Skip to Main Content

Multimillion-dollar Tribute To Lapdog Media Debuts Next To USA Today Headquarters

April 18th marked the grand gala opening of the $50 million, 72,000-square-foot Newseum, "dedicated to examination and celebration of the news business."

"Funded and operated by the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan foundation that promotes free press and free speech, the Newseum combines historical artifacts and up-to-the-moment technology into an attraction designed to promote better understanding between the public and the media."

The idea, according to Newseum organizers (and accepted without question by reporters invited to the event), is to show people how news becomes news.

"It is our hope this museum will help journalists and the public have a greater understanding of one another," said Allen H. Neuharth, chairman of The Freedom Forum, and nonpartisan chairman of Gannett Corp.--a huge, for-profit media octopus, and owner of USA Today--during a media preview. "We also hope that people will go home with a better understanding of what the First Amendment means to them -- not to us, but to them."

Nowhere in the museum is an exhibit showing how P.R. firms employed by the power elite create "news" with pseudo-events like "media previews," where access to quotable "newsworthy" individuals like chairmen of "nonpartisan" "forums" is carefully controlled and their true motives carefully concealed. Nor does it delve into the way lapdog reporters, given junkets and free food, regurgitate without comment what is being "previewed."

Highlights of the Newseum include:

"Today's news gallery," where visitors experience the pulse of breaking news. A 126-foot long, 12-foot high video wall shows a panorama of broadcasts taken in via video feeds, fiber optic cables and computer networks. A news ''zipper'' displays actual headlines. Emphasis is on the MTV "pulse," and not on what is actually being said or omitted.

A series of daily newspaper front pages, one from each state, allows for comparisons on how editors played the day's top stories. What one sees is that there is a miraculous near-universal agreement on what the top stories are, but nothing is told of how this happens.

An interactive newsroom lets aspiring television reporters can read the news on camera using a Teleprompter. In the Ethics Center, visitors can wrestle with difficult news decisions ("Like how to properly bury the CIA-crack dealer connection, or one can portray former media darling Pierre Salinger as a kook?" No.). Three separate theaters will feature films about the role of a free press in society and show special programs in conjunction with ongoing exhibits at the Newseum.

A News Byte Cafe offers food and Internet access to various approved newsgroups. The Newseum Store sells a range of news-related products including T-shirts and reproductions of famous front pages.

Selling a message is the ultimate goal of the Newseum. ''The Newseum will be a failure if we don't get across the education message,'' said Allen H. Neuharth, in a prepared statement. ''If we can sell that message, it really doesn't matter if its 100 people a day or 1,000 people a day...A free press is still the greatest thing a democracy has going for it.''

The Newseum is next to the Freedom Park, also funded by The Freedom Forum, which includes a portion of the Berlin Wall and a monument to more than 900 journalists who have died in the line of duty. The museum's address is 1101 Wilson Blvd. in Arlington, VA and admission is free, just like our press.

[The Newseum moved across the Potomac into downtown DC in April 2008.]

[05/03/1997]
Directions:
In the downtown museum district, on the northeast corner of Pennsylvania Ave. and 6th St.
Hours:
Jan. 1, 2020: Closed
Status:
Closed

Latest from Trunkations, the RoadsideAmerica.com Blog

    More Blog

    My Sights

    My Sights on Roadside America

    Create and Save Your Own Crazy Road Trip! ...Try My Sights

    Mobile Apps

    Roadside America app: iPhone, iPad Roadside America app for iPhone, iPad. On-route maps, 1,000s of photos, special research targets! ...More

    Roadside Presidents app: iPhone, iPad Roadside Presidents app for iPhone, iPad. POTUS landmarks, oddities. ...More

    Sight of the Week

    Sight of the Week

    Easter Island Moai in America (Mar 25-31, 2024)

    SotW Archive

    USA and Canada Tips and Stories

    More Sightings