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MINDING YOUR
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| EXTRA! EXTRA! By Sally Kirby Hartman |
Where were you in 1968? A middle-aged visitor to the Newseum in Arlington ponders this question while surrounded by photos highlighting the turbulence of the year. |
| Bombarded
by images of riots, hippies and a nation mourning
slain heroes, the man writes in a guest book of
"seeing a doctor for a prescription that
would allow me to fail my physical for the Army
-- it worked. Never regretted it." Opened in April 1997, the Newseum is the country's only interactive museum dedicated to news. The $50 million museum is funded by the Freedom Forum, which describes itself as a "nonpartisan, international foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people." The forum was created in 1935 with a donation
of $100,000 worth of stock in Arlington-based
Gannett Co., the parent company of USA Today.
That endowment is now worth more than $850
million. |
 artwork by Michael Goodman |
| The three-story Newseum is just
a few blocks from the Rosslyn Metro. Outside is
tiny Freedom Park, which houses an eclectic
display of "icons of freedom,"
including sections of the Berlin Wall and a
bronzed South African ballot box. The park also
has a memorial dedicated to slain journalists --
exactly 1,000 of them -- killed in the line of
duty. The Newseum has welcomed nearly 500,000 visitors to date. By plugging their birth date into a computer, visitors can scan the top news stories on the day they were born. In another room they can anchor a mock TV newscast or pretend to be investigative reporters -- by far the most popular activity with the 20-and-under crowd. Nearby a 126-foot-long video wall flashes breaking television news, and below that more than 70 newspapers display their front pages each day. From commentary on current press coverage to articles related to various freedoms, the Newseum is a truly interactive visit. Best of all, this is one organization that puts its money where its mouth is: Admission is free.
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