Apparently, finally coming to terms with the fact that a self-aggrandizing monument to “mainstream” journalism just won’t fly as a business venture in 2019, the Newseum made it official on Oct 1. The highly expensive white elephant will close its doors on Dec. 31. The vanity shrine to stale establishment media consensus “has struggled financially for a number of years and continuing to operate in our current location has proven unsustainable.”
Ego aside, a museum to a dominant media culture that has turned off tens of millions of Americans over the years with its bias, arrogance, and unwillingness to perform real journalism never made much sense – especially in a location abutting dazzling tourist attractions such as The National Air and Space Museum. Never mind personal political feelings. Would you rather pay $25 to see Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin costume from Saturday Night Live (an actual 2012 exhibit) or zero dollars to see the Spirit of St. Louis plane flown by Charles Lindbergh? The fact that the Newseum’s backers considered the two even remotely compatible as National Mall attractions tells you all you need to know about the serious disconnect the profession continues to have with the American people.
Buy Your Ticket for More Indoctrination
The Newseum isn’t just a hall of fame for left-leaning journalists. It is an especially off-putting paean to a strikingly authoritarian and depressingly commonplace ruling media narrative. Its biggest flaw is that it celebrates so many of the very things Americans have had their fill of. Political correctness runs amok at the museum, with exhibits extolling “diversity” and “equality” an everyday experience. A May 19 event titled “Portraits of the Women of the 116th Congress,” for example, hosted by The New York Times, featured sprawling enlargements of portraits of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her Swamp cohorts.
“For the first time in American history, more than 100 women are serving in the House of Representatives. To mark this dramatic shift in women’s representation, The New York Times published photographic portraits of all the women of the 116th Congress, documenting what power looks like in 2019,” reads a description of the event. Imagine coming all the way from Kansas to catch a blown-up portrait of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
The Freedom Forum Institute, which serves as the principal donor of the Newseum, has featured a “Power Shift Project” for over a year now to celebrate women in journalism. A “summit” on the topic was held at the Newseum in January 2018. To get an idea of the wokeness on display, one only need refer to an upcoming November “webinar” titled “Are You an Ally?”
“This webinar provides practical insights for men who want to be allies to women, people of privilege who want to do more to fight inequity and powerful individuals who want to be better advocates for change,” a summary of the event reads. “Come to our museum, give us money, and get in touch with your corrosive privilege” is not exactly a catchy marketing phrase.
“Issues of equality, diversity and inclusiveness for women and people of color or those who have been marginalized have been part of the Newseum’s mission from the start,” Jan Neuharth, chair and CEO of the Freedom Forum, said of the project. “[The] extraordinary summit and the release of [a report on the subject] represent our deep commitment to diversity, and the belief that equality in newsrooms leads to stronger media organizations and better journalism for all.”
Again, why pay for something you can get on CNN on a nightly basis? But if you do crave a closer connection to that outlandishly biased network, you’re in luck (until Dec. 31, that is). The Newseum has repeatedly hosted events featuring CNN stars such as notorious White House correspondent Jim Acosta and prime-time host Don Lemon.
Trump-Bashing and Social Justice Dreck
A July 13 event that came free of charge with Newseum admission was simply headlined: “CNN’s Jim Acosta on Covering President Trump.” The evening featured Acosta discussing his book, “The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America.” Acosta tells never before revealed stories about the White House and argues the point that Trump’s hostility towards facts poses an unprecedented threat to our democracy,” the Newseum exclaimed in promoting the event.
Acosta was also a featured speaker at a self-absorbed January 2018 event titled “Journalism in the Trump Era: Assessing Press Freedom in the United States.” The entire theme of the program was that Trump poses a physical threat to the personal safety of journalists in America today. “[A]buses of journalists including arrests, equipment searches and seizures, physical attacks and border stops” were to be the focus of discussion, according to the event listing posted by the Newseum.
Meanwhile, a giant mural on the side of the Newseum building promoted Lemon’s Sept. 12 appearance at an LGBT media forum:
Looking forward to hearing a conversation with @CNN’s @donlemon at @Newseum tonight. #RiseUp #Newseum #CNN pic.twitter.com/ovbvE2PYWz
— Erikson Young (@EriksonYoung) September 12, 2019
This goes along nicely with exhibits honoring Gloria Steinem and the feminist movement of the 1970s …
In 1971, Journalist Gloria Steinem galvanized the feminist movement of the 1960s and ’70s with her vocal advocacy for women’s equality. A co-founder of feminist Ms. magazine, she ardently campaigned for employment, reproductive and property rights for women. pic.twitter.com/pq826heGGl
— Freedom Forum (@1stForAll) August 16, 2019
…and the power of rock and roll to advance leftist social causes. How leadingly dull and astonishingly out of touch does the following blurb sound? Bono and Jimmy Carter!
“The exhibit includes exclusive video interviews with Bono, David Byrne, Dee Snider, Tom Morello, Lars Ulrich, Gloria Estefan, the late Gregg Allman, Jimmy Carter and others, and combines with them interactive experiences, photography and never-before-exhibited artifacts to examine how music has both shaped and reflected our cultural norms on eight topics: civil rights, LGBTQ issues, feminism, war and peace, censorship, political campaigns, social causes and international politics.”
All of the above sums up just why the Newseum will not be remotely missed by those not already fully on board with the leftist establishment cultural model. Americans are bombarded with these same loaded talking points in schools, churches, workplaces, popular entertainment and, of course, big-box media reporting every single day. To expect them to shell out twenty-five bucks to experience it all again while they are on vacation was always going to be a bridge too far.
~
Read more from Joe Schaeffer or comment on this article.
