The Newseum offers wanna-bes chance to play Edward Murrow

0 Comments | Insight on the News, April 7, 1997 | by Tiffany Danitz

Reporters and editors now have their own museum just across the Potomac River from The Mall. Kids and adults alike can edit a front page, anchor a newscast and learn a little history.

In 1928, the New York Daily News shocked readers with a front-page photograph of Ruth Snyder, the first woman on death row, strapped into the electric chair. The News hired an out-of-town photographer named Tom Howard, whom jailers wouldn't recognize. Howard tied an ankle camera to his leg. At the moment of execution, he yanked up his trousers, took the picture and made his mark in journalism.

Soon the public will be able to examine the camera, as well as the front page of the edition that carried his photograph, at an innovative museum in Arlington, Va., just six Washington Metro stops from the Smithsonian Institution. The Newseum, scheduled to open April 18, is dedicated to preserving and spreading press freedoms worldwide.

The Newseum was conceived by the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan, non-profit organization founded by Gannett Co. Inc. to advance press freedom. The exhibits take visitors behind the scenes to explain the five W's of journalism -- who, what, when, where and why "The idea was to build a museum in which people could come in and get that education," Deputy Director Joe Urschel tells Insight. "The idea of news and how it is affecting society over time, particularly the idea of free press in the United States and what that has meant to the U.S. as a nation,"

Designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates, a firm that also worked on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the $50 million, 72,000-square-foot Newseum is "story driven," not collection driven, with exhibits that will change daily. The front pages of 70 newspapers will be displayed, one from each state and 20 national and international editions. The idea is to give visitors the opportunity to compare the way editors spin stories and events.

"In part, a visitor's experience at the Newseum will depend on what is happening in the world that day," says Executive Director Peter Prichard. In addition, a 126-foot-long seamless video news wall will play breaking news live from around the world. "Imagine a family watching a space shot on the video news wall," says Prichard.

Visitors are greeted by Walter Cronkite, who reflects upon great moments in journalism from a 40-foot high-definition television screen. A permanent exhibition, the News History Gallery, showcases hundreds of objects associated with historic events and famous reporters, broadcasters and photographers, including Paul Revere's wire-rimmed glasses, Charles Dickens' pen, Mark Twain's oft-pictured pipe and Mathew Brady's camera. The microphone Edward Murrow used to report the bombing of London is part of the permanent collection.

Exhibits in the early news gallery show how news was gathered and transmitted before the invention of movable type. Alexander the Great conquered the world, but his kingdom fell apart within 15 years of his death because the government couldn't get news out to the provinces, according to Urschel. The Romans, on the other hand, had an elaborate system for disseminating news, although one provincial governor, Cicero, complained that reports were full of trivial information about gladiators and the Coliseum -- he wanted hard news from the Roman Senate.

The Newseum offers more than 60 interactive computer exhibits that enable visitors to try their hand at editing and investigative reporting. Visitors also may videotape themselves in the role of news anchor, White House correspondent or sportscaster. A series of video games pose ethical questions journalists often face.

After such grueling work, budding journalists can retire to the News Byte Cafe-a dining room in which customers can peruse news on-line while sipping cappuccino and crunching on biscotti.

The Newseum premieres on April 18 and will be open Wednesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

RELATED ARTICLE: A Tribute to Journalists Who Gave Their Lives

To preserve the freedom of the human mind ... and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom," Thomas Jefferson wrote. Across the Potomac River from the Jefferson Monument stands another memorial, this one in recognition of martyred journalists. The spiraling glass and steel structure located in Freedom Park in Arlington, Va., attempts to express the physical, political and legal dangers journalists endure to report the news.

The monument, erected last year, has brought some closure to visitors such as Maj. David Stockwell, the former chief military spokesman for the U.N. operation in Somalia, who lost five colleagues during the 1993 civil war there. After U.N. helicopters had attacked rebel Gen. Mohamed Farrah Aidid's command center, several of Aidid's lieutenants searched out reporters in the Sahafi (Arabic for "journalist") Hotel in Mogadishu. "They wanted to show the destruction we had caused and they promised the journalists that they would safeguard them," Stockwell explains.