May 2014 | Hillman Foundation

Clear It With Sidney

The best of the week’s news by Lindsay Beyerstein

May 2014

Videos from the 2014 Hillman Prize Ceremony Now Available

As promised, all the videos from last week’s Hillman Prize ceremony at the Times Center are now available on YouTube. Check them out. 

Coca-Cola Funded Both Sides of the Drunk Driving Wars

Nothing better than the real thing? Well…

Coca-Cola funded Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Public but gave privately to an industry group that campaigned to weaken drunk driving laws, according to private documents obtained by Ryan Grim and Amanda Terkel of Huffington Post. 

 

[Photo credit: Deus X Florida, Creative Commons.]

#Sidney's Picks: A Tribute to Digby & Fast Food Organizing Going Global

The Best of the Week’s News

  • A moving tribute to Heather “Digby” Parton on the occasion of her Hillman Prize win by Kathleen Geier of the Washington Monthly. Hillman judge Katrina vanden Heuvel thought the post was so apt she quoted it when she presented Digby’s award at Tuesday’s Hillman Prize ceremony. 

 

[Photo credit: Wander Mule, Creative Commons.]

#Hillman2014: Opinion & Analysis: Heather "Digby" Parton

Tonight, the Sidney Hillman Foundation will honor Heather “Digby” Parton with the 2014 Hillman Prize for Opinion & Analysis Journalism. Digby’s blog Hullabaloo has been a fixture in the progressive blogosphere for over a decade. Digby has eloquently opposed injustice and incompetence on issues ranging from the invasion of Iraq to the widening chasm between rich and poor in America. Whatever the topic, Digby approaches her work with a level head and a big heart. 

I will give the last word to Kathleen Geier of the Washington Monthly, “Since she’s the best daily political writer in America, an honor of this sort is the least we can do for her. Congrats to Digby and to the Hillman people for making such an awesome choice. Now and forever: What. Digby. Said!” 

[This is the final installment in a series of profiles of the 2014 Hillman Prize winners. The winners will be honored tonight at a ceremony at the Times Center in Manhattan. Doors open at 6pm. The twitter hashtag for the event is #Hillman2014.]

#Hillman2014:Broadcast: "Weed: Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports"

Congratulations to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Bud Bultman, Roni Selig, Melissa Dunst Lipman, Carl Graf, and Saundra Young on their Hillman 2014 win for the groundbreaking documentary, “Weed: Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports.” Watch it in full online.  

Gupta is the chief medical correspondent for CNN and host of the cable network’s weekend medical affairs program “Sanjay Gupta, M.D.” A practicing neurosurgeon, he reports on health and medical news on various CNN programs and documentaries.

For more than a year, Dr. Gupta and his team travelled the world taking a critical look at the science and research surrounding the use of cannabis. Obtaining numerous exclusive television interviews with experts and families, “Weed” changed the national dialogue on this subject and fostered an unprecedented intersection between world-class science, tremendously needy patients and the ethics surrounding the use of this plant as a medicine.

This is another in a series of profiles of the winners of the 2014 Hillman Prizes. These prizes honor journalism in service of the common good. Follow us on twitter at @sidneyhillman. Use the twitter hashtag #Hillman2014 to find out the latest buzz on the Hillman Prizes, including our upcoming awards ceremony on May 6 at the New York Times Center. Use #Hillman2014 to tag your tweets about the Hillman Prizes. We want to hear from you!

#Sidney's Picks: Howard's Adjuncts Vote to Unionize by Margin of >90%

The Best of the Week’s News

  • The adjunct faculty at Howard University voted by a margin of over 90% to join a union, making Howard the first historically black university with unionized adjuncts.
  • It sounds like an urban legend: A woman finds a plea for help from a prison laborer in China stitched inside her Saks 5th Avenue shopping bag. But DNAinfo tracked the author down and authenticated the letter.

 

[Photo credit: Wander Mule, Creative Commons.]

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