Michael Hiltzik: Farewell to the immense, disappointing Newseum

We are taught from an early age not to speak ill of the dead (unless we write obituaries), so I suppose I should hold my tongue about the demise, probably permanently, of the Newseum.

But it's too difficult to avoid remarking on how valuable a resource the institution could have been to journalists and historians, and how the overbuilt edifice on Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue, just blocks from the White House, fell short of its potential.

The Newseum evidently couldn't make a go of it even with an adult ticket price of $24.99 - this in a town where some of the finest museums in the world are free - so it will shut its doors on Dec. 31 and return much of its collection of borrowed news business artifacts and geegaws to their owners.

Washington and New York journalists have expressed a curious reverence for the Newseum - "a special place to so many," CNN media commentator Brian Stelter tweeted Thursday. When Stelter listed some of the artifacts he treasured -