Patrick Courrielche is best known for breaking the controversial National Endowment for the Arts “propaganda” story.
He has appeared on Fox News’ “O’Reilly Factor,” “Glenn Beck,” “Hannity,” and “RedEye w/ Greg Gutfeld,” CNN’s “Lou Dobbs” and “Newsroom,” NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and “The Dennis Miller Show.”
Courrielche has produced award-winning documentary films, receiving a Silver Plaque Award from the Chicago International Film Festival, and a Merit Award from The One Show Entertainment Awards. His films have been broadcast on MTV and Current TV.
He is also a regular contributor to Big Hollywood, and has been published in The Wall Street Journal and Reason Magazine. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/courrielche.
Patrick Courrielche
NEA, PBS, & The Artful Abuse of Taxpayer Airwaves
by Patrick CourrielcheFor those inclined to believe in the purity of public broadcasting, or naïve enough to feel it immune to financial pressures, I present to you this Wednesday’s PBS NewsHour.
In the first nationally televised interview with the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts since the infamous August 10th conference call, PBS NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown got straight to the heart of the controversy that many of us at Big Hollywood have been so diligently covering – its involvement in propaganda. How did NewsHour broach this topic, you may ask – by actually participating in propaganda.
You see, in the almost 8.5 minute interview, Chairman Rocco Landesman was asked a total of ZERO times about the NEA’s involvement in the meeting. He was asked ZERO times about the resignation of his Communications Director. He was asked ZERO times about NEA grantee Americans for the Arts’ involvement in advocating for health care reform legislation after the call. And he was asked ZERO times about “non-partisan” organization Rock The Vote’s launch of a universal health care campaign only days after the call. (more…)
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Kids to Meet Marx in School – Care of Hollywood and The History Channel
by Patrick CourrielcheChildren are uniquely malleable beings, readily convinced of magically colorful tales – Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are the first that come to mind. This innocence is beautiful, but it is a quality that can easily fall victim to radically foreign ideas if taught consistently and pervasively at an early age. One need only look at the birth of fascism or socialism to see a recipe for how radical ideas become ubiquitous among a nation’s youth.
Enter Howard Zinn – an author, professor and American historian – who, with the help of Hollywood and the History Channel, intends to change the way our pre-K through high school children learn American history. His current curriculum suggestions, like introducing three-year-olds to the lynching of African-Americans, or quizzing seven-year-olds on which Presidents owned slaves, should be a red flag to parents.
Zinn has spent a lifetime teaching college students about the evils of capitalism, the promise of Marxism, and his version of American history – a history that has, in his view, been kept from students. His controversial 1980-book The People’s History of the United States paints traditional American history as a façade – one that has grotesquely immortalized flawed leaders and is based on principles that victimize the common man. In 2004, Zinn wrote a companion book entitled Voices Of A People’s History Of The United States, which includes speeches and writings from many of the people featured in The People’s History.
These two books have now become the basis for a new documentary, entitled The People Speak, to be aired December 13th at 8pm on the History Channel. The trailer portrays the documentary as a collage of compelling one-person readings, told through the words of “ordinary” people who have struggled throughout American history against oppression. Produced by Zinn, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, and Chris Moore, the documentary appears to be cloaked, ironically (given Zinn’s admitted socialist agenda), in many of the traditional ideas that were behind our founding. The verdict is still out on the doc, but it is not for the books that inspired the film as well as the educational initiative associated with it. (more…)
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NEW DOCUMENTS REVEAL: White House, NEA Had Big Plans In Motion Before Being Exposed
by Patrick CourrielcheInciting is usually a telegraphed endeavor, with rhetoric yelled to an audience through a megaphone held by a coarse, weathered hand. But it can also be delivered subtly, with a soft voice and a wink, in the name of doing good.
Subtlety is necessary if a federal agency intends to incite activists to take action on the hot issues of the moment. This approach is what we see when we look at the most recent documents acquired by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request of the controversial August 10th conference call.
President Obama with Former NEA Communication Director Yosi Sergant
Readers of Big Hollywood may recall an article published in late August entitled “National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion?” that described an August 10th conference call organized by the White House, the NEA, and the Corporation for National and Community Service. As stated during the conference call, the goal was to bring together a group of pro-Obama artists to push the President and his agenda, with United We Serve as the first proposed effort. During the call, Yosi Sergant, then Communications Director for the NEA, encouraged artists to create art on the vehemently debated issues of health care, energy, and the environment. (more…)
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Fear, Children, & Video – Ingredients for Obama’s Weapon of Mass Persuasion
by Patrick CourrielcheFear is a powerful propaganda weapon. But couple fear with the innocence of childhood and you have a hair-triggered nuclear bomb of persuasion. One need only spend fifteen minutes watching the finalists of President Obama’s health reform video contest to experience its influence.
The Health Reform Video Challenge, launched by Obama’s Organizing for America in September, is a contest “to make the best 30-second ad showing why the President’s plan for reform is so critical.” The winning video, selected by a list of Hollywood elites and Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe, will be the basis for a new television ad that will air across the country delivering a clear message to viewers – children will die if health care reform is not passed. The secondary message is only one Defcon level lower on the fear-o-meter – the parents of sick or injured children will go bankrupt or lose their houses for even the simplest of injuries.
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Using children to pluck at the heartstrings of the electorate and further a political agenda is nothing new, but it shifts into the land of Disgustopia when our young are exploited to distort the truth or spread outright falsehoods. The winning video opens with a young boy stating, “A year from now I’ll break my leg and my parents will have to sell our house because we couldn’t afford health care.”
This statement is designed to instill broad fear and disseminate the idea that anyone, even a family faced with the common injury of a broken leg, is susceptible to being thrust from their homes as a consequence of being uninsured. The odds of needing to sell your home to pay for the cost of a broken leg are so remote that it borders on preposterous to use it as an example of why we need reform. House closing costs in almost every scenario would exceed the medical bill, yet this is the video that the President’s organization has selected to justify the need for reform. It’s much easier to sell health care reform if our system is so fractured that a broken leg can expel a family out from under the safety of their roof. (more…)
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NBC’s ObamaVision: Will Peacock’s News Division Expose the Alarmism?
by Patrick Courrielche“Why can’t we ignore [global warming]? Because it’s the biggest crisis we’ve ever faced.” — Al Gore, April 24, 2009, Testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Climate Change Legislation.
Next week NBC is entering their “Green Week” of programming, infusing environmental messages across many of their prime-time shows. But the campaign does not only include entertainment programs – the eco-messaging will also be spread through NBC News’ Nightly News, Meet the Press, and the Today Show.
My question for the NBC News organization is this – will you be discussing the biggest global warming story of the year?
Early this year a study from Oregon State University, entitled Reproduction and the carbon legacies of individuals, contained the single biggest decision that anyone could make to dramatically lower their carbon footprint. And that decision? Have fewer kids.
The results of the report are actually mind boggling for anyone somewhat informed on environmental policy. The study investigates how the reproductive choices of an individual affects their “carbon legacy”, or said differently, the CO2 emissions attributable to a person’s offspring. What they found was that a US citizen’s decision of having a child adds 5.7 times the expected CO2 emissions for that citizen. Yes, 5.7 times!! This is due to the domino effect of your kids having kids, which have kids, and so on. (more…)
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NEWLY REVEALED DOCUMENTS Contradict NEA Chairman Landesman
by Patrick Courrielche“The former NEA Director of Communications acted unilaterally and without the approval or authorization of then-Acting Chairman Patrice Walker Powell.” – Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, on September 22, 2009
Chairman Landesman’s claim that Yosi Sergant, the former NEA Communications Director, acted “unilaterally” on the controversial August 10th conference call is not only beginning to erode, but new documents obtained by Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act show that another federal employee thought the arts effort was entering murky legal waters.
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In an email dated July 30, 2009, Nellie Abernathy, a representative of the federal program United We Serve, sent an email to Sergant to inquire of his interest in attending a meeting regarding 9/11 events – the culmination day of the United We Serve campaign. In the email Abernathy states (emphasis added):
“Just got off the phone with [redacted]. They’re interested in helping produce some 9/11 events and will be in DC next week. Any chance you could join us for a meeting Tuesday morning? Or does this fall into that sketchy grey we might get arrested area?”
Sergant responded, “I’d love to.” (more…)
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NEWLY UNCOVERED EMAILS REVEAL: Federal Volunteer Agency Misrepresented Involvement in White House, NEA Conference Call
by Patrick CourrielcheRecently revealed documents obtained by Judicial Watch from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show a few interesting facts and supports the claims made in my earlier articles– namely, Yosi Sergant, the former NEA Communications Director, did not work alone in organizing the controversial August 10th conference call; that the White House Office of Public Engagement was fully aware of his efforts; and most importantly, that The Corporation for National and Community Service misrepresented who actually initiated the meeting.
On August 28th, Josh Miller of Foxnews.com reported “Siobhan Dugan, a spokeswoman for [The Corporation for National and Community Service], said the call was organized by an ‘individual interested’ in the group…”
This statement does not correspond with the facts.
The FOIA documents clearly show that on July 29th at 3:39pm, Nell Abernathy, a representative of The Corporation, emailed Yosi Sergant, former Communications Director of the National Endowment for the Arts, indicating that she was the person behind the content of the meeting when she stated (emphasis added):
Thanks for chatting yesterday – I’m attaching a few docs and running through what I think are my next steps.
She goes on to discuss the “Art event coordination” and provides an invite and draft of the meeting agenda to Sergant. Abernathy also states, “What is a reasonable time frame for getting together a list and recruiting some of your friends to lead?” This is in direct contradiction to the above claim by Siobhan Dugan of The Corporation. (more…)
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ObamaVision: What (4th Place) CNN Chose Not to Report
by Patrick CourrielcheWhich network was it that was accused of broadcasting opinion journalism masquerading as news?
On Friday, during the “CNN Newsroom” hour, the network broadcast a story of the White House’s use of Hollywood to promote national service. Your humble Big Hollywood contributor was interviewed for this “news” segment.
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Their conclusion: 1) promoting volunteerism is a pretty benign message, and 2) Presidents throughout history have also promoted volunteerism so this White House Hollywood effort is nothing new.
After coming to these two conclusions, the host Rick Sanchez asked the reporter Brooke Anderson, “What is the threshold then…at what point do we get past that slippery slope when now we’re going to be taking orders from the Commander-in-Chief and we in Hollywood have to be the ones that deliver that order?” (more…)
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Serve.gov: Buffy Wicks Wasn’t Joking About ‘Being Part of This Administration’
by Patrick CourrielcheService to our nation is a noble effort, which is why some may view Serve.gov in a good light. How could anyone think that promoting national service is a bad thing?
Well, when our government uses “service” as a mechanism to keep their volunteers active in government, it is not so noble.
I claimed last week that the White House Office of Public Engagement’s rationale for promoting service was to keep Obama’s campaign volunteers active. I also claimed that the White House was using Serve.gov to manage those volunteers and as a mechanism to acquire new volunteers for their use. To support that claim I referenced a statement from Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, on the now infamous August 10th conference call. Wicks explained to the call participants, an arts group that worked on Obama’s 2008 election campaign, the White House’s rationale for using service: (more…)
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Part III: Obama Controls Your Television Set — Serve.gov or Serf.dom?
by Patrick CourrielcheNational service and volunteerism is a top priority of both the President and the First Lady. A broad effort has been launched to promote this priority. We’ve seen this in the May 12th White House briefing, the August 10th and 27th art community conference calls, and now in a new effort by the Entertainment Industry Foundation, entitled iParticipate, that is encouraging broadcast media to infuse national service stories into their show plots. The First Lady has even created a video expressing the importance of national service.
All of these efforts are driving would-be volunteers to Serve.gov. The question is, for what purpose?
Buffy Wicks
Encouraging volunteerism is a noble effort undertaken by every US President. However, this Administration’s national service outreach has led on multiple occasions to outright policy advocacy. I’ve shown this throughout my writing on the subject, with a primary focus on the National Endowment for the Arts. However, the Corporation for National and Community Service is playing an even bigger role in this White House effort, and I don’t think general volunteerism is the only goal in mind. (more…)
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Open Letter to Congress Regarding NEA Chairman’s Statement
by Patrick CourrielcheI’m writing in regards to Chairman Landesman’s response to Senator Enzi’s National Endowment for the Arts inquiry (below). I want to first thank Senator Enzi and the other Senators for taking the time to compose the inquiry. I also want to thank Senator Cornyn for his early inquiry on the August 10th conference call.
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Although I appreciate Chairman Landesman’s actions in adding additional safeguards to protect the integrity of the NEA mission, I thought you should be aware of some of the details not mentioned in his response.
Chairman Landesman made no mention of a NEA grantee, Americans for the Arts, which was on the August 10th conference call and within 2 days of the meeting sent out a press release, endorsed by 16 other NEA grantees, urging Congress to pass legislation creating universal health care. That fact was first reported by the Washington Times. (more…)
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The Big Truth: Selling White House Policy Through Art
by Patrick CourrielcheA few days ago I received a call from my cousin. He’d been hearing some chatter from the family about something happening with a series of NEA articles that I’d written for Big Hollywood and wanted to find out from the horse’s mouth what was going on. His question was simple and concise.
“What did the White House do wrong?” he asked.
“The White House attempted to use federal agencies for political gain,” I blurted out.
President Obama with former NEA Communications Director Yosi Sergant
And that is The Big Truth in a nutshell. A moment of clarity hit me, and as with most eureka moments, a path of how to explain this big truth came into sight. The full story needed to be told – including possible collusion, the White House’s novel mode of operation, and the eventual cover-up – to fully understand and illuminate the government’s intention with their arts effort.
Up until now, I have not discussed Sergant’s former job in the White House Office of Public Engagement, where Buffy Wicks currently resides, because the story had to develop to understand the significance. I also haven’t discussed the email that I received from Michael Skolnik, the moderator of the call, immediately after the publication of the original conference call article – an email that attempted to revise history and the role of the NEA and the White House in the meeting. And what has yet to be discussed is the White House’s recent ability to set up an ArtistCorps, brought into existence with less than 20 words in the Serve America Act. (more…)
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Statement on the Recording of the August 10 NEA Conference Call
by Patrick CourrielcheSome have asked why I feel that it was okay to record the August 10th White House and National Endowment for the Arts conference call.
The August 10th conference call was organized and called by the White House and two federal agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts and the Corporation for National and Community Service. The invitation to participate in the conference went to people all over the country, both inside and outside Washington, D.C., and included editors and contributors to various media outlets. Additionally, various media outlets announced themselves on the conference call. The media representation included Al Gore’s Current TV, a contributor to Huffington Post, Urb Magazine, Fader Magazine, 215 Magazine, Paper Magazine, Giant Robot, Philadelphia City Paper, Fusicology, MySpace, Global Grind, and Social Brite.
With members of the White House, public federal agencies, and broad media representation, there was no expectation of confidentiality or that the call would not be recorded by one or more of the many participants in this conference call. (more…)
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RESPONSE TO NEA CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT: Throwing Yosi Sergant Under the Bus Isn’t an Answer
by Patrick Courrielche“Senate confirmed my boss today…and we’re off!” — As posted by Yosi Sergant on Twitter August 7th.
Those were the words of the former Communications Director of the National Endowment for the Arts three days before the conference call. However Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), in a recent statement declared that Yosi Sergant acted “unilaterally and without the approval or authorization” from his superior.
NEA Chair Rocco Landesman
Taking the Chairman’s statement at face value and moving on would be the easy thing to do. However, the details of the Chairman’s statement need to be addressed.
First, if the former Communications Director “acted unilaterally and without approval or authorization” from his superior, why is he still working for the NEA? Wouldn’t an act as rogue as bringing together a pro-Obama arts group and encouraging them to create art on health care have triggered an immediate dismissal if it was actually without authorization? (more…)
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Documents Show Americans for the Arts Participated in Aug 10 Conf. Call
by Patrick CourrielcheUPDATE: [ed. note: The Washington Times reports ... Another Americans for the Arts participant on August 10 call.] END UPDATE
Americans for the Arts has recently sent a request to Big Hollywood to retract the statement that they were a participant in the August 10th National Endowment for the Arts conference call: [emphasis added]
Robert Lynch President and CEO, Americans for the Arts
“Immediate corrections about Americans for the Arts need to be made to stories that you have published in various newspapers, blogs, television, and radio programs.
“Americans for the Arts was not a participant on an August 10, 2009, conference call involving the National Endowment for the Arts. …
“The Washington Times later published an unconfirmed invitation list to the August 10 conference call, speculating that actress Kerry Washington had participated on the call. The affiliation next to Ms. Washington’s name is incorrect. Ms. Washington is not, nor has ever been, a board member of Americans for the Arts.”
During the conference call in question, it was suggested by a participant that the moderator, Michael Skolnik, send a contact list for all those that were on the call. We were then requested by Skolnik to send our contact information for a contact list that would be distributed later in the week: (more…)
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EXPLOSIVE NEW AUDIO Reveals White House Using NEA to Push Partisan Agenda
by Patrick Courrielche**NEA conference call full audio and transcript here**
Should the National Endowment for the Arts encourage artists to create art on issues being vehemently debated nationally?
That is the question that I set out to discuss a little over three weeks ago when I wrote an article on Big Hollywood entitled The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion?”
The question still requires debate but the facts do not.
The NEA and the White House did encourage a handpicked, pro-Obama arts group to address politically controversial issues under contentious national debate. That fact is irrefutable.
President Obama with the NEA’s Yosi Sergant
But some have claimed that the invite and passages, pulled from the conference call that inspired the article, were taken out of context. Context is what I intend to establish here.
On August 10th, the National Endowment for the Arts, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and the Corporation for National and Community Service hosted a conference call with a handpicked arts group. This arts group played a key role in Obama’s arts effort during his election campaign, as declared by the organizers of the call, and many on the call played a role in the now famous Obama Hope poster. (more…)
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Full NEA Conference Call Transcript and Audio
by Patrick CourrielchePlay:
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Full Transcript:
Full NEA Conference Call Transcript and Audio –
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NEA SCANDAL: The Public Still Deserves Answers From the NEA
by Patrick CourrielcheThe Washington Times is reporting that Yosi Sergant is no longer Communications Director of the National Endowment for the Arts.
I find this troubling on several fronts. First, it is always unfortunate when someone loses their job and I do not celebrate in the news of Mr. Sergant’s removal from his Communications Director position. However, he is a public servant and there are consequences for the behavior he displayed once the news of the conference call was released.
Yosi Sergant
But more troubling has been the National Endowment for the Arts’ reaction to conference call inquiries. The position that the National Endowment for the Arts is taking is that the agency was solely a participant on the call and any suggestion that the call was meant to promote a legislative agenda is “simply false.” I believe further review of the invite and audio recordings from the conference call will lead to a different conclusion – clearly revealing the intent of the call as well as the NEA’s role in initiating the meeting.
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WHO SET UP GOVERNMENT ‘PROPAGANDA’ CONFERENCE CALL? Newly Revealed White House, NEA Audio Contradict
by Patrick CourrielcheAnother conference call has materialized, revealing a concerted effort by government to use the arts to address political issues.
Lee Rosenbaum, a blogger for Artsjournal.com, posted her experience with a meeting that occurred on August 27th and confessed that she also felt “uneasy” about the government’s arts effort. The meeting invitation (viewable here) went out to all “member local, state, and regional arts agencies, community-based arts organizations, and national partners of Americans for Arts.” Americans for Arts is a non-profit arts organization that has received substantial grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.
As with my conference call, the art group was invited to the meeting to work together to “tackle some of the nation’s toughest issues: education; health; energy and the environment; community renewal; and safety and security.” Also like my call, it included a private citizen moderating the phone call with key White House representatives participating. Kalpen Modi, Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, was to represent the White House and key representatives from the National Endowment for the Arts were also to participate.
Even more disturbing than learning that the White House and NEA are using the arts to address specific issues, is to learn what was discussed on this new conference call. Rosenbaum mentions that there was much talk of “leveraging federal dollars” to get artists and cultural organizations involved in social-service projects. (more…)
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UPDATE: What the NEA Says Vs. Documented Facts
by Patrick CourrielcheWhat does it mean when a government official evades the truth?
On August 25th, I published an article discussing a conference call hosted by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the White House Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve that invited a group of art community luminaries “to help lay a new foundation for growth, focusing on core areas of the recovery agenda – health care, energy and environment, safety and security, education, community renewal.”
In the article I argued that it was not the role of the National Endowment for the Arts to use the arts to address specific issues, especially those of “health care” and “energy and environment” that are being vehemently debated nationally. I also clearly indicated that I was invited by the NEA and questioned their involvement in a meeting of this nature.
Two days later an article was published in the Washington Times that referenced my account of the conference call. Kerry Picket reported in the article that she “asked the NEA for a copy of the invitation to the conference call, but Communications Director for the NEA Yosi Sergant told us that they were not the ones who sent out the invitations for the conference call.” Picket continues, “Mr. Sergant directed us to the Corporation for National and Community Service as the body that sent out the invitations.” (more…)
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The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion?
by Patrick CourrielcheI recently wrote a critique of the art community’s lack of dissent in the face of many controversial decisions made by the current administration. Entitled “The Artist Formerly Known as Dissident,” one of the key points argued in the article was the potential danger associated with the use of the art community as a tool of the state. Little did I know how quickly this concern would be elevated to an outright probability.
Sometime between when I finished the critique and when it went live online, I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to take part in a conference call that invited a group of rising artist and art community luminaries “to help lay a new foundation for growth, focusing on core areas of the recovery agenda – health care, energy and environment, safety and security, education, community renewal.” (more…)
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