“Barack Obama is a figurehead of a movement, I would call it the progressive movement. My ‘Goal’ is to get Obama elected. I use mechanisms I know, which are basically artistic. Look how important the grass roots are. Look at the effect they can have. I drank the Kool-Aid. I am alive with it, I believe an Obama saying ; ‘We are the change we have been waiting for’” …Yosi Sergent, LA Weekly Article, September 2008
NEA and White House Conspires to Transmit Propaganda!
$2 million behind National Endowment for the Arts politics push
On August 12, a group of 21 arts organizations endorsed President Barack Obama's health reform plan only 48 hours after a conference call in which a top National Endowment for the Arts official asked arts groups for help in advancing the administration's policy agenda, including health care.
One reason the arts organizations may have been so swift to follow the administration's suggestion is that 16 of the groups and affiliated organizations received nearly $2 million in grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in the 150 days before the conference call. According to a Washington Times analysis of NEA records, more than $1 million of that total came from the stimulus package. (see timeline)
The explosive questions are obvious and so far the administration is not talking:
Is it ethical, or even legal, for a federal official from a grant-making agency to ask grant recipients to endorse the administration's political agenda? Is the White House crossing a line when a West Wing political appointee is on the call? Did political considerations infect the grant-making process at NEA?
Digging deeper into the grants only reveals more disturbing questions. Among the recipients of the grants, in this case, $50,000 from the stimulus package, is a group named Americans for the Arts. According to federal records published at OpenSecrets.org, Americans for the Arts has already dedicated $250,000 to lobbying expenses this year alone. The president of Americans for the Arts is an Obama donor and the affiliated political action committee gave $48,000 to congressional Democrats in the last election cycle. According to NEA records analyzed by The Washington Times, donors to the PAC received more than an additional $500,000 in stimulus funds.
Did Congress intend for stimulus money to land in the coffers of politically connected lobbyists? What protections did the administration put in place to assure that stimulus money was not steered to its political allies? Have other lobbyists been funded through stimulus programs administered by different federal agencies?
Since The Washington Times began writing about the NEA's shady conference call, NEA Director of Communications Yosi Sergant has been removed from his position and reassigned according to an agency spokeswoman. Kalpen Modi, an official with the White House Office of Public Engagement, remains in his position.
It is far from clear, that Mr. Sergant and Mr. Modi were acting alone in arranging what appears to be a back door effort to transform art promotion into political capital. Indeed, The Washington Times has uncovered an example of how the NEA's newly confirmed chairman may be involved.
In the weeks after the Sergant-Modi conference call, NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman had a conversation with Bob Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. The Washington Times learned of the conversation because Mr. Lynch posted a podcast about it on ArtsUSA.org, the Americans for the Arts web site. According to Mr. Lynch, the conversation included a discussion of health care reform.
Since controversy erupted however, ArtsUSA.org has removed the link to the podcast from its blog just as the NEA tried to remove its fingerprints from the conference call.
The roots of the effort to turn the National Endowment for the Arts into a political tool of the White House go back to just days after Barack Obama's 2008 election. Here's how events unfolded:
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White House Enlisting the National Endowment of the Arts
Seg 1 - Taped Conference Call of the National Endowment for the Arts
Seg 2 - NEA Teaming Up with White House to Push Obama Agenda
Seg 3 - Government Tax Dollars Being Used for Gov. Propaganda
The White House is enlisting hand-picked members of the National Endowment of the Arts to produce art to help the White House push the Obama Agenda. This is a group that depends on them, in large part for finances. I believe we used to call that coercion for propaganda?!?
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(Update) NEA Communications Director Keeps Job Amid Controversy
The communications director at the National Endowment for the Arts "remains an employee" there despite reports that he was asked to resign following his participation in a controversial conference call last month.
Artist Shepard Fairey, left, stands with Yosi Sergant at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art in February.
The communications director at the National Endowment for the Arts remains an employee there despite reports that he was asked to resign following his participation in a controversial conference call last month, FOXNews.com learned Thursday.
Yosi Sergant was one of several officials on an hour-long conference call on Aug. 10 hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement and United We Serve, a nationwide initiative launched by President Obama to increase volunteerism.
Patrick Courrielche, one of roughly 75 artists, musicians, writers, poets and others on the hour-long call, said Sergant was among those who encouraged the artists to create works in their respective fields that would show support for Obama's domestic agenda in areas such as health care, energy and the environment.
It was reported in the Huffington Post on Thursday that Sergant had been asked to resign, but NEA officials have denied that claim.
"He remains an employee at NEA," said spokeswoman Victoria Hutter, who declined further comment.
In a statement to FOXNews.com, the NEA also defended itself against Courrielche's claims, saying the conference call was not intended to promote legislative agendas.
"This call was not a means to promote any legislative agenda and any suggestions to that end are simply false," the statement read. "The NEA regularly does outreach to various organizations to inform of the work we are doing and the resources available to them."
White House spokesman Shin Inouye told FOXNews.com that the conference call was not a "means to promote any legislative agenda," and "the White House did not ask for him to resign."
"It was a discussion on the United We Serve effort and how all Americans can participate," Inouye wrote FOXNews.com.
Inouye confirmed that the president had received a letter from Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, calling for congressional hearings into the NEA's role in the call.
"I urge you to make clear that your administration will never allocate taxpayer dollars to artists based on their support for administration policy initiatives," Cornyn wrote. "Further, I respectfully request that you take the necessary steps to ensure that the NEA -- and the American arts community it supports -- remain independent from political manipulation by the White House."
During the call, Courrielche said the ubiquitous Obama "Hope" poster by artist Shepard Fairey and musician will.i.am's "Yes We Can" song and music video were offered as "shining examples" of the artist group's clear impact on Obama's landslide election.
"What I heard was a well thought-out pitch to encourage artists to create art on these issues," Courrielche told FOXNews.com last month. "We were told we were consulted for a reason, and they specifically stated those issues as the issues we should focus on, to plant the seed. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what they're attempting to do."
Courrielche, who first wrote about the experience on the blog Big Hollywood, said unidentified members of the press were also on the call.
"I felt like I needed to say something about it," he said last month. "Now I think if [a piece of art] comes out, you have to question it, did it come from this meeting? This is the exact argument for why an agency like this shouldn't exist."
And although the NEA insists Sergant remains with the organization, its statement on the communications director is similar to one White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs made just a day before green jobs adviser Van Jones resigned, saying only that Jones continued to work in the administration.
By Joshua Rhett Miller
FOXNews.com
Posted: Knowledge Creates Power – Cross-Posted: Daily Thought Pad
