New White House ‘Guidelines’ Are Pathetic Revisionist History
by Ben ShapiroIn the aftermath of the revelations that the NEA sponsored a conference call with artists across the country in order to promote President Obama’s political agenda, the NEA and White House are running scared. Yesterday, Yosi Sargent, the NEA Director of Communications who headed the call, resigned. Also yesterday, the White House Counsel’s Office released what it called a “memorandum” designed to create “guidelines regarding our vitally important outreach efforts.”
Ready? Here we go.
WH_COUNSEL_MEMO_GUIDELINES_FOR_PUBLIC_OUTREACH_MEETINGS
First, the White House suggests that all NEA employees “avoid even the appearance of impropriety.” According to the White House, “President Obama has pledged to restore Americans’ trust in their government. Strict adherence to the rules is not enough – we need to avoid even the appearance of politicization in order to ensure people’s faith in the actions of the Administration. This means always asking whether an action under consideration could be construed as inappropriate.” Good advice, to be sure. But this would be too little too late – and it also conflicts with the facts. The clear implication here is that no laws were violated.
As I have posted before, I believe several laws were violated. And there is no question that the call was blatant partisan outreach for President Obama. Michael Skolnik, who was a co-host of the call, mentioned that he was “asked by folks in the White House and folks in the NEA about a month ago” to host the call. He then proceeded to lionize Obama supporters: “I think Shepard [Fairey] and the Hope poster obviously is a great example, but it’s clear as an independent art community as artists and thinkers and tastemakers and marketers and visionaries on this call, the role that we played during the campaign for the president and also during his first 200 some odd days of his presidency and the president has a clear arts agenda and has been very supportive of using art and supporting art in creative ways to talk about some of the issues that we face here in our country and also to engage people.” He went even further: “And so I’m hoping that through this group and the goal of all this and the goal of this phone call, is through this group we can … get involved in those things, to support some of the president’s initiatives, but also do to things that we are passionate about and to push the president and push his administration.” That does more than create appearances of impropriety.
That is impropriety.
Next, the White House suggests that the NEA “continue to ensure that decisions are merit-based.” The memo explicitly states that “it is the policy of this Administration that those funding decisions be free of political interference or even the appearance thereof.” Appearances like 21 organizations coming out two days after the call in favor of Obama’s health care plan – and the shady coincidence that 16 of the groups and affiliated organizations received $2 million in grants in the 150 days before the call.
Nonetheless, let’s give the White House the benefit of the doubt. They state that they want to ensure that agencies “serve the needs of the American public without regard to party.” Immediately thereafter, the White House then states, “This does not mean that government officials are not permitted to meet with individuals or select groups as agency needs and the public interest demand.” Of course, what the White House thinks the “public interest” demands is silence from those damn “teabaggers.” So any artist who forwards that agenda is properly targeted for help under this standard. Here’s the thing about art: nobody needs it, in the strictest sense. With that said, the White House’s definition of “public interest” needs is malleable in the extreme.
But the White House is not done. Next, the White House suggests that the NEA “engage only in authorized activities.” They state, “Each federal agency is limited in its power to act by its authorizing statute” – surely a shocking statement from an Administration that insists it has the power to create czars willy-nilly without authorizing statutes. The White House explicitly mentions avoiding Hatch Act violations (as discussed in my last piece) and violations of the Ethics in Government Act (an act dedicated largely to revealing the financial associations of federal employees).
What precisely is the NEA’s purpose? The NEA was chartered in 1965 under 20 US Code §954. It is supposed to provide aid or loans to groups or individuals to enable them to create “projects and productions which have substantial national or international artistic and cultural significance … meeting professional standards or standards of authenticity or tradition, irrespective of origin, which are of significant merit and which, without such assistance, would otherwise be unavailable to our citizens for geographic or economic reasons …projects and productions that will encourage and assist artists and enable them to achieve wider distribution … projects and productions which have substantial artistic and cultural significance …” In other words, blah, blah, blah.
Significantly, however, nowhere in the authorizing act does Congress suggest that the purpose of the NEA is to provide funding, conference call rah-rah boosting, or emotional support for artists seeking to promote a particular president’s agenda. Even community service is not mentioned, despite the fact that hosts of the call repeatedly stated that the NEA was to be involved in the president’s new “service” initiative.
The White House’s concluding paragraph is truly a doozy: “We should consider this call to be a reminder and a teaching moment.” (If I had a penny for each “teaching moment” this Administration had provided, I could pay off the entire national debt personally. It’s time for the Obama Administration to stop providing “teaching moments” and start behaving in competent fashion.) But the White House continues: “It was organized with the best of intentions to promote community service and volunteerism, something the Administration does with many constituencies and something we will continue to do. The misunderstandings that flowed from the call should serve as a less going forward of the need to take extra care to ensure it complies with these general principles.” There was no misunderstanding here. The problem for the Obama Administration is that the American people understood precisely what was going on.
Finally, the White House concludes with these stirring words: “At all times Administration employees should be focused on the twin goals of furthering their agency’s mission and serving the public trust.” Wrong again. The purpose of federal employees is solely to fulfill the law by doing their jobs. The public trust doesn’t come into it – especially not the Obama Administration’s definition of public trust, under which the public trust is best protected by shilling for President Obama himself.
Here’s the bottom line: the proof is in the pudding. We must now carefully watch each and every distribution of NEA cash to each and every artist. We must analyze where our tax dollars are going. If the White House really wants transparency, they must immediately start a website that posts online the basis for each and every NEA grant and loan. Anything less is a boondoggle.
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48 Comments
Thank you for exposing their lies, Mr. Shapiro. I would like to ask if you have noticed a pattern with this administration – it is the use of the propaganda tactic: the Big Lie. I like the way Wiki defines it:
The Big Lie (German: Große Lüge) is a propaganda technique. The expression was coined by Adolf Hitler in his 1925 autobiography Mein Kampf for a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously".
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Big Hollywood and Julie Bryan. Julie Bryan said: RT @bighollywood New White House ‘Guidelines’ Are Pathetic Revisionist History http://bit.ly/19lFmb [...]
Good article, and clearly stated.
Time to abolish, not just defund, the NEA. And the other NEA while we are at it. Neither are good for anything except promoting their own self-serving interests.
Total waste of our money.
Why does it seem that this administration has grabbed onto every federal agency witht he express purpose of using it to further its own ends? Oh, maybe because it is. I'm not sure it's enough to just scrutinize the NEA; I wonder how many other federal agencies are being used to "push political agenda" regardless of their original function.
We already know DHS is doing it.
Someone is addicted to crack! I hope it is not the president.
Mr. Shapiro, I would love to see a funny piece on all the times that Obama has used the phrase "teaching moment". I sure wish he learned before coming onto the job. Teaching moment means he is learning how bad he is at getting caught.
Congress should be all over this obvious violation of law but instead we get a meek half-arsed "request for an explanation" from the so-called opposition party.
Here we have a classic example of the Democrat controlled congress evading its constitutional duties (in regards to checks and balances) for the sake of the Democrat party. When our congress ignores the the law in order to protect their Republican and Democrat parties it is time to replace our congress. We need to vote these traitors (of both parties) out of office.
Elect NO incumbent during the next three election cycles and we can change the face of congress and seize control of our country back from the Democrat and Republican parties.
http://bethemob.com
[...] New White House ‘Guidelines’ Are Pathetic Revisionist History [...]
Obama wants to be a dictator. He had the banks and the auto industry. His czars are all Marxists. He plans on control of the Internet, Health Care, Energy. He wants his own Brown Shirt army "Civilian Defense Force". He is trying to brainwash the youth. Face facts this is why he admires Chavez and Castro he wants to be like them. Acorn. NEA and Van Jones is nothing compared to his assault on our freedoms. People better wake up and see the big picture. We sure as hell are not going to get any information from thr Dead Media. Be afraid people.
“We should consider this call to be a reminder and a teaching moment.”
Who writes this stuff, Oprah?
Ben – good luck on getting the A.G. to investigate "violations." Also, the term "teaching moment" has become such a buzz word, if I have to hear it one more time, I'll puke.
Right on. I'd like to see the Departments of HUD, Energy, and Education disbanded as well since they do more harm than good.
Oprah did do more than her share to foist this piece of governing garbage onto us.
Slowly the corruption of this administration and of OB himself is being exposed. How much is the public expected to put up with? How long will the public put up with this? What the outcome will be is anybody's guess, however I think we will have these questions answered before too much longer.
Unfortunately, the White House always seems to believe that it is everyone else who needs these "teachable moments." A good look in the mirror would do them well. Would the President see Nixon looking back?
And why exactly is a memorandum with "Guidelines" necessary. If public trust is what they desire, I would suggest prompt dismissal of Buffy, with the explanation that her conduct was, if not "illegal", then certainly "inappropriate." (And yes I know it WAS illegal, but the White House will never admit it. And it would give them another chance to use their darling "inappropriate" word.)
I have already written to Sen McCaskill requested she call for a Special Prosecutor to review this. We need to keep on top of them. Sharing thoughts here is great, but we also cannot wait until the next three election cycles. We must work now too.
Given the admissions he made in his book, I hope you're right because if he's still doing hard drugs that makes all those "OMG, Cindy McCain was hooked on prescription painkillers" folks look pretty stupid.
I found the article to have valid points but was put off but the lack of optimism — uncovering the NEA call is proof our democracy for the people is not dead, the government reacting to the people's outrage shows they know they are being watched and will be judged. They were wrong and this blog and the media called them out on it. We have to ask what is our pursuit here, to participate in government or see to its destruction? Ben, your article does not move us forward on this, it just keeps us on the outside looking in and shaking our fingers.
"Teaching moment" – like when I got punched out by some guy in a bar because I was "hitting" on his girl.
oh yeah, that would be certainly be one.
We don't live in a democracy. It's a republic
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“It was organized with the best of intentions" Who said the road to hell is paved with the best of intentions?
Good to see my tax dollars are being wasted on musical hacks and mediocre painters.
At least when they were going to environmentalist bullcrap, I didn't have to listen to the final product all over the airwaves.
Well, I think the other NEA is a privately funded trade union, so it would be a little tricky to "disband" it.
On a happy note, my wife did her part several years ago when she was still teaching in the public schools. For a full semester she stood alone against the teachers' local in refusing to join and thereby ruining their otherwise perfect 100% enrollment campaign. She was treated like a leper by several of the teachers and by the union steward, but she stood her ground, calmly explaining that several of their espoused political positions were antithetical to her beliefs as a Christian evangelical, so she could not join the union as a matter of conscience.
By the end of the school year, several of the younger teachers who had been scared and brow beaten into joining the union followed my wife's example and withdrew their membership.
I've never been prouder of her.
I find it remarkable that the Constitution of the United States is such a dead letter today that no one even bothers to point out that what's going on at the NEA is one of the primary reasons the Federal Government was and is STRICTLY PROHIBITED FROM CREATING SUCH AN AGENCY IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Now, I realize that, as much as we might wish that the Supreme Court would back us on a challenge to the Government's authority to openly and with utter contempt defy the law, nevertheless I would have expected people calling themselves "conservative," presumably with a straight face and no sense of irony, to have picked up Ronald Reagan's fallen standard by now and begun clamoring for the NEA be shut down posthaste. Such clamor would, as I say, almost certainly come to nothing and be "just for show," but show is important where first principles of the law are being violated. To let the point pass in silence is to concede victory to the enemy–that selfsame enemy which the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the Constutution were intended to protect us from.
Conservatives–true conservatives–understand implicitly that men cannot be trusted to wield the awesome power of government justly and according to the law. Conservatives have always been baffled by the existence of their opposite number–liberals–who appear completely incapable of admitting so basic and obvious a truth. Yet when a teachable moment arrives–a clear and present opportunity to show the world what happens when great power is waved before the noses of low people–conservatives say nothing, instead aping their opponents and talking about refoming the institution and whatnot. Why?
Once again: Eliminate funding, fire ALL the staff, clean out the building, sell the furniture, fumigate the building, rent it out and be DONE with the Federal government FUNDING THE ~ARTS~!
U.S. GOVERNMENT OUT OF THE ARTS NOW!
NO TAX $$$$$ TO PARTISAN ~ARTS~!
They used to have to share rooms with herion addicts of live in old VW buses, now WE GET TO PAY THEM!
"Hippies.They're everywhere. They wanna save the earth, but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad."
ERIC CARTMAN
ARTISTS THAT FEED OFF THE NEA ARE HIPPIES!
"Teaching moments"….yeah, right.
Thinking Americans understand this to mean that the incompetent, inexperienced 'experts' within the Obama administration are being SCHOOLED on a daily basis! And after all that vaunted praise of their 'brilliance' and 'understanding'. Posers…the entire lot.
I stand corrected, OT.
National Education Association is privately funded, though it is instrumental in demanding more and more government appropriations for schools and education despite ever-more dismal results, yet vehemently opposes school vouchers to give parents the right to place their kids in schools that do achieve a laudable academic record.
"the president has a clear arts agenda" "to push the president and push his administration"
That's pretty clear cut to me.
Indeed. Just look at who he has been friendly to and even thrown support behind since taking office. Even the disposed president of Guatemala. This administration has even gone as far as to threaten to recognize the results of the next election should they not reinstate the wannabe dictator who tried to amend their constitution so he could remain in power.
You can hear it when he speaks. I will…..What I want…..When I………It's all about him. He doesn't speak as a person who views themselves as part of a system but as one who believes he is above it. Of course he is not alone. Let's not forget how our "leaders" elected to exempt themselves from their own health care "reform" drafts.
Michael Skolnik fills me with revulsion: not because he can't contruct an intelligent sentence, but because of what he implies using the term "tastemaker". We need to keep a spotlight on this cockroach.
Michael Skolnik fills me with revulsion: not because he can't contruct an intelligent sentence, but because of what he implies by using the term "tastemaker". We need to keep a spotlight on this cockroach.
He can't look in the mirror. Vampires don't have a reflection.
Pascal.
There are the rumors she will be retiring from her show. Maybe she is considering an administration job.
At the least, she deserves the reward of an ambassadorship for her support. Maybe South Africa, then she can keep track of her school better.
Classic. They'll police the NEA like the SEC polices insider traders. Throw the bum who steals a can of tuna in the hole while Jamie Gorelick robs several hundred million in fraudulent sub-prime mortgages.
By the way. Where in the hell is Jamie Gorelick? A little off subject but you get my point.
Not quite sure what a "true conservative" looks like but as an independent lost outside of the two-party system I couldn't agree more.
This administration was trying to use the NEA, which is funded largely by taxpayers, to provide propaganda for their agenda. This is in direct violation of several laws PLUS it is highly unethical.
Good heavens, this administration is really, really corrupt.
I wonder if all involved will check themselves into rehab. Is that still the In thing to do???
I want an investigation to find out what Obama knew and when he knew it. I also want the NEA defunded. Any group that believes religious artifacts floating in urine to be art is sick and needs to be closed down. Buffy needs a stake through her heart, provided she has one. What a sorry bunch of people!
I keep wondering about that phrase. Rush was using "teachable moment," then I heard Barry using it, now it has morphed into a less-recognizable "teaching moment."
For awhile there it could be quite entertaining, see what gets first mentioned on Rush then see what Barry "changes direction on," "clarifies the position on," or outright skews the propaganda against. Someone surely thinks Rush is worth keeping track of, and I do not mean just DHS and JanNap.
Kuddos to Ben Shapiro…. another Grand Slam article! I really like your idea of a website that posts the NEA grants and loans… I can only imagine that by picking up this tread off the ball it will unwind into a snarley knotted mess that is best to just be swept up and thrown in the trash….Let us all start pulling the thread….only Heaven knows what other gross improprity and illegal actions will be reveiled.
Yup, this is wrong. Now where were you when the Bushies were doing the same thing, not to the arts, but to the Department of Justice? What was the big job interview question to become a U.S. attorney… something about the length and depth of your support for the president's agenda??? I do favor shutting down the NEA, just like I favor shutting down 501(c)(3). I want the IRS out of the business of deciding which voluntary organizations are "approved." I also don't mind wealthy donors giving because they believe, instead of for a tax break. Let's level the playing field. Likewise, as long as government money flows to the arts, whoever is in power will have some influence over which art is "approved," and citizens will be clamoring to cut off whichever art they don't like, as will lobbyists. If the artist who did religious artifacts floating in urine can find a private funding source, more power to him, I don't have to pay for it, and I don't get a veto.
[...] guidelines itself are an exercise in historical revisionism. The White House Memorandum states, “Some comments made in the call, however have been misunderstood as seeking to [...]
That is exactly what commentators are doing, such as Glenn Beck.
They are propagating malicious and outlandish lies without fear of being repudiated. They are involved in forming such "Big Lie"…
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