D.C.’s Newseum dedicated to free press

By Lisa Mascaro

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 | 7:05 a.m.

WASHINGTON - On a construction site above historic Pennsylvania Avenue, executives from some of the nation's top news media companies gathered Tuesday to donate $52 million to Washington's latest museum - one devoted to the journalism that they practice every day in newsrooms across the country.

Among them was Las Vegas Sun Editor Brian Greenspun, whose family joined the New York Times, NBC, ABC, Time Warner and others as founding partners of the $435 million Newseum, a striking seven-story building now being built between the White House and the Capitol.

Scheduled to open next year, the Newseum is viewed by many as not only a symbol of the First Amendment but also a hands-on educational center where visitors can learn about what it takes to produce the news and the historical role the news media plays in society.

"The museum on Pennsylvania Avenue will stand as a beacon to freedom for decades to come," said Charles Overby, a former Gannett executive who is now chairman and CEO of the museum and its parent organization, the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan foundation dedicated to the free press.

Arthur Sulzberger, the chairman and publisher of the New York Times Company, whose family donated $10 million toward the Great Hall of News, said he hoped visitors to the Newseum's exhibits and programs would be educated and inspired.

Newseum visitors, Sulzberger said, will learn that "great journalism does more than record history - it changes history."

Greenspun said his family welcomed the opportunity to contribute to such an important institution and to further the legacy of his father, Hank Greenspun, the Sun's founder and editor for nearly 40 years, who died in 1989.

The Greenspun family's $7 million contribution - the third largest behind $10 million donations from both The New York Times and the News Corporation - will go toward the museum's sweeping sixth-floor outdoor terrace, which offers stunning views of Pennsylvania Avenue and the Capitol. The Hank Greenspun Terrace also will include a kiosk on the legendary editor and his work at the Sun.

"We believe the Newseum - the place where the First Amendment will not only be exalted but explained to future generations - is the right place for Hank Greenspun to be remembered and for his story to be told," Greenspun told those gathered at Tuesday's announcement. "His hard work, courage and patriotism can be learned, and his example followed."

George Irish, president of Hearst Newspapers, noted that from the terrace, the museum's purpose comes into view. At presidential inaugurations just a short distance away at the Capitol, future leaders will have difficulty ignoring the museum and its message, he said.

"Standing on the Hank Greenspun Terrace and looking toward Congress, kind of imagining what's behind me at the White House, I thought of this institution as being an anchor, an anchor of the First Amendment of the United States of America," said Irish, whose company donated $5 million toward the museum's theater.

Overby said the Greenspun Terrace also will feature an exhibit on the history of Pennsylvania Avenue and will be used for special events.

"It'll be the only elevated view of the Capitol and Washington available to tourists and to the public - the Washington Monument is the only other place," he said.

The Newseum's 250,000 square-foot presence in such a prominent place in the capital was not lost on those gathered, who spoke of the challenges that the press continues to face at home and abroad.

Even more, they hope the museum's signature piece - the First Amendment's landmark 45-word phrase, imposingly positioned in marble over the front of the museum - will stand as a reminder to government officials and passers-by of the value that a free press brings to society.

"Now, more than ever, we love that that message is going to be facing the Capitol dome," said Steve Capus, president of NBC News.

The gifts announced Tuesday are part of the museum's $100 million capital campaign, with additional funding expected from others interested in news and free-press issues. The remainder of the museum's funding is coming from the Freedom Forum.

After Tuesday's ceremony, Greenspun said he thought that his father, who normally shunned such attention, would be proud of his family's place in helping to create the Newseum and spread its message.

"For a chance for us, this little family from Las Vegas, to be part of the enduring landscape of Washington - yeah, that's a big deal for us," he said. "I think he'd be pleased."

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