for alumni to come back and see how the institutions that reared them are doing and what they’re doing to support the future BB&N alumni.”
