Journalist Twitter is angry again. The target this time is the Newseum. Its museum’s gift shop now sells President Trump-related paraphernalia, including “Make America Great Again” hats. It also sells T-shirts reading, “You Are Very Fake News.”
Newseum director of public relations Sonya Gavankar told Poynter in a statement, “As a nonpartisan organization, people with differing viewpoints feel comfortable visiting the Newseum, and one of our greatest strengths is that we’re champions not only of a free press but also of free speech.” Perhaps she could have added that it’s cheeky and cool to wear “fake news” as a badge of honor.
But reporters and pundits are very upset about the merchandise, because Trump is the bad man, and the bad man is not allowed in the clubhouse. Many in the press responded Friday evening in the normal fashion. They tweeted self-righteous declarations, self-indulgent proclamations, and even threats.
“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,” said the Boston Globe’s Matt Viser.
USA Today’s Steve Reilly said, “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.”
“[The] Newseum has a memorial to journalists killed while reporting. So why are they selling ‘fake news’ shirts?” asked CNN’s Hadas Gold. “It’s one thing to sell political paraphernalia … it’s another to promote a phrase authoritarian regimes around the world use to stop a free press.”
The New York Times’ Michael Barbaro tweeted, “This is a very bad idea [Newseum] – you exist to honor, examine and protect the news media, not embrace the bywords by which others seek to undermine it.”
It goes on and on like that for quite a while.
[Also read: Trump says only ‘fake news,’ not all media, are ‘enemy of the people’]
For what it’s worth, the shirt is meant to be a “satirical rebuke,” like a tongue-in-cheek in-joke for the press and its supporters, a Newseum spokesperson explained later Friday evening. In other words, the shirt is meant for exactly the sort of person who would visit the museum in the first place.
I mean, who do these offended reporters suppose is visiting and shopping at this gift shop? A museum to journalism isn’t exactly a MAGA-land destination. But who has time to think about this when we can tweet self-righteous denunciations?
Honestly, journalists dogpiling on the Newseum (of all places!) is the most journalism thing of 2018.
Last word goes to BuzzFeed opinion editor Tom Gara: “’Mad at the Newseum Gift Shop’ is an all time low for 6pm Summer Friday Twitter.”
