a placeless world

It's landed in my inbox eight or nine times.

"Don't know whether you heard about this (probably not) but..."

The story is that actor Denzel Washington visited burn victims at Brook Army
Medical Center and, so moved by the experience, "wrote a check for the
full amount" of a Fisher House hotel for the victims' families "right there on the spot."

It ends: "Why do Alec Baldwin, Madonna, Sean Penn and other Hollywood types make front page news with their anti-everything America campaign and this doesn't even make page 3 in the Metro section of any newspaper?"

Oh, I don't know. Maybe because the Denzel email isn't accurate.

And maybe because Mr. Washington — who did indeed visit the center back in December and later, not "on the spot," made a donation for an undisclosed amount — doesn't feel like he needs to make a production out of every act of generosity.

Bravo to him. And shame on those who, in turn, are trying to turn his desire to do good outside of the spotlight into an issue about "the liberal press" and its purported obsession with Hollywood lefties.

What irks me most, though, is the contention that anti-war activist celebrities are somehow getting more than their fair share of press for their so-called "anti-everything America campaign."

I can't think of the last time Alec Baldwin, Madonna, Sean Penn — or any other Hollywood type, for that matter — was mentioned on any front page of any newspaper I read. Entertainment Weekly, perhaps. The supermarket tabloids, for sure. But even those fine journalistic publications spend more time ruminating over celeb romances and fashionista flubs than political ideology. Hell, Sean Penn had to buy space in the New York Times to spread his nonsesensical rantings.

The Denzel story, but the way, was reported by a number of daily newspapers. A few reporters bothered to check the facts in the email. A lot didn't.

The Fourth Estate is in dire need of criticism. For things it actually does and does not do.