The rest of the Newseum is so glitzy it makes the Spy Museum look formal and stuffy, which says a lot. On the fifth floor there is a display of five hundred years of real newspapers which you can pull out and read, with tchochkes and video attacking you from the walls. Don't be afraid about spending too much time on this floor because it is by far the most interesting exhibit. The rest of the museum is pretty much fluff. A big amount of it is a tribute to the civil rights movement, which became famous because it was so well-covered by Northern media. But a strictly enforced Baby Boomer cultural amnesia persists: the abolitionist, labor, Cuban War, and temperance movements were also heavily assisted by the press, but these are pretty much ignored, probably because they can't be translated into multimedia extravaganzas. You will note on the third floor, in the First Amendment exhibit, a picture of Prohibition protesters carrying signs reading "We Want Beer." This is the tip of the iceberg of a rich history of news culture and events which are simply ignored here. Who is Pulitzer, and why did he have a prize named after him? If this is discussed anywhere in the Newseum, I missed it. Instead, they have a live television studio (finally, you can fulfill your dream of being part of a studio audience!), a control room behind a glass wall, pieces of the Berlin Wall and the Twin Towers, an event where you can be a fake TV reporter for $5, and a lot of other foolishness. I was somewhat absent-mindedly looking for a mention of The Hidden History of the Korean War or Howard Zinn, but of course these are not mentioned because they are part of a different media culture entirely. I do appreciate that the much-ignored African-American press was integrated into the fifth-floor exhibit, which I returned to after wandering bemused through the rest of the museum.
In the basement there was an exhibit on the FBI in the news, which was mostly informative. Did you know that the FBI cooperated fully with NYT and WaPo during the Unabomber case, and gave them full discretion over whether to publish his universally unread Manifesto? There's press freedom in action. Unfortunately, the exhibit whitewashes the FBI's attempts to squash the civil rights movement. It's given a vague mention, but the exhibit mainly pretends that J. Edgar Hoover and MLK were best buddies.
This morning I remembered that Colin Powell was speaking and rushed to Cannon to find the room. The room was overflowing with interns, who all pulled out their cameras when the general walked in. He talked to us for some time about his faith in democracy, the challenges of the future, education and so forth. He then took questions. I wanted to ask him what he thought about the Yoo memorandum but I was too far back. You might think that this is a vague thing to ask such an important person-- I'm sure Wesley would have far better questions-- but I've learned from experience that the questions I'm thinking of are above average. Here are some example questions that unfortunate intelligent people got asked by interns:
- (to Chuck Hagel) If Barack Obama offered you the vice presidential nomination, would you take it?
- (to Barney Frank) How many seats do you think the Dems will pick up this year?
- (to both Hagel and Frank) Do you have any advice for people who want to go into politics?
- (to Powell, as had I expected) How do you think President Bush will be remembered by history?
- So, Mr. Prime Minister, I heard you like Elvis.
- Oh, Elvis? I love Elvis!
- Did you know that I knew Elvis?
- You knew Elvis?
- I served with Elvis in Germany. I was a lieutenant and he was a sergeant.
- You knew Elvis??
- And I'm telling you, Mr. Prime Minister... he's still alive!
This ugly cell phone picture is reified proof that I saw Colin Powell speak.
