Obamaganda
Last week Patrick Courrielch, an independent artist, participated in a conference call with the White House, the subject of which was how the President, through the National Endowment of the Arts, wished to use artists like Patrick to produce works of art favorable to the President and his agenda.
Backed by the full weight of President Barack Obama’s call to service and the institutional weight of the NEA, the conference call was billed as an opportunity for those in the art community to inspire service in four key categories, and at the top of the list were “health care” and “energy and environment.” The service was to be attached to the President’s United We Serve campaign, a nationwide federal initiative to make service a way of life for all Americans.
Obama has a strong arts agenda, we were told, and has been very supportive of both using and supporting the arts in creative ways to talk about the issues facing the country. We were “selected for a reason,” they told us. We had played a key role in the election and now Obama was putting out the call of service to help create change. We knew “how to make a stink,” and were encouraged to do so.
H.R. Bill 373, also known as the Federal Propaganda Prohibition Act of 2005, clearly makes this type of activity illegal. The bill was introduced in 2005 by several key Democrats to stop President Bush from paying pundits to speak proactively on television, radio, and other public engagements. Reportedly he spent 88 million dollars doing so. The purpose of the bill is:
- to ensure that advertising and public relations campaigns paid for with Federal appropriations are unbiased and factual, and do not contain a political message or covert propaganda
- increase the oversight and evaluation of advertising campaigns paid for by the Federal Government by requiring that agencies provide notice to the appropriate congressional committees of all public relations, media relations, and advertising contracts
- require that all public relations and media outreach tools developed by Federal agencies inform the target audience of the source of funding for the message
- to make permanent the prohibition against spending Federal funds on publicity and propaganda that has been included in appropriations Acts since 1951
The act also clearly speaks to the White House 1,500 word e-mail sent in the name of White House senior adviser David Axelrod titled “8 common myths about health insurance reform.”
During his campaign, President Obama promised to support increased funding to the National Endowment of the Arts in his internet published Plan for America. 50 million dollars was subsequently provided through the ARRA Stimulus Bill.
In many blogs past I pointed out that the stimulus bill was nothing more than funding for Obama’s campaign promises, and I cited the money going to the NEA as a prime example. Clearly more proof that the stimulus bill had little to do with stimulus and much more to do with funding a master plan.
Todd
ideapalooza
September 2, 2009