Chris Hamby is the author of “Breathless and Burdened” and a noted journalist. Chris Hamby went to the University of Missouri and he got a bachelor degree from the University of Richmond. He also has a master’s degree in journalism. He has won countless of reporting awards such as the Pulitzer Prize, the Harvard Goldsmith Prize, awards from the National Press foundation, the …show more content…
Chris Hamby and the Center for Public Integrity obtained court documents and miner’s personal experiences to do this yearlong investigation (Hamby).
Chris Hamby’s investigative article “Breathless and Burdened” exposes various facts about what the Jackson Kelly law firm did to oppress miners’ benefits, and the overall goal for Chris Hamby’s muckraking. For almost two centuries, the Jackson Kelly law firm has served the coal industry when many of the major coal companies want to fight against miners appealing for benefits and other things that ultimately help these companies save money. The Jackson Kelly law firm is the go-to firm because of their amazing winning percentage in mining law, however the main reason for …show more content…
The biggest impact is that coal miners suffering from black lung disease will get higher quality medical reports for their cases. This will give them a better chance to win benefits cases. These reforms were announced by the U.S Department of Labor (Hamby). These initiatives represent a much needed attempt by the Labor Department to create a fairer playing field for coal miners. These changes only happened because of the publication of Chris Hamby and the Center for Public Integrity’s investigation “Breathless and Burdened”. Some other changes include a program that will provide miners with an additional medical report, instructions to government lawyers all over the country to get involved in appeals. Another result of this muckraking is that a miner with at least 15 years of experience be represented by a government lawyer (Hamby). All of these changes and more are only the first steps to what is needed to ensure that these miners and their families receive justice. These changes show that muckraking in the modern world can still have a profound impact in the world we live in. The miners and their families were greatly impacted by the fraudulent system that is the Labor Appeals Court. Hopefully, with the changes that came as the result of “Breathless and Burdened” these miners will have