The White House is attempting to mimic Leni Riefenstahl by rounding up those in the arts and entertainment industry and using them as the vehicles through which President Obama can peddle his agenda.
The National Endowment for the Arts denies that it was working with White House officials to promote the president’s agenda through the arts via this taxpayer-funded organization:
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.”
Unfortunately, the transcript of the actual call does not corroborate the NEA’s statement. BigGovernment.com obtained the full transcript of the conference call on which White House official Buffy Wicks (of the Office of Public Engagement and head administration official for Serve.gov; Wicks previous worked with WakeUp Walmart and was a lobbyist for the United Food and Commercial Workers’ Union), and others – including lead organizers with Rock the Vote and Current TV – discussed ways to co-opt the art community for political purposes and manipulate those around them so as to push things like Obama’s health care legislation. It’s a call that call participant Patrick Courrichie says raised the hair on his arms.
The call’s players, taken from their self-introductions from the transcript:
Michael Skolnik (filmmaker, political director for Russell Simmons), Mike de la Rocha, Rebecca Krause-Hardy, Hunter Heaney (c0-founder of the Voice Project), Tom Bazis from Education Dynamics, Constance Schwartz(MGMT), promoter Rachel Furman, Mobolagji Akatunday (head filmmaker and outreach for Current TV), Bim Ayandele (reputation manager with Winner and Associates in Los Angeles), Jeff Kemerling, Joshua Fine with Baron Fine LLP in Los Angeles, Saskia Brown with Current TV, Nic Adler (owner of the Roxy in LA), Sean Bonner (co-founder, CEO, Bode Media Inc.), Sharon Lewis, Lynn Hastey from Green Galactic, Sean Akatunday, Lori Bull with Obama poster artist Shepard Fairey, Rob Stone (founder Fader Magazine and Cornerstone Promotions), Justin Runner, Nicola Vassell (Deitch Projects), Nell Abernathy with United We Serve, and Yoshi Sergant of the NEA, and White House official Buffy Wicks. The Washington Times, which got a partial list of those on the conference call, says it has identified a few of the participants as writers for the Huffington Post:
There’s even a new Twitter profile related to the new allegiance of artists who want to work with the NEA and the government to promote Obama’s agenda. The push has metastasized across Twitter already with the #unitedweserve tag as well as “Rebuilt Together” profiles that document service in various cities.
Were this an effort spearheaded by the people to serve each other it would be different; instead it is a calculated move by the White House to exploit the artistic community, co-opt the talents of artists who rely on NEA funding to promote a one-sided agenda, and use the NEA to do it. What would the outcry be if a Republican president had attempted such?
I am afraid for our arts community – not only because this action begs the question as to whether artists not compliant with such an initiative would be blacklisted from further NEA funding; it also distorts the purpose of a taxpayer-supported outfit designed to enhance the artistic community, not make it a subservient branch of this administration as a way to lure back some of that campaign fervor.
It’s ironic: the government called tea partiers and town hall participants “astroturfed,” yet here again is an egregious example of this administration producing a synthetical movement.
The full transcript of the call is here; the more outrageous excerpts are quoted here.
MR. SKOLNIK: All right. So we will
5 begin. As people join us, I’ll ask them to mute
6 their phones periodically just so we can hear
7 everybody. This is Mike Skolnik. I am based in
8 New York. I am a film maker for the past ten years
9 but currently serve as the political director for
10 Russell Simmons.
11 I have been asked by folks in the White
12 House and folks in the NEA about a month ago in a
13 conversation that was had. We had the idea that I
14 would help bring together the independent artists
15 community around the country.
[my emphasis]
Conservatives always knew that the left made a concerted effort to dominate in the entertainment field because it’s such a fabulous way to plant the seed of an agenda. Sugar helps the medicine go dow, as does seeing it on the silver screen or hearing it in a catchy pop hook.
I want to start off by saying a few
3 things, and then we will have some people in
4 Washington from the NEA and United We Serve speak
5 to us, and then we’ll have a chance for questions
6 and comments and discussions afterwards. I think
7 this it’s clear, and I heard somebody from Shepard
8 Fairey’s team introduce themselves, and I think
9 Shepard and the Hope poster obviously is a great example,
10 but it’s clear as an independent art community as
11 artists and thinkers and tastemakers and marketers
12 and visionaries on this call, the role that we
13 played during the campaign for the president and
14 also during his first 200 some odd days of his
15 presidency and the president has a clear arts agenda
16 and has been very supportive of using art and
17 supporting art in creative ways to talk about some
18 of the issues that we face here in our country and
19 also to engage people.
Irony is the new art: it used to be rebellious to create artistry in protest of the Man; in this new era of hope and change it’s only rebellious if you don’t pay homage to the Man by using your talents to promote the Man’s agenda. Whatever happened to art? Art can be political but when it becomes politicized the purity is ruined.
20 And I think all of us who are on this
21 phone call were selected for a reason, and you are
22 the ones that lead by example in your communities.
23 You are the thought leaders. You are the ones that, if
24 you create a piece of art or promote a piece of art
25 or create a campaign for a company, and tell our country and
8
1 our young people sort of what to do and what2 to be in to; and what’s cool and what’s not cool.
The transcript of the conference call doesn’t corroborate the NEA’s statement. Read below, my emphasis again in bold:
3 And so I’m hoping that through this group
4 and the goal of all this and the goal of this phone call,
5 is through this group that we can create a stronger
6 community amongst ourselves to get involved in
7 things that we’re passionate about as we did during
8 the campaign but continue to get involved in those
9 things, to support some of the president’s
10 initiatives, but also to do things that we are
11 passionate about and to push the president and push
12 his administration.
13 And the first thing that I thought we
14 could all come together on and begin this
15 collective of artists around the country was United
16 We Serve or is United We Serve and United We Serve
17 is the president’s call to the country to get
18 engaged in meaningful community service, and I
19 wanted to give you all the opportunity to hear more
20 about the United We Serve from the folks who are
21 running it as well as hear from the National
22 Endowment for the Arts and Yosi Sergant,
“Pushing the president and his administration” is not the purpose of the NEA. Their purpose is to push the arts, not the administration. It’s shameful that the White House coordinates a phone call with artists dependent upon the NEA for funding and asks them to sell out, basically.
9 MS. ABERNATHY: Thanks, Michael, and
10 thanks everyone for getting on the call. We
11 actually were lucky enough to get someone who I’m
12 going to introduce first which is Buffy Wicks with
13 the Office of Public Engagement, who I’m sure many
14 of you know from the campaign. She was a huge
15 champion of getting the arts community involved on
16 the campaign and also has been one of the people
17 who spearheaded this initiative from the beginning.
18 So I’ll let Buffy say a few things first, and then
19 I’ll get into the we’s about this.
Cue Buffy Wicks of the Office of Public Engagement:
15 it’s like, yeah, I know change doesn’t come easy,
16 but then now that I’m actually in the White House
17 and working towards furthering this agenda, this
18 very aggressive agenda, I’m really realizing that,
19 and I’m also appreciative of the way in which we
20 did win and the strategy that the campaign shows,
21 which is really to engage people at a local level
22 and to engage them in the process, because we need
23 them and we need you, and we’re going to need your
24 help, and we’re going to come at you with some
25 specific asks here.
There’s more:
14 this energy that’s out there, how do we translate
15 folks who have just been engaged in electoral
16 politics and engage them in really the process of
17 governing, of being part of this administration in
18 a little bit of a different way because politics is
19 one thing and governing is something totally
20 separate, we really saw service as the platform by
21 which we can do that.
How can these artists say no to a federal tax-payer-supported entity that funds the majority of their community?
We wanted folks to connect
4 with local nonprofit organizations in their
5 community. We wanted them to connect with local
6 city council members or local elected officials.
7 We wanted them to connect with federal agencies,
8 with labor unions, progressive groups, face
9 groups, women’s groups, you name it.
More:
9 I can be an agent of change in my community. So
10 that’s why we do this more sustained period of
11 time, and we really view it as an onramp to a
12 lifetime of service.
[…]
23 direction. We worked very closely with our federal
24 agencies here in the government. We worked closely
25 with the Department of Education, Department of
14
1 Energy, the EPA, Department of Labor and others,2 really sort of industry experts thinking through
3 what are the main issues people are facing, how can
4 we work with local organizations and this federal
5 government to create this sort of change.
6 So we focus on the four main areas: One
7 is health care. Obviously, that’s a big issue. We
8 met with Health and Human Services and thought
9 through there are ways we can have organizations
10 and individuals work with HHS and others to be
11 effective.
[…]
14 Second was energy and environment. And so
15 we worked a lot with the Department of Interior. I
16 know I’m throwing a lot of government stuff at you
17 guys, so bear with me. It’s the world we live in
18 now. We’re actually running the government.
Remember, the NEA still maintains that they weren’t pushing an agenda. Nell Abernathy of United We Serve put in an appearance:
9 MS. ABERNATHY: Thanks so much, Buffy, and
10 thank you, Michael, for organizing this and asking
11 us to be on. For you all, my name is Nell
12 Abernathy. I’m the director of outreach for United
13 We Serve, which is run through the federal agency
14 in Washington, the corporation for national and
15 community service.
From my previous piece on Serve.gov:
Serve.gov is just one of many projects managed by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency which oversees various government service agencies, includingAmericorps, the outfit at the center of the fired IG scandal.
Further excerpts:
7 To a large degree, that’s how I saw the
8 arts community to be so powerful in the campaign
9 helping us to tell the story, telling their own
10 story whether it was the Hope poster which made the
11 whole — our whole mission instantly recognizable
12 and relatable to people, or it was the Will.I.am
13 video that circulated on the Internet but helping
14 people to feel that they are part of a national
15 movement and that their story, their private story,
16 fits into this public space.
It’s as I said, Riefenstahl-esque.
Cue Yoshi Sergant with the NEA:
I think Yosi is on and is going to talk
25 about some of the specific ways which we feel the
22
1 art community is critical to this both what’s2 already going on and some opportunity for future
3 partnership.
17 MR. SERGANT: Thank you so much. Still
18 trips me out to hear myself introduced that way.
19 Hello everybody. It’s really good to hear
20 some many familiar voices. Welcome to your
21 government.
Does the NEA still want to stick with their statement of not being involved with any agenda? You can read the full transcript and see just how far the NEA goes in directing artists to promote Obama’s agenda.