The Newseum claims on their website that they have a "commitment to reach all who wish to better understand the five freedoms of the First Amendment and its relationship to learning and teaching history, media literacy and civics," yet it appears as though those rights are not respected once you enter through their doors.

Two members of the press, Rania Khalek — the associate editor of Electronic Intifada and contributor at the Intercept, and Max Blumenthal — the senior editor of Alternet's Grayzone Project, were forcibly removed from the event for asking questions.

Leibovich's event, "Inside Media: @ War With Social Media," was set to discuss how the military organization utilizes media and social media during their attacks on Palestinians to promote their propaganda. She is currently a reserve officer in the Israeli army as well as the director of the American Jewish Committee's Israel office. According to Alternet, the presentation included a video justifying the killing of entire families in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian rights activists had urged the Newseum to cancel the event, citing Israel's "grave violations of international law and war crimes," and "attacks against journalists and press freedoms," specifically Hussam Salama and Mahmoud al-Kumi, two Palestinian cameramen targeted and killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.

"Leibovich has defended during Israel's 2012 brutal assault on Gaza the Israeli army's intentional targeting and murder of journalists, among them Hussam Salama and Mahmoud al-Kumi, both on Newseum's online memorial."

They also noted a statement she had made to the New York Times.