Journalism plays a major role in writing history. In many cases, major historical events are marked by journalistic coverage.

For example, Walter Cronkite will forever be remembered for breaking the news of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination to viewers at home watching CBS’s “As the World Turns.” He then went on to openly oppose the Vietnam War under President Johnson.

In more recent events, many people remember watching 9/11 coverage on their televisions, trying to make sense of what was happening as the planes hit the World Trade Center. Millions of people at home and at work felt a sense of unity with journalists as they tried to make sense of the monstrosity occurring.

When people think back to major moments in time, they do not only remember the events but the news covering the event.

Academy Award winning movies have a history of being off-putting to some audience with difficulty appealing to the mainstream. Spotlight is not one of those movies.

The 2016 Academy Award Best Picture winner is the story of four Boston Globe journalists, who call themselves spotlight, investigating a series of Catholic Church child molestation coverup allegations.

The team is portrayed by the all-star cast of Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton, and Brian d’Arcy James and tracks their year-long investigation. After discovering nearly 6% of Catholic priests are involved in child molestations, new editor Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) prompts the team to dig deeper to uncover a story bigger than the molestations–the coverup.

The movie follows a step-by-step process as spotlight interviews victims, cardinals, and lawyers. Watch for Stanley Tucci’s standout performace as attorney Mitchell Garabedian a critical asset to the spotlight team.

Spotlight is a compelling story able to keep audiences captivated for the full two hour and nine minute run time.

In 2017, readers are still seeing unfair treatment of women in journalism. There’s no excuse for lazy journalism, with a world of resources and answers a click away on your laptop.

Take the Chicago Tribune’s coverage of a local woman winning an Olympic medal during the summer of 2016. Corey Cogdell-Unrein won her second bronze medal in women’s trap shooting. The Chicago Tribune published the story of the hometown hero with a headline reading, “Wife of a Bears’ lineman wins a bronze medal today in Rio Olympics.” After pushback, the Chicago Tribune re-posted the article with the headline, “Corey Cogdell, wife of Bears lineman Mitch Unrein, wins bronze in Rio.”

The Chicago Tribune is not the only publication guilty of not giving women fair credit. In March, Amal Clooney addressed the United Nations to persuade them to investigate crimes committed by the Islamic State. The Daily Mail’s headline was “Amal Clooney Shows Baby Bump Heading into UN in New York.” Forget that she is an international human rights attorney, the story for journalists is how her figure looked while carrying twins expected with George Clooney.

Journalists are expected to report responsibly. If a woman is headed into the UN to give a harrowing speech on rape and genocide, the story isn’t the baby bump beneath her yellow dress.

When a strong, local woman receives an Olympic medal for the second time, her name should stand alone and not be attributed to her NFL playing husband.

In 2017, journalists should be better.

ProPublica journalists Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Lauren Kirchner, and Surya Mattu investigate car insurance premiums in minority neighborhoods in comparison to white neighborhoods with the same risk in an article co-published with Consumer Reports.

The numbers found are startling–some areas charging 30 percent more in minority neighborhoods than other areas with similar risk of accident.

A map, with minority communities outlined, is provided for readers to check the premium disparities in the Chicago-land area based on the insurer.

A minority neighborhood does not mean a worse neighborhood. Yet, insurers back up their practices, charging drivers with a clean record more simply because the risk of accident is greater.

With Illinois being one of the least regulated insurance markets, it’s easy for insurers to get by with illegal discriminatory rate-setting. But, when data is boiled down, it turns out insurers pay out more money in high-income neighborhoods than low-income, often minority neighborhoods–nearly 20 percent more.

Racial disparities are a long-time practice, and insurers are unable to back up their justification when data is critiqued. Gieco declined to comment.

The Trump administration canceled their prior request for Twitter Inc. to provide information on any users who criticize President Trump on the social media site, Paresh Dave for the Los Angeles Times reports.

Except in cases of criminal activity, Twitter Inc. declared the request unconstitutional and sued the Trump administration Thursday. The social media company felt as though the court would rule the request as a violation of the First Amendment.

Twitter’s actions set a precedent in standing up for free speech and show their dedication to social media activists.

Twitter, The Justice Department, and Customs and Border Protection all declined Dave’s request for comment.

Los Angeles is known for it’s glitz, glamour, and movie stars. Unfortunately, there’s also an extreme housing shortage.

The LA Times found the city approved 4,300 new projects near freeways in 2015. While this may seem like the solution to the Los Angeles housing crisis, there’s proven research housing next to freeways causes severe health problems.

The Times Editorial Board reported how “high levels of pollution that can put them at greater risk of asthma, heart disease, preterm births, reduced lung function in children and premature death.”

LA freeways have anywhere from four to 12 lanes of traffic, and building cheap housing with balconies over looking congested traffic is not the solution to housing shortage–especially when occupants can develop life-long issues from the smog.

City developers need to develop housing for citizens, but the housing should be a healthy place to live.

Following last week’s vandalism of 150 gravestone at a St. Louis Jewish cemetery, a second Jewish cemetery faces the same attack. This time at Philadelphia’s Mount Carmel Cemetery.

“75 to 100 headstones were toppled,” Stephanie Farr with the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer said on Twitter.

The rise in anti-semitic threats is creating concern. 69 Jewish community centers have received bomb threats since January, BuzzFeed reports. After Vice President Mike Pence attended a clean up event at the St. Louis cemetery, the White House called for an end to hate-motivated crimes.

“I will tell you that anti-Semitism is horrible and it’s going to stop. It has to stop,” said Trump on MSNBC Tuesday when asked to respond to Anti-Semitic hate crimes.

The White House has yet to respond to Sunday’s vandalization at the Philadelphia cemetery.

As a fan of Lester Holt, I tuned in to NBC Nightly News on Thursday night. Finding myself so invested in the news, I actually forgot about the assignment. I remember noting the news shifts from serious, to light hearted, then back to serious, eventually ending on a high note with a human interest piece. Thinking of this, I realize how blatantly news values show themselves.

The segment began with breaking news out of The White House. Several stories such as the travel ban remaining blocked by the court, Conway commenting on Ivanka Trump’s clothing line, and looking at Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court. All of these issues are timely as they just occurred, the stories are impactful since they are government officials, and there’s a certain level of conflict to each story as it deals with politics.

After a politically charged program, the final minutes were devoted to a human interest piece. To end on a happy note, NBC News discussed a program working with Chicago teens to help increase graduation rates and decrease gang violence. This story focused on emotion, leaving the viewers in a positive state before Holt signs off.

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