The Newseum in Washington, D.C. on Saturday issued an apology and removed “You Are Very Fake News” T-shirts from its gift shop and online store.
"The Newseum has removed the 'You Are Very Fake News' T-shirts from the gift shop and online. We made a mistake and we apologize," a statement on the website reads. "A free press is an essential part of our democracy and journalists are not the enemy of the people," it continued.”
The shirt’s phrase was seemingly a nod to President Donald Trump’s frequent criticism of news outlets, and his accusation that stories in the mainstream media are “fake news.”
Many journalists reacted negatively to the shirts.
The Newseum is an interactive museum whose aim is to “increase public understanding of the importance of a free press and the First Amendment.”
Museum spokesperson Sonya Gavankar initially defended the decision.
"Fake news is a word that is in our popular culture now and this is intended to be a “satirical rebuke” and appears in our store with T-shirts that include a variety of other “tongue-in-cheek” sayings, she told a CNN reporter.
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