Freedom Forum

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The Freedom Forum is a nonprofit organization that runs the First Amendment Center and the Newseum Institute at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. The Freedom Forum is also the creator of the Newseum in Washington, D.C., which it sold to Johns Hopkins University in 2019.[1]

The Freedom Forum was founded in 1991 when the Gannett Foundation, started by publisher Frank E. Gannett as a charitable foundation to aid communities where his company had newspapers, sold its name and assets back to Gannett Company for $670 million. Retired Gannett chairman and USA Today newspaper founder Al Neuharth took the money and the shell of the foundation and formed the Freedom Forum. Its mission was to foster "free press, free speech and free spirit."[2][3]

Neuharth's daughter, Jan A. Neuharth, is chief executive officer and chair of the Freedom Forum.[4]

The Freedom Forum's CEO and Chairman from 1989 to 2011 was Charles Overby, a former journalist and editor. From 2001-2011, he concurrently served as CEO of the Freedom Forum and director of the board of private prison company CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America.[5] Under Overby, the Freedom Forum donated $5 million to establish the Overby Center at Ole Miss.[6]

The financial losses of the Freedom Forum and Newseum led to criticism of high salaries[7] and some unusual proposals.[8]

In 2021, the Freedom Forum faced criticism for awarding a "Free Expression" award to the CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki.[9] Youtube is part of the Freedom Forum "Corporate Membership Program".[10]

References[]

  1. ^ Oczypok, Kate (July 15, 2020). "Downtowner DC July 15, 2020". Georgetowner. Retrieved July 27, 2020. Last month, Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University closed on the acquisition of the former Newseum building at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, where the school intends to consolidate some of its D.C. offerings. The debt-ridden Newseum, which opened its D.C. facility in 2008, closed at the end of 2019 after its parent, the nonprofit Freedom Forum — which had been providing an annual subsidy of about $20 million — agreed to the sale.
  2. ^ "The Freedom Forum's Shrinking Endowment". American Journalism Review. November 2001. Retrieved September 6, 2017.
  3. ^ "About the Freedom Forum". Freedom Forum. Retrieved September 6, 2017.
  4. ^ "Freedom Forum's new chair has a familiar name; quiet board reshuffle keeps a Neuharth in control". December 8, 2011. Retrieved September 6, 2017.
  5. ^ https://fair.org/extra/freedom-forum-ceo-tied-to-for-profit-prisons/
  6. ^ https://www.mississippifreepress.org/14250/emails-show-um-officials-concern-over-fired-historian-criticizing-private-prison-ties/
  7. ^ "As Freedom Forum posted another $48M deficit, non-profit paid retired CEO Overby nearly $1M; new documents disclose a comical money trail". November 17, 2013. Retrieved September 6, 2017.
  8. ^ "Heavily in debt, Newseum considered risky strategy to improve finances". July 1, 2015. Retrieved September 6, 2017.
  9. ^ https://www.newsweek.com/youtube-ceo-susan-wojcicki-gets-freedom-expression-award-sponsored-youtube-1585147
  10. ^ https://www.freedomforuminstitute.org/support/corporate-giving/


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