The Smithsonian’s Showtime Shenanigans, If Continued, Should Scuttle Its Hallowed Status
This goes back about a month, but deserves wider exposure than it received at the time.
After reading this column by Oliver North and this news item from the Washington Post about the Smithsonian’s “deal” with Showtime and the restrictions it is placing on other filmmakers, I have to ask, “When did the Smithsonian decide it’s not a public institution any more. And if it really isn’t, when will any and all public funding of it cease?”
Even though they later apparently came to some kind of agreement (WaPo snippet is at the bottom at this link), it would not surprise me if the Smithsonian’s exlcusion of North was selective. The institution embarrassed itself immensely by nearly putting on a hopelessly warped exhibit on the Enola Gay in the mid-1990s before an intense outcry forced a reconsideration (a chronology of what happened is here), and North happens to be doing a documentary on the history of nuclear weapons.
The better question, of course, is what someone lacking North’s clout will face.
