Newseum

While in DC, I visited the Newseum – a place that I hadn’t been to since it was formerly located in the first two floors of the old USA Today buildings in Arlington. Since then, they built a beautiful new building only blocks from the Capitol and right next door to the Canadian embassy. It’s a fantastic museum that takes you through a lot of US history as told by and through the media. There are lots and lots of interactive exhibits and some really interesting artifacts. I would suggest that the appropriate age for this place be 7th or 8th grade on up. One of the coolest features of the place is the ‘Current Day’s Front Page’ exhibit on the 6th floor. It shows the front pages from all over the world and all 50 states from that same day (click here for an on-line version). Also on the 6th floor is a unique view of the US Capitol building that was never before seen until this terrace opened a couple of years ago.

They have an amazing 9/11 exhibit of which the centerpiece is part of the TV antenna off of the north tower. They also have a great 15 minute video of interviews and footage from the NYC reporters covering the news that day. On the first floor is an exhibit of all of the Pulitzer Prize winning photos since they started giving out that award. Then all of the way in the basement of the museum, there is a piece of the Berlin Wall and one of the watchtowers from the wall. I had a good time and highly recommend this museum (full disclosure: I am a news junkie).

PS – Did I mention that it has great architectural elements?

Updated: I forgot to explain that the map that is photographed below shows the level of freedom of the press. Green means that the press is completely free. Yellow is some amount of censorship, and red means that there isn’t any free press. It really suprised me at how few places have a completely free press, and equally surprised me as to some of the places that censor.