The
Newseum. Not only is it a weird word, it's a weird museum too. Located on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., the Newseum is right down the street from the
Capitol building. As a matter of fact, if you go up to the sixth floor, there is an amazing view of the Capitol from the balcony. (Beware though, tons of people stop to take pictures.) Unfortunately, this is pretty much the best part of the museum unless you are a media junkie.
Befitting its name, the Newseum is, well, a museum for news. On the bottom floor (where you first start out), there are some interesting exhibit. There are chunks of the Berlin Wall, as well as one of the watch towers. (Unfortunately, you can't go up it...though I imagine that would be a logistical nightmare since the inside is so small.) There is also a Sports Illustrated athletic photographic exhibit and a G-Men exhibit. I think I would have liked these better if I enjoyed sports and if we hadn't just finished with the Spy Museum earlier in the day.
From there, you take a great glass elevator up to the sixth floor to experience the museum from the top down. This is where things begin to fall apart. After gazing at the Capitol, you are shuffled down a walkway filled with nothing but the day's front pages of newspapers from around not only the country but also the world. Some of them were vaguely interesting but newspapers, in this day and age, just aren't interesting any more. Luckily, a little bit farther down the museum (I forget which floor, they all kinda blended together after awhile), there are decades-old newspapers. These, to me, are way more interesting than what is currently going on in Backwoods, Iowa. On the bad side, there were tons of them so I didn't get a chance to read too many. This part of the exhibit stands in the center of the floor while video rooms line the walls. Various short films about the media were shown in these. For example, there was a 'Bias' film and a 'Sources' film nearby. Since I was walking around with my husband and my 8-year old daughter, we didn't check out any of these films. (They didn't look particularly appeasing from the outside.)
The next big exhibit was a 9/11 Memorial, which contained a piece of one of the towers. This also featured the front pages of newspapers from around the world. Though what I found most interesting was the tribute to William Biggart, a photojournalist who lost his life running toward the Towers to capture everything on film. His items, as well as the interview with his widow, were much more jarring than the piece of crumpled metal in the middle of the room.
I'd like to note here that the one exhibit that my daughter was looking forward to was the Presidential Dogs exhibit. Unfortunately, all it consisted of was a long line of photos of the presidents with their animals and a small description of them. It was along the lines of "This is 41st President George H. W. Bush with his dog, Millie." On the positive side, this did lead us to a small interactive exhibit on the Bill of Rights so I did get a chance to discuss that with her.
We ended our journey in the Interactive News Room. This gives people (mostly kids, I think) a chance to 'be a reporter.' There are various terminals with games where you question witnesses to get the story on a crime or matching the pairs of photographs of media personalities. However, the big draw is the "Be A Reporter" feature where you can actually pick up a microphone and step before the camera to report a story.
Overall, my husband, my daughter, and I found the museum to be rather boring. On the other hand, my mother, my sister, and my sister's boyfriend enjoyed it so much that they went back the next day to see all the stuff they missed. I guess it's a good thing that the tickets are good for two consecutive days, not just one. At least I don't have to go back again.
