By way of A.L. - The NEA "Scandal": That's It?
Right wing bloggers are all hyperventilating today over a supposed "scandal" involving the National Endowment of the Arts. The basis of the hysteria is this post over at Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood site (the same outfit that posted the ACORN "sting" videos).
The site has posted a recording and transcript of a conference call that it describes as "explosive." The call is actually old news at this point, having already been hyped by Glenn Beck an others weeks ago, so I'm not sure what all the excitement is about.
Though I have better things to do, I actually read through the transcript of the call just now to see if there was really anything "explosive" inside. There wasn't.
The post claims, as Beck did previously, that this call proves that the Obama administration is using the NEA for partisan political purposes, and strongly implies (without actually saying so) that NEA money is somehow being funneled to progressives causes.
But the call is actually far more benign. It appears to have been organized by a group of progressive artists who want to, through their art, raise public awareness about various issues they care about. Invited to participate on the call were a low-level staffer from the White House Office of Public Engagement and the former Communications Director at the NEA (he was apparently transferred to another position at the NEA after this story broke).
When asked to speak, the White House staffer gives some boilerplate talking points about how the art community can really make a difference politically if they put their minds to it. The NEA communications guy is then given a similar chance to talk and says much of the same things, indicating how happy he is to be working at the NEA and encouraging the artists on the call to get involved.
In terms of optics, it was certainly not a good idea for the NEA communications director to participate in such a call (which is probably why he is not the communications director anymore). That organization is not supposed to be involved in political advocacy.
But unless Breitbart's got a lot more, this is the political equivalent of jaywalking.
Some nice satire on this mini-controversy here, Conservatives are outraged over an actual outrage? Color me impressed.
Some appropriate discipline has been handed out, but apparently Big Hollywood and Glenn beck will not be happy until someone gets the electric chair, Yosi Sergant, Administration Aide Demoted: Glenn Beck Strikes Again
"On August tenth, the National Endowment for the Arts participated in a call with arts organizations to inform them of the president's call to national service. The White House office of public engagement also participated in the call, which provided information on how the Corporation for National and Community Service can assist groups interested in sponsoring service projects or having their members volunteer on other projects. This call was not a means to promote any legislative agenda and any suggestions to that end are simply false. The NEA regularly does outreach to various organizations to inform of the work we are doing and the resources available to them."
[UPDATE: The NEA adds this line to the statement: "As regards Yosi Sergant, he has not left the National Endowment for the Arts. He remains with the agency, although not as director of communications." Sources familiar with the situation say that the move represents a significant step down and was the result of the controversy. Discussion about his new duties is still ongoing.]
An artist on the call recorded it and gave the recording to Beck, who played it on air as proof of a government conspiracy to co-opt arts organizations and warp the minds of Americans. "Your government is trying to trick you, use your tax dollars to change your mind. It's called propaganda. The people involved in the conference call, including the White House, knew that this was on the fence if not outright illegal," says Beck.
Sergant has a long history with the Obama campaign, having led the media effort for Shepard Fairey, the artist behind the iconic "Hope" portrait that Obama has credited with helping him win. (See this L.A. Weekly profile to get a feel for Sergant.)
On Sept. 1, Beck came after Sergant. After claiming that Nazi propaganda was based on America's early 20th-century progressive movement, Beck says that the progressives are at it again.
WATCH:
The Corporation for National and Community Service is a public-private partnership created in 1993 with a mission similar to one Obama pressed during his campaign, during which he repeatedly promoted national and community service.
For Beck, however, the service promotion is a specter of totalitarianism and he interviewed an artist who said that he was uncomfortable working in coordination with the White House.
WATCH:
CONTINUED:
The Washington Times editorial page also came after Sergant, asking if the NEA had invited artists to be on the conference call.
"The NEA didn't invite...We were a participant in a call. It was a third party that did the invitation," Sergant told the conservative page.
***Compare the NEA controversy to Bush era propaganda, Bush ‘planted fake news stories on American TV’
Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies’ products.
Investigators from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are seeking information about stations across the country after a report produced by a campaign group detailed the extraordinary extent of the use of such items.
The report, by the non-profit group Centre for Media and Democracy, found that over a 10-month period at least 77 television stations were making use of the faux news broadcasts, known as Video News Releases (VNRs). Not one told viewers who had produced the items.
“We know we only had partial access to these VNRs and yet we found 77 stations using them,” said Diana Farsetta, one of the group’s researchers. “I would say it’s pretty extraordinary. The picture we found was much worse than we expected going into the investigation in terms of just how widely these get played and how frequently these pre-packaged segments are put on the air.”
[ ]…The range of VNR is wide. Among items provided by the Bush administration to news stations was one in which an Iraqi-American in Kansas City was seen saying “Thank you Bush. Thank you USA” in response to the 2003 fall of Baghdad. The footage was actually produced by the State Department, one of 20 federal agencies that have produced and distributed such items.
