Hella Heaven Independent Journalism Award
for Philip Dawdy at Furious Seasons.
You don't know about Philip Dawdy's work because he does not work for the mainstream media anymore.
He is doing the job that is not being done by journalists of the newspapers and other medias, those who were supposed to report the real facts, give people the knowledge to make choices and base their opinions.
The field that he is concentrated at his blog Furious Seasons is of everybody's concern: mental health.
No, no, no... I am not only about those who are in hospices and we have no idea what is happening there. I am also talking about the sedatives, antidepressants and other drugs that are being prescribed to many people who are only sad because of daily life stress and normal problems.
This is how Philip Dawdy describe his work:
I believe in accountability and an honest exchange of ideas. I'm doing this because I am a reporter who's come to find the print form that has sustained me for the last decade is too restrictive in light of the Internet. That's a complicated point and I will make it elsewhere. For the last several years, I have been reporting extensively on mental health issues, locally and nationally, primarily at Seattle Weekly, where I was a staff writer until November 2006. In that time, I have interviewed patients living on the streets, in homeless shelters and in state mental hospitals, as well as patients leading more ordinary lives. I have interviewed researchers and doctors great and small. Adding together my formal reporting work and more informal encounters with patients going back to 1989, I have interviewed hundreds of people with mental illness. I point that out because it has led me to certain conclusions, some reasoned and some more emotional. But, ultimately, my conclusions still add up to one man's attempt to make sense of mental illness in America. Please read this blog in that light. As far as fancy stuff like journalism awards go, I won awards from the National Mental Health Association for my newspaper reporting in 2005 and 2006, and have won a half-dozen local and regional awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for my reporting on mental illness. In addition, I have won a national award for food writing, and 14 other SPJ awards for government reporting, investigative reporting, science reporting, feature writing and religion reporting.You can read the whole test here. I could write many things about Philip Dawdy, how dignified, ethical and what an amazing person he is but I prefer that you take a look at his blog, a blog that inspired many people to start their own blog to tell their stories or to advocate for the disclosure of the harms of psych-drugs. It is to much harm but it generates money. our health was traded for profits that is what medicine is all about nowadays. Thank you Philip Dawdy
PS: I am quoting Philip Dawdy:
"Yesterday afternoon, I got my second job reject of the day, this one for a policy analyst position with the Washington State Senate Democratic Caucus. Hell, they aren't even going to interview me. It's like this website has made me toxic when it comes to employment." (emphasis mine) I am sure that they are jealous and surely ashamed of the journalism they are doing. I prefer toxic than unethical and harmful to the public.
