Since COVID-19 went (*ahem*) viral, the news has been nothing but bad.  While we're catching stories here and there that, around the world, people have stepped up to take care of business, whether health care workers, truckers, delivery people, store clerks, or factory workers, those stories are sporadic and easily overwhelmed by bad news.  Even the lovely videos of singing Italians seemed to be brief bursts of light in an otherwise dark sky.

America's Hollywood elite tried to help, but it turns out that most of them — all alone in their homes without scripts, studios, producers, directors, publicists — are surprisingly tone-deaf.  For example, Gal Gadot and her friends were trying to show concern and help raise people's spirits when they sang John Lennon's Imagine.  However, watching multi-millionaires croon about a world without money and one without borders, while Americans are losing their livelihoods and nations are discovering that borders have a purpose, ended up being more offensive than uplifting.

Likewise, David Geffen, a billionaire, went on social media the other day to say, "I'm hoping everybody is staying safe."  That was sweet.  What wasn't so sweet was the fact that he sent out the tweet from the deck of his $590-million yacht while in the Grenadines to isolate himself from the virus.  He succeeded in offending just about everybody.

Then there was the heart-wrenching article about the sacrifices Hollywood celebrities are making while trapped in their multimillion-dollar mansions (and yes, this is a real headline): "Celebrities go makeup free while social distancing."  The article had multiple carefully posed pictures of celebrities lounging by pools, cuddling with puppies, hanging out in green gardens, working out, and generally looking pleased to have a break from the paparazzi treadmill.

However, there is at least one Hollywood celebrity who has his head screwed on the right way.  John Krasinski, actor in The Office and Jack Ryan and director of the movie A Quiet Place (described by a young friend as "the best horror movie ever"), put out a tweet asking people to send him good news:

Alright everybody, how about #SomeGoodNews ! Send me the stories that have made you feel good this week or the things that just made you smile!

— John Krasinski (@johnkrasinski) March 25, 2020

Armed with the information people sent him, Krasinski created his SomeGoodNews (aka SGN) news channel.  He uploaded his inaugural video on March 29, 2020, and it promptly went viral.

In the short video, Krasinski talks about heroic health care workers, people making the best of a bad situation, and acts of kindness.  He interviews his former colleague Steve Carell and talks to a cancer survivor.  Krasinski radiates goodwill, and the whole video is one big smile.  No wonder that more than 9 million people have already viewed it.

Today's media outlets are so intent on being the first to report bad news and dunk on President Trump that they have forgotten that the human spirit is as vital as the human body when it comes to matters of health.

Many in the media are too young to remember Norman Cousins's groundbreaking Anatomy of an Illness: As Perceived by the Patient, published in 1979.  In it, Cousins described his recovery from a painful and potentially fatal connective tissue disease.  One of the things that helped his recovery was laughter.  We know that depression can be deadly, but too many (especially in the "gotcha" media) forget to acknowledge that joy helps strengthen our immune systems.

Kudos to Krasinski for reminding us that happiness is part of strength.  Let's hope that this video is the first of many rather than just a single effort on his part: