the columnists eileen mcnamara used was "the truth may never be known." and that got to marty and said journalists should never settle for that statement statement, it's our job to find the truth. >> rose: it's how hard it is to find the truth and how many obstacles are put in your way. that's the sense of journalism that you car chiewrd. nobody walks in and says, here's the story, run with it. >> josh and i were committing to authenticity. we thought the investigation on its own is so compelling and the material and the stakes are so high, the welfare of children and survivors, we hear their stories. we committed to the details. we had the great luxury of their complete collaboration, the reporters themselves, along with us every step of the way. >> rose: how did that work, mark? >> it was, to be honest, a luxury. tom had set the framing of the search for the truth, and i had the truth sitting there with me, i just had to -- >> rose: hello, truth! (laughter) >> i had to go and dig it up. i had to make sure that i could be honest and get as much informati

please join me now in welcoming kate clifford larson and eileen mcnamara to our stage. [applause] >> thank you all. we have feedback in here. i don't know if that is okay. okay. so, kate, could you have pick ad more challenging topic? you have a woman who disappeared from public view in 1941 when she was only 23 years old. where does biographer even begin and, more importantly, maybe why? >> you know, those are two great questions. why is easier to answer. back in 2005 i saw rosemary's obituary in the newspaper and, it was like a three paragraph obituary in the "boston globe" and, for some reason it just hit me. i had been vaguely aware of rosemary and of course i was very aware of the kennedy family having grown up in new england and i just, i just thought, oh, this life, you know, what happened to her? as a women's historian my antenna went up right away, like why don't we know more about her? i tucked it in the back of my mind and i was working on another book project. i just had the sense i should investigate her life and that might be my next project. so when i did

>> well, eileen mcnamara, who actually was writing an opinion piece, kind of called out the fact that there's no way there could have been that kind of molestation in boston without cardinal law knowing about it. >> stephen: the church's response is these were isolated incidences that had been reported -- >> yes, bad apples. >> stephen: exactly, bad apples and you all investigated further-- rather the characters you played investigated further. >> yes, and what they came to find was they thought they were sitting on a huge story with 13 priests molesting boys, raping boys in the catholic archdiocese of boston, but what it really was, was more like 90 to 100 priests. and these priests were being sent-- taken off-- out of service for a couple of months, put into a kind of rehab, and then sent back to place where's there was children. >> stephen: that was one of the greatest scandals as revealed, as this story played out over the next 10 years, that priests had been essentially reassigned, just put someplace else where their crimes had not been exposed or not been complained about, and o

our moderator this afternoon, eileen mcnamara is a professor of journalism, a former boston globe column issue in the 1997 pulitzer prize for commentary. she became a columnist after more than 20 years as a reporter covering everything from the police beat to the united states congress. the sign of the times in which she lives, and the challenges she overcame, it should be noted that she began her career at the globe as a newsroom secretary. she is currently working on a biography of eunice kennedy shriver. speaking of mrs. schreiber, the last time she spoke here rosemary was very much on her mind. i thought it might be appropriate to share a brief excerpt of her remark as part of this introduction. >> you not be surprised to know that i believe those same qualities were also the experience that shaped president kennedy. truthfully i believe rosemary rejection had far more to go with the brilliance of the presidency than anyone can understand. yes, he was our crest on tran countries champion on what we all call mental retardation. to this day, his legacy of innovation and creating univer