The Newseum in Washington, DC says its mission “is to increase public understanding of the importance of a free press and the First Amendment.” The Newseum also hosts an annual “Free Expression Awards,” but some items they have for sale has made many in the media and others not big fans of the Newseum being free expression enablers:
The Newseum is selling MAGA hats and 'fake news' T-shirts https://t.co/zkwh6sa4qa pic.twitter.com/IqcFWMN6kF
— Poynter (@Poynter) August 3, 2018
Cue the blue check journo vapors:
The @Newseum needs to answer for this. No, first STOP IT. Then answer for it. Note how the piping on the "Fake News" letters echoes the @CNN logo. So effed up. https://t.co/UNsIkiGQ5u
— John M. Donnelly (@johnmdonnelly) August 3, 2018
Next up: Air and Space museum selling coffee mugs that say the moon landing was a hoax. https://t.co/bZHQg2pOFv
— Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) August 3, 2018
The Newseum says this is about championing "free speech." The more cynical read: The museum is deep in debt, strapped for cash, and tourists like these trinkets https://t.co/owVMLS3xSb
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 3, 2018
Outside the Newseum is a banner calling for the release of Austin Tice, an American journalist held captive in Syria for going on 6 years. The US government believes he is still alive.
Inside, they'll sell you a shirt that says "You are very fake news" for $19.97. https://t.co/OeU4n4nLox
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) August 3, 2018
A memorial at the @Newseum pays tribute to 2,323 journalists who died reporting the news, many of them at the hands of foreign regimes hostile the press. https://t.co/STwYX7NsBH
— Steve Reilly (@BySteveReilly) August 3, 2018
Looking forward to the Newseum's "Enemy of the people" onesie https://t.co/Ckqy5oSt5V
— Ryan McCarthy (@mccarthyryanj) August 3, 2018
This t-shirt doesn’t belong anywhere. It particularly doesn’t belong at the @Newseum, a place that celebrates journalism and has the First Amendment etched in stone outside its building. https://t.co/7ecmjcGOyq pic.twitter.com/AhEgRVA7wE
— Matt Viser (@mviser) August 3, 2018
That one was good enough for a Jim Acosta retweet:
Do these journos and others triggered by the pro-First Amendment and pro-free expression Newseum selling “Fake News” shirts see the irony in wishing they’d stop selling them? Because others sure do:
https://twitter.com/JesseKellyDC/status/1025523014258044928
Ummmm… the rest of us have 1A too. Which means we can call “Fake News” at our pleasure. Y’all are such victims ?https://t.co/Bc0tWR8Kjs
— Stacey (@ScotsFyre) August 4, 2018
Last time I was at the Newseum there was a shirt for sale that had a an oral sex joke about Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky so the gift shop was never exactly a bastion of high society. https://t.co/7IFlih812C
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) August 4, 2018
This is a shirt they sell at the Newseum. What the hell? pic.twitter.com/Ec8jOPH0
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) November 9, 2012
So just calm down, MSM, it’ll be OK. We’ll get through this!
Maybe the Newseum could level the playing field with an opposing t-shirt:
— BT (@back_ttys) August 4, 2018
Ha! Beautiful.