I got an email recently, describing a generous story about actor Denzel Washington. Before sharing it I wanted to research it to make sure it was true - and it turns out for the most part, it is. It's a bit sensationalized though - It makes a claim that Denzel went to visit wounded soldiers from the War in Iraq - and wrote a check on the spot to build another facility to help house the families of these wounded soldiers.
Denzel didn't write a check "on the spot" - but he did write a check to help build another facility. Great stuff, and
you can read about it here.Check out some images from that same site showing photos from Denzel's Visit.The story in the "email" poses a very interesting question:
"The question I have is why does Alec Baldwin, Madonna, Sean Penn and other Hollywood types make front page news with their anti-everything America crap and this doesn't even make page 3 in the Metro section of any newspaper except the base newspaper in San Antonio. "
Interesting question indeed - Why doesn't this kinda stuff get any press? Ah, the media - another great reason to go see V for Vendetta just to whitness that movies take on the media. Just what is the media? Where does the media derrive it's power from? If you ask me, it's the society that gives power to the media. We trust these people because they are on Television. Outside of that, we have been given no other good reason to trust that what they tell us is indeed factual - or is indeed "news" - The internet really has changed lots of our society in how we access information. However;
The media has done a good job in discrediting the sources on the internet - this email is a good example of just why that is - People can make up anything and without having their sources checked can pass around any story they'd like as fact when very often it turns out to be fiction.
The difference between information on the internet and information in the news is that supposedly the information on the news has been researched first; while the information we recieve on the net "should be researched" - It requires the individual to do something while the news requires the individual to do nothing - to sit there and accept that what they are about to report is indeed Fact!
How dangerous something like that actually is... but that's for another post.
The individual, "Should" always Do something.
None of us should accept anything as fact - but we Should recieve it all with an open mind - until we find a reason why not to later. We need to be careful not to pre-judge information - because information is so important; it can save a person's life - while lacking information can be the very reason for why a person loses their life.
I wanted to share this story about Denzel and his generous deed - but I wanted to make sure I was sharing real information. Feel free to use our Google search box at the bottom of Thashow's blogspot in order to look up and cross reference this story.
Now back to this question - Why do certain celebs recieve press for their "negative" or what could be viewed as "negative views" - while others do not recieve any mention at all for their Positive acts?
The media picks and chooses which stories they are going to report; So why didn't they choose to report this one?
Perhaps in the age of the internet, the media is also slowly transforming - perhaps we can begin to look to blogs for relevant information; Perhaps if we get into the mode of looking up EVERYTHING - no matter how long it takes us to do that, we'll learn more and be better informed about the world we live in and the ideas that are being presented to us as fact.
Posts
