Obama Uses His Own Money to Open Muslim Museum - Facts

Story:

President Obama is using his personal funds to keep the International Museum of Muslim Cultures open during the government shutdown.

Other Versions

Obama Uses Own Money To Open Muslim Museum Amid Government Shutdown.

The International Museum of Muslim Cultures in Jackson, Mississippi is temporarily funded by President Obama.

Picture Suggesting Obama Uses His Own Money to Open Muslim Museum — Obama Uses His Own Money to Open Muslim Museum

Analysis:

This message that went viral online says that the U.S. President Barrack Obama is using his own personal funds to keep the International Museum of Muslim Cultures open during the government shutdown. It is not a fact!

Source of Story

The source of these messages is an article on National Report titled ‘Obama Uses Own Money To Open Muslim Museum Amid Government Shutdown.’ The article states that United States is in financial crisis, and amidst the government shutdown, President Barrack Obama has held a press conference to announce that he is using his personal funds to open the federally funded International Museum of Muslim Cultures. This story went viral when the same was reported in a program of Fox News channel. As you can watch in the video shown, in a program discussing about the closure of World War II Memorial on the National Mall, Fox News host Anna Kooiman reported that President Obama had offered to keep the International Museum of Muslim Cultures open with cash from his own pocket. Those were not facts however.

National Report is Satire

The National Report is basically a satirical and parody news website that publishes the work of “citizen journalists.” The stories conveyed through their website are not facts; the same is mentioned in their disclaimer at the bottom of the website. Since the website has a typical news template, most readers mistake it for genuine news and spread it on. National Report has published several false stories like this in the recent past, a few of which you can read from related stories below. And coming to the news report of Fox news, that was in fact a mistake made by the presenter Anna Kooiman, who later acknowledged and apologized for the same on her Twitter account:

Just met w producers- I made a mistake yday after receiving flawed research abt a museum possibly closing. My apologies. Won’t happen again.

The International Museum of Muslim Cultures does exist in Jackson, Mississippi, but it is an independent museum not funded by federal government. Therefore the messages saying Obama uses his own money to open Muslim Museum are hoax.