there's a big article up over at Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood about an effort on the part of the Obama administration to bring together a group of artists, via the NEA, to further the administration's policies, particularly health care reform. the article is long, there are embedded audio clips from a conference call last month that seem to establish pretty convincingly that the events the article descibes took place. i encourage you to read the whole thing. The NEA has of course been a particular whipping boy for some on the right, for such things as using tax payer dollars to fund works such as the Piss Christ. in those cases the debate was largely about the "worth" of the art in question, and whether it was a legitimate use of tax payer's money. nbut now, the NEA has allowed itself to be turned into, effectively, an arm of the Obama campaign, no different from MoveOn (and SEUI, ACORN, etc.). I have no problem with the Obama campaign encouraging friendly artists to create artwork (propaganda, really) that supports its goals- it already does this with "leaks" to friendly media, and JurnoList- he creative arts are just another medium. This is not the role of the NEA however, nor is it an appropriate use of taxpayer funds, unless of course the artwork was meant to be truly non-partisan. I'm sure some of you will say this is no different that President Bush's faith-based initiatives, but in that instance there's was no direct lobbying by the Bush admin to get the fund recipients to support specific policy initiatives. i think there is a legitimate role for tax payer funding of the arts, but this is not it, and no artist should allow themselves to be co-opted in this fashion (the participants seem to have gladly signed up)- this sort of thing went on the Soviet Union and Nazi German, and has no place in American politics, or art.
Were you as concerned about the ONDCP media campaign that secretly paid television networks when they put anti-drug messages in their shows? Sorry, this is a basso thread...
thanks for the commentary basso. You're going to have to find a source with a bit more credibility to convince me this is an issue. That site was comedy gold. Great stuff. Like the Onion, but more funny. I'll have to purge my browser's history -- but it was worth it. Coo coo ca choo....
so are you saying the call didn't happen, the recordings are faked, or that even if the story is accurate, you think i'm over-reacting?
please describe how Obama using the NEA to further his policy goals is a reflection on my credibility.
I'm saying I don't know. That some of the shocking revelations (the "we won" etc) were, IMO, overplayed, and that the majority of the articles on the site were sooo slanted and misleading, I'm suspicious of this one. Just were do you find this crap? If it is an issue -- I suspect there's some libertarian group out there that will speak up against it. Or a less looney conservative crowd. Plenty of them hate ANY funding of the arts, so I'm surprised they haven't been all over this if it's as grievous as you state. So I'll defer my judgment until then. See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly. I'm crying.
LOL, Dick Cheney holds a meeting on American Energy Policy whom we still don't know who attended, a couple of years later we're marching into Iraq but basso's concerned about some hippie artist maybe pushing healtcare reform because we all know these artists have the power to influence millions.
It's not. Your credibility is such that no one is going to bother to listen to anything you have to say and/or investigate whether it's true or has any merit. It may or may not be true - but the assumption is that it's not because it's coming from you. And no one is going to waste the time finding out because the history shows that it's probably garbage given the source (you).
basso basso basso. Let me try once more: Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come. Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday. Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long. I am the eggman, they are the eggmen. I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob. Use the source, basso. Strength flows from the source. But beware. Anger, fear, aggression. The dark side are they. Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny
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I have no idea of the validity of this. I will say the govt. should give artists money, and then just get out of the way.
