Not long ago, my wife and I had a dinner meeting with two business colleagues. To call it a dinner is actually a bit of a stretch. It was a tasting of appetizers for an event we would be hosting just a few days later. After about four rounds of bite-sized hors d’oeuvres, and a glass of wine with each, our male companions revealed that they were both gay. It wasn’t something they needed to tell us – my wife and I have highly evolved gaydars. Our line of work, friends, and proclivity for fashion tends to place us, happily, in gay-friendly environments.

At some point the conversation turned even more personal. “I feel comfortable with you guys,” said one, as he proceeded to tell us his coming out story. It was a fascinating and heartfelt account of a teenager who was dating a classmate, only to find himself attracted to her brother. The other, inspired by his colleague, also began spilling the beans on his very recent coming out. His was a relatively late confession for a gay man in his late 20s living in Los Angeles. Both accounts were different in many ways but carried a common theme – fear of judgment. Each had worried about how those around them would react to their admission. One had even lived among some who outwardly expressed, in vulgar terms, their vehement disgust for the gay lifestyle – an intimidating environment for anyone that has yet to publicly divulge their sexuality. The fear of losing friends and alienating family members was at times crippling, they both conveyed. There was a constant concern of whether those around them would shun, or embrace, who they were.

It wasn’t the first time I’d heard a coming out story, but this time something was different – their experience felt a lot like mine.

If you have a right-of-center worldview and live in Hollywood, you can understand what I’m saying. Coming to the realization that you don’t think the same, politically, as most of the people around you was a truth I came to just recently. When you first recognize this fact, one learns pretty quickly to tread lightly when the topic of politics is broached. There is nothing so telling as the look on the face of a liberal-minded Angelino as they first learn that you are from that other camp. That glazed look is unmistakable. At best, they are guarded when they speak to you next. At worst, they spread the word to those on their team, dinner schedules no longer show availability, and calls are no longer returned. It’s a soft bigotry that you have to experience to fully comprehend.

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Michelle Obama has been under fire for inviting rapper Common to a poetry event at the White House scheduled for today. His reference to burning President Bush, and expressed dislike of interracial couples in interviews and lyrics has many frowning that he might not have been the best selection for the night. But little has been said of another artist invited by the First Lady – Jill Scott.

Jill Scott

I’m admittedly a big fan of Jill Scott’s music. Her album Who is Jill Scott? is one of the highest rotated albums on my iPod. But she has also made some controversial comments on interracial relationships that should also be on the First Lady’s radar. In an article Jill Scott published in an April 2010 issue of Essence Magazine, she talked about how, when she found out that a successful black man was married to a white woman, it made her “wince.”

My new friend is handsome, African-American, intelligent and seemingly wealthy. He is an athlete, loves his momma, and is happily married to a White woman. I admit when I saw his wedding ring, I privately hoped. But something in me just knew he didn’t marry a sister. Although my guess hit the mark, when my friend told me his wife was indeed Caucasian, I felt my spirit…wince. I didn’t immediately understand it. My face read happy for you. My body showed no reaction to my inner pinch, but the sting was there, quiet like a mosquito under a summer dress.

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Dear Los Angeles Times Editor,

In a report published on July 21, 2010, the Los Angeles Times incorrectly claimed that an article that I wrote on an August 10, 2009 National Endowment for the Arts conference call was somehow “misleading” and advanced by using a “fragmentary” portion of the conference call.

The Los Angeles Times should make it clear that the White House did not react to my article until AFTER the ENTIRE transcript and audio of the conference call was released. Only after reviewing the ENTIRE transcript and audio did the White House react by conducting new training sessions and issuing a memorandum containing new conduct guidelines for grant making agencies to prevent such a call, as reported by ABC News, “from ever happening again.”

Only after the ENTIRE transcript and audio was released, not a “fragmentary” portion, did the NEA official involved in the conference call fully resign from the agency and the chairman of the NEA issue a statement admitting that some of the comments made during the conference call were “unfortunately, not appropriate.” Also after the entire audio was released, the NEA submitted to a congressional inquiry new actions that it was taking to strengthen its ethics training. (more…)

Many conservatives and libertarians think of labor unions as merely the grassroots muscle behind the progressive movement. Showing up as a swarm of purple shirts, with the forearms of a lumberjack and a penchant for terrorizing teenagers, labor unions have always been considered the rough and rugged group that intimidate their opponents through the “persuasion of power.”

But if you haven’t thought of the labor movement as a cerebral bunch, think again. Meet Peter Dreier, Donald Cohen, Nelson Lichtenstein, and their syndicate of progressive university professors – the “intellectual infrastructure” of the progressive labor movement.

It is no secret that progressives have created a self-cloning machine by hijacking our educational system. Their indoctrination efforts are well documented. But we rarely think of research institutions as propaganda factories. A Request for Proposal (RFP) — see document above — recently obtained by Big Journalism gives us a rare look at how progressives and labor unions attempt to manipulate the national media narrative.

And their process? you may ask. Use the credibility and resources of the American higher education system to create researchprop – biased collegial research papers that serve as propaganda to support political policies.

Entitled Cry Wolf, the RFP proclaims a desire to look “for faculty and graduate students… interested in writing short (2,000 word) policy briefs” that “construct a counter narrative that demonstrates the falsity or exaggeration” of conservative claims. Writers of briefs selected by the project coordinators will receive 100,000 pennies for their thoughts. (more…)

In his first interview since resigning from the National Endowment for the Arts, Yosi Sergant blames both the White House and right-wing media for the NEA Propaganda Scandal, as the controversial August 10th conference call has come to be known.

The article, riddled with factual errors and omissions characteristic of a student and/or mainstream media, lays out a revisionist’s version of what happened behind the scenes of the scandal. During the interview, conducted by a journalism graduate student and admitted “close friend” of the former White House appointee, Sergant states that he was called to a meeting in the West Wing at the end of his four-month stint in the White House’s Office of Public Engagement. The White House, fully aware of his role as an art activist during Obama’s election campaign, offered Sergant two jobs. One was to continue at the White House, and the other was as the Communications Director of the National Endowment for the Arts. Sergant selected the NEA.

President Obama and Yosi Sergant

“I think [the West Wing] made a bad decision to put me in a job without giving me any kind of guidance, not providing me with any kind of mentorship,” said Sergant in the interview. He continued, “That was a bad decision. I’d never worked in government before.”

However the White House knew where Sergant’s expertise resided, and how he would potentially put it to use in an arts position. He was the promoter behind the now famous Obama Hope poster. Sergant indicated in the interview that he was given some direction by the White House in his new position at the NEA. “The idea was that Yosi would help pave the way for the new director’s arrival,” wrote Hillel Aron, referring to Rocco Landesman, incoming Chairman of the NEA. On paving the way, Sergant said, “I started working on things that I knew were happening, that I thought would be safe… and I was wrong.”  (more…)

For 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…)

Children 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…)

Inciting 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…)

Fear 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…)

“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…)

“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…)

Recently 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…)

Which 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…)

Service 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…)

National 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…)

I’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.

NEA_Statement –

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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…)

A 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…)

Some 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…)

“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…)

UPDATE: [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…)