As Twitchy reported earlier, the media were quite thrilled by President Biden’s answer to their query of what kind of ice cream he ordered. When Biden replied, “chocolate chocolate chip,” reporters vocally expressed their approval. We best like the way Mollie Hemingway’s friend described it:
As my friend says, "Watching the press handle Joe Biden is like watching a family try to help a three-year-old win Candyland." You watch this clip and tell me that's not right. https://t.co/GRMWxjHnmf https://t.co/fsQScJ2uO1
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) May 27, 2021
How appropriate is it then, that journalism’s heartbreaking video of the day isn’t the press cooing over the president’s choice of ice cream, but rather the dismantling of the Newseum in Washington, D.C.
Your journalism heartbreaking video of the day: the Newseum being torn down piece by piece on Pennsylvania Ave pic.twitter.com/VxIoYIufbE
— Joe St. George (@JoeStGeorge) May 27, 2021
We knew it was the beginning of the end when the Newseum gift shop started (and then stopped) selling “Fake News” T-shirts, and when journalism professor Jeff Jarvis saw a MAGA hat in there, he knew it was time to “take down the whole damned store” until the museum pulled back and considered why it exists.
Now it doesn’t.
— Stephe96 (@Stephe96) May 27, 2021
— The Unmasked Avenger! (@Crapplefratz) May 27, 2021
#Heartbreaking? pic.twitter.com/6PoUNK4hhP
— @IdaFlo (@IdaFlo) May 27, 2021
Oh look! A metaphor for what's happened to actual journalism over the past few decades.
— Aldous Huxley's Ghost™ (@AF632) May 27, 2021
Recommended
Do they have this in 4k? I’d like to watch with my family tonight.
— Wittorical (@Wittorical) May 27, 2021
I’m sorry this is happening to you.
— Air-on 🏔 (@peekaso) May 27, 2021
Remember when the Berlin Wall was torn down? I have the same feeling watching the Newseum fall.@ComfortablySmug
— Nathan E. Yates, M.S.F. (@NathanEYates) May 27, 2021
We haven’t been this moved since was saw Seattle’s mayor bulldoze CHOP.
Are they putting up a coding museum?
— FN Bob (@BobarianLMD) May 27, 2021
They can just replace it with a dumpster fire and no one would know the difference.
— Matthew Harkrider (@MHark) May 27, 2021
— I Can’t Even (@PalleyKara) May 27, 2021
Maybe if it hadn't been built on lies, it wouldn't have to be torn down.
— Malaise 2.0 Honkitude (@Mr_Honkitude) May 27, 2021
Thoughts and prayers.
— J.T. Gilgo, Wild West Pimp (@JTGilgo) May 27, 2021
When are the fireworks?
— Jeffrey Collins (@Collinstaxacct) May 27, 2021
Heartbreaking for sure. This video needs a laugh track.
— Kelly (@Kisouttahere) May 27, 2021
— Goaterhead (@goaterhead) May 27, 2021
They're going to put a comedy club there, so nothing is going to change.
— No, that other doctor, GFY (@DoctorWTAF) May 27, 2021
it's okay, i got the most valuable thing out of it there was pic.twitter.com/uIaHBcVgjt
— lndian Bronson (@AgainstGop) May 27, 2021
— Fiddler Forest (@FiddlerForest) May 27, 2021
Well, in 2015 the museum took in $59 million in revenue & LOST $2.5 million. Some people made a lot of money & they did not give a shit about this heartbreak.
— Paul Morelli (@PaulOPinion) May 27, 2021
The Washington Post had reported in 2018 when they were considering closing the Newseum:
In 2016, the museum operated at a substantial loss, spending $8.2 million more than the $55.7 million in revenue it generated, according to previously unreported tax documents. That was more than triple the shortfall from the previous year. The museum has posted an annual deficit every year since it opened in its current location, tax records show.
And tickets were $25 per person?
To be converted into a center where journalists can learn to code and build solar panels.
Feel good story of the day!— Judge Smails (@JSmails) May 27, 2021
Journalism died long before this building was torn down.
— I hear the Gulag train a comin… (@Daw23171) May 27, 2021
The symbolism of those two guys high up on a tower doing nothing while journalism crumbles is not lost on me.
It's pretty hilarious.
— Johnny Utah (@JohnnyU2019) May 27, 2021
— Johannes de Silentio (@LucksGeoff) May 27, 2021
I'm not sorry this is happening to you. Your industry has beclowned yourselves.
— Not_Papa_P (@NotPapaP1) May 27, 2021
Quite ironic, really. The only place one might find actual journalism today, is in a museum.
— Old Tom Morris (@OldTom_Morris) May 27, 2021
— Saint George of Fentanyl (@TonyFmTampa) May 27, 2021
This is the most greatest thing to happen in DC this century.
— ButterFriedCrisco (@fried_crisco) May 27, 2021
This is not breaking my heart in the slightest.
The American journalism industry should have been more self-aware than to build onanistic White Elephant monuments *to itself* while the industry is in the deeply dysfunctional state it's been in for years.
And yet, it isn't.
— White Chocolate (@rhodeislander) May 27, 2021
This is what happens when you do awful work.
— RPECC (@RPEauClaire) May 27, 2021
Meant to get in there before they shuttered the place and gotten a look at that dude’s broken glasses.
— Festus (@BulleitBro) May 27, 2021
Ben Jacobs’ glasses that had gotten Gianforte’d?
Looking forward to the stories of journalists being traumatized by this. 😂
— Alaskan Groucho (@AlaskanGroucho) May 27, 2021
Imagine building an ivory tower to yourselves and charging an arm-and-a-leg for entrance while you can visit exhibits worth seeing at the Smithsonian museums for free. It's really a microcosm for journalism in general while its status seriously degraded over the last few years.
— Jeffrey Philistine (@TejasGator) May 27, 2021
Is there a longer video? I need more than 13 seconds to Toobin to this.
— ArmaliteAR-180B 🇻🇦 (@ArSpade) May 27, 2021
It’s a damn shame, but after the “Fake News” T-shirt debacle, the whole place had to come down.
Related:
Newseum apologizes for stepping outside media's free speech boundaries, stops selling 'Fake News' t-shirts https://t.co/gP4t85c97u
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 4, 2018
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