Stephen Colbert helps open D.C.’s Newseum
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There’s a new museum opening in D.C. today, this one dedicated to news and journalism: the Newseum. Entertainingly enough, fake pundit extraordinaire Stephen Colbert assisted with the museum’s dedication, contributing a video message to the eager new museum attendees.
From The Talk Radio News Service:
Newseum Dedication Ceremony honors news, journalists, and the First Amendment
April 11th, 2008 by Staff · No CommentsThe Newseum, a museum of news and journalism, held its Dedication Ceremony today. Charles Overby, chief executive officer of the Newseum, said over 8,000 people visited today for the Grand Opening, which was free for visitors. The 250,000-square-foot museum features a front wall of glass and a 74-foot high marble engraving of the First Amendment. The importance of the First Amendment was touched on by many of the guest speakers at the ceremony, referred to as the “cornerstone of democracy” by Overby.
Stephen Colbert from the Colbert Report created an opening video for the ceremony, where he suggested a name change to “Newsoleum,” since he said museums were only for things that no one uses anymore. Overby commented on Colbert’s video at the end by saying “it’s a little scary that’s where people are getting their news from.”
. . .
Despite Mr. Overby’s apprehensive observation, a comment left on Television Without Pity yesterday by Lulus Pie Shop tells us that Stephen Colbert is also featured in the Newseum itself:
This morning I was wandering through the exhibits before the mobs come, and saw that they have a loop of the Stephen Colbert/Stone Phillips Gravitas-Off from 2005. I thought that was really cool and I hope Stephen makes mention of it on his show tonight…
It’s great to hear that the Newseum has welcomed our favorite fake newsman into its midst. Now, if we can just get the good folks there to post Stephen’s video on their YouTube channel …
EDITED TO ADD: TMC.net has additional coverage of the Newseum’s opening here.
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6 Comments
April 11th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
I’d heard the Newseum was opening and wondered if Stephen would be in/involved in that! Thanks to NFZ and LulusPieShop for bringing the “news”!
My first thought was, that’s a place where his portrait genuinely could and should be (after it completes its tour of the Smithsonian museums, of course!). I’d certainly think that such a museum would and should devote space to the fake-news-show phenomenon.
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April 11th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I love hearing about things on here before I see them on the news! I was watching the news and the story came up (even though it didn’t mention Stephen) and I was like “Hey, I knew about that already! Thanks NFZ!”
It makes me feel smart.
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April 11th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Oh man! I seriously thought about taking off of work and going to the Newseum opening today. I should have followed my gut instinct.
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April 11th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
AmandaIvy,
Horrors! There are people who are aghast at the notion that people get their news from Comedy Central; what will they say if they find out you’re also getting news from a blog about a show on Comedy Central?!
Seriously, though, I’m glad we’re doing our part to keep you up to speed. :)
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April 13th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
CSPAN has the dedication ceremony posted here:
http://12.170.145.161/search/basic.asp?ResultStart=1&ResultCount=10&BasicQueryText=newseum
(Sorry, I’m no good at giving a more precise address–this url links to the results of a search at c-span.org using the term “newseum.” The first result listed should be for the dedication ceremony. Looks like the video is available for both RealPlayer and WMP.)
The Colbert footage begins @11:10.
Eleanor Holmes Norton gets a shout out @4:42!
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April 14th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
[...] I don’t know how I managed to miss this when the comment was first posted, but C managed to find us the C-SPAN footage of the Newseum’s dedication ceremony, including [...]