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Worst Mental Health Media: Canada's National Post Biased Coverage by Joseph Brean of PsychOUT Conference

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MFI awards the Worst Media Coverage of Mental Health Month May 2010 to reporter Joseph Brean from Canada's National Post. Brean horribly mis-covered the May 2010 international PsychOUT conference of psychiatric survivors activists and allies, who gathered from five nations to resist psychiatric human rights violations.

Worst Mental Health Media: Canada's National Post Biased Coverage by Joseph Brean of PsychOUT Conference

National Post's Joseph Brean gave PsychOUT biased coverage.

UPDATE: You can read about MindFreedom International's coverage of this PsychOUT event, including a photo essay by David Oaks and links to alternative media coverage, by clicking here.

May is considered "Mental Health Month."

MindFreedom awards the Worst Mental Health Media Award to Joseph Brean of Canada's National Post.

Action: So that others may easily find out about Brean's bias, please LINK your blog, web site, forum, etc. to this web page!


Your Gateway to Joseph Brean's Unfair Reporting in National Post


by David W. Oaks, Director, MindFreedom International


May was supposed to be "Mental Health Month." May ought to be "Media Bias About Mental Health Month," because we have quite an example.

The PsychOUT conference in Toronto from May 7 to 8, 2010, with a protest on May 9, was powerful. I was privileged to be invited to be one of the keynoters and had a wonderful time.

The event also won mainstream national media coverage, but the front-page article by Joseph Brean of the National Post was awful, biased, unprofessional, and insulting. Incredibly, Brean even called one of the psychiatric survivor participants a "crackpot" in his article, without any quotes or attribution.

I'm proud that lots of people quickly united to resist this example of big corporate media bias.

First, let's start below with four of the letters by PsychOUT activists that were published in the National Post in response to Joseph Brean's article.

Then you can read Brean's actual article and decide for yourself.

You'll also find other information about the biased reporting of Joe Brean.


Action: Please link your blog, web site, etc., to this web page, to help people learn about this media bias, especially Joseph Brean's unprofessionalism.


NATIONAL POST published letters, 11 May 2010 - "Letters of the Day"


Letter by Don Weitz:
http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/story.html?id=3011127

Letter by David Oaks:
http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/story.html?id=3011131

Letter by Geoffrey Reaume:
http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=3011134

Letter by Mark Federman:
http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/story.html?id=3011135

The offensive article by Joseph Brean about the conference, published 8 May 2010:


http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/story.html?id=3001214


Click here for an open statement from MindFreedom International to Joe Brean, with his response.


Though the conference is over, you can download a copy of the program and find out more about PsychOut here.


For a brief article about the conference was written by Stephanie Dearing in Digital Journal, click here.


Kevin M. From People First Radio provided some audio coverage:


Two audioclips from the conference:
http://www.columbiancentresociety.com/pfr.php

An overview of the conference:
http://www.columbiancentresociety.com/prfcontent/201_may_13_2010_sm.mp3

An interview with Bonnie Burstow about her antipsychiatry "attrition" model:
http://www.columbiancentresociety.com/prfcontent/202_may_20_2010_sm.mp3


And again, MindFreedom's portal to coverage of PsychOut is here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/as/act/inter/coalition-against-psychiatric-assault/psychout-news
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Dorothy Dundas

While institutionalized for three years as an adolescent in the 1960's, MindFreedom member Dorothy Washburn Dundas was labeled a "schizophrenic" and forced to undergo 40 combined insulin coma-electroshock "treatments." Dorothy says, "I experienced and witnessed many atrocities. I believe that luck, determination, and my own anger and one compassionate advocate were my best friends on the road to my ultimate survival and freedom." Through a number of op-ed pieces, she has voiced her opposition to abusive psychiatric practices. Her poster, "Behind Locked Doors," which she created from her hospital records, is used in training programs. Dorothy lives in the Boston area where she has raised her four wonderful children. She founded and is the sole driver in her "safe, friendly and reliable" car service called The Crystal Lake Express.