With the announcement of the Pulitzer recipients not far away (April 14th)-it occurred to me that when the winners and finalists are announced-a great many readers might not have been aware, let alone have read, many of these prize-winning works of journalism.
So, as a run-up to the official announcement, DailyNewsGems.com, will be highlighting some outstanding works of journalism, worthy of Pulitzer consideration.
-Bill Lucey
Photo Credit: The Center for Public Integrity.
Roughly 85,000 U.S. coal miners, earning an average wage of about $25 an hour, with their lives already in danger with explosions, rock falls, fire and disease-are at even greater peril exposing themselves to a toxic mixture of dust generated through the operation of heavy equipment, such as loaders, shovels, dozers, draglines, and haul trucks.
The Center for Public Integrity, beginning in October, 2013, produced in partnership with ABC News, a three-part series: ``Breathless and Burdened’’ which revealed how doctors and lawyers, working in tandem with local coal companies, callously facilitated the denial of benefits to miners in poor health and dying of black lung by withholding critical evidence essential to the claimants case.
``The role of lawyers in orchestrating sophisticated legal strategies to defeat claims for benefits is just the first chapter in the story of a system in which well-paid specialists thrive as miners struggle, the Center’s yearlong investigation, Breathless and Burdened, found. Coal companies rely on a cadre of doctors with prestigious affiliations, including a unit at the nation’s top-ranked hospital, to trump the opinions of miners’ physicians. Experts for hire continue a century-old tradition: denying scientific evidence that black lung can assume different appearances in different people, locking an entire class of sick miners out of the benefits system.''
``Jackson Kelly [PLLC, black lung defense firm], documents show, over the years has withheld unfavorable evidence and shaped the opinions of its reviewing doctors by providing only what it wanted them to see. Miners, often lacking equally savvy lawyers or even any representation, had virtually no way of knowing this evidence existed, let alone the wherewithal to obtain it.’’ http://goo.gl/lY14Wq
As a result of the Center’s series as reported by Chris Hamby and Jim Morris, the U.S. Labor Department, just last month, announced a series of reforms, which will create a more level playing field by eliminating legal and systematic barriers when miners apply for benefits under the Black Lung program, significantly increasing their chances of receiving benefits. http://goo.gl/RJNTiv
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If you’re aware of any outstanding works of journalism that you would like to see included at DailyNewsGems, send links to Bill Lucey at [email protected]
