Winter Fundraiser, Day Three

Another $90 came in yesterday, which brings the two day total of this current fundraiser to $190. I know some other contributions are headed my way via snail mail, so the total is likely a bit higher, but I won't know that for a day or two. Thanks for your contributions.

A reader pointed me to a recent article on the blogger Josh Marshall who runs the very successful Talking Points Memo site. What's instructive about the article isn't that Josh is a big shot now or that he just won a fancy journalism award, it's that he was on a mission to pay attention to important political and governmental issues that he thought were being overlooked or downplayed by the mainstream media. I'd say that this site's mission is quite similar except it's applied to the realm of mental health, a realm that is largely overlooked by the mainstream media and where many of the crucial issues are downplayed.

If you think I am kidding, check out the near silence in this country in the wake of the British study showing that anti-depressants were essentially no more efficacious than placebo in clinical trials submitted to the FDA. That's kind of big news, but to date the major media in the US is being very quiet--although I am sure Judith Warner will find a way to spin the study's results as being bogus in a forthcoming column in the New York Times. Now compare it to the tripe I wrote yesterday concerning the same study.

Anyhow, TPM, as it's called, was largely supported in its early days by reader contributions because readers were very frustrated with how the media in America handled some of the pressing questions before it. If you are reading this site, then chances are you are frustrated with how the media has been handling mental health issues in America and the UK for the last 20 years. You can do something about that--and that pesky Judith Warner--by hitting the PayPal button on the right (or contacting me for a snail mail address) and contributing what you can.

Thanks for your support.

BTW, I'll be back with more later today, but am currently burning the midnight oil to finish some outside work so I can pay my rent.