Artists were being subsidized during FDR's day, too, and used as propaganda tools.
Posted on 09/21/2009 5:47:42 PM PDT by markomalley
Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood is out today with new details on the National Endowment for the Arts scandal, including a full transcript and audio recording, as well as a CliffsNotes summary by John Nolte, of the notorious Aug. 10 conference call in which administration officials urged artists to help promote President Obama's legislative agenda.
Formally, the call was led by Michael Skolnik, who is not a government employee. But Skolnik declares at the start of the call that he is acting on behalf of the administration:
I have been asked by folks in the White House and folks in the NEA about a month ago in a conversation that was had. We had the idea that I would help bring together the independent artists community around the country.
Several administration officials also participate in the call: Nell Abernathy of United We Serve, part of the Corp. for National and Community Service; Buffy Wicks of the White House Office of Public Engagement; and Yosi Sergant, then communications director for the NEA (he has been "reassigned" since the scandal broke).
The administration participants seem to realize that they are treading on shaky ethical and legal ground. When one artist asks Abernathy "what we can do to help on critical advocacy issues like health care reform, cap-and-trade policy," she replies:
Yeah, I can address that a little bit, and the reason only a little bit is largely because in my role at a federal agency, I'm precluded from going too far down the specific steps what people can do to advocate. . . .
I could get that information to Michael [Skolnik] and he could get it out. We can't sort--as a representative of the corporation, I'm not capable of giving you more guidance than just sending you to the right person.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
'Course, the fact that the WSJ is owned by News Corp wouldn't have a thing to do with it, would it?
The government has become nothing more than an arm of the Democrat Party.
This is too chillingly like the use of “state” artists in Nazi Germany and the former Soviet Union who made “approved” forms of art to glorify the state.
I want to know what this “Corporation” is all about?
What else is new - film, stage, letters have all been beholden to the left for a loooooong time.
Artists were being subsidized during FDR's day, too, and used as propaganda tools.
Wait... is this the “big thing out of left field” that Brietbart was going to break?
.....Winner and Associates, a PR firm not an artist, rewarded for anti-Palin attack video!
See Ace of Spades: http://minx.cc/?post=292597
I've got to go.....somebody post this article if you have time...this is gonna be huge!
BTTT
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.