'Journalists are obsessed with charitable donations by wealthy donors. They seem to think any big act of philanthropy is good'

David Rubenstein, a co-founder of the Carlyle Group, a private-equity company. It also used big headlines a month earlier to note Mr. Rubenstein’s $4.5-million gift to help the National Zoo care for its pandas and spur reproduction of the rare animals.

Such coverage is puzzling: Was a gift to pandas a matter of national interest that merited prominent treatment? Would the $7.5-million donation help solve a national societal problem?

 venerable Hull House in Chicago, founded by the Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams, said it would close. The organization, which has provided education, social and health services, job training, and recreation to the city’s poor and immigrant population for more than 120 years, said it was in such bad financial straits, it would need to close this spring,

When millions of Americans are going homeless and hungry and can’t find jobs, why hasn’t Mr. Rubenstein, who is worth more than $2.5-billion (according to Forbes magazine), also provided some of his vast fortune to help those in need?