Yesterday Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood broke yet another major scandal; it has definite proof that the White House is trying to politicize art.

On August 10 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 group of artists they handpicked. As Patrick Courrielche explains, “[t]his 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.”

He continues, “[m]uch of the talk on the conference call was a build up to what the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) was specifically asking of this group.” In a segment posted at Big Hollywood, Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement with ties to ACORN, “clearly identifies this arts group as a pro-Obama collective and warns them of some specific asks that will be delivered later in the meeting.”

“Asks,” of course, is lobbyist-speak for political requests.

The asks were delivered later in the call by Yosi Sergant, then Communications Director of the National Endowment for the Arts. The asks were:

* “I would encourage you to pick something, whether it’s health care, education, the environment, you know, there’s four key areas that the corporation has identified as the areas of service.”
* “And then my ask would be to apply artistic, you know, your artistic creative communities utilities and bring them to the table.”
* “Again, I’m really, really honored to be working with you; the National Endowment for the Arts is really honored.”
* “You’re going to see a lot more of us in the next four and hopefully eight years.”

In other words, the NEA and the White House are purposefully politicizing art. Artists are being turned into propagandists for the most liberal administration the U.S. has ever had.

And the artists? Well, quite some of them – organizations as well – did as asked.

Three days after the conference call a coalition of arts groups, led by Americans for the Arts, a participant on the conference call per the meeting contact list and recipient of NEA grants, sent out a press release with the heading “Urgent Call to Congress for Healthcare Reform,” which called for the creation of “a health care reform bill that will create a public health insurance option.” Eleven days after the conference call, Rock the Vote, another participant on the call, announced a health care design contest. “We can’t stand by and listen to lies and deceit coming from those who are against reforming a broken system,” they stated in their announcement. “Enough is Enough. We need designs that tell the country YES WE CARE! Young people demand health care.”

Although it is not clear yet whether specific laws were broken, it is perfectly clear that all involved acted highly unethically and tried to cover it up afterwards. Again Courrielche explains:

in the exchange between Nell Abernathy of the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency, and Michael Skolnik, the third party moderator, the meeting seemed designed to deflect any questionable conversations to the “third party”, while keeping the issue of health care top-of-mind with the precision of a well positioned product placement.

The National Endowment for the Arts is a government agency with the “power and ability to fund arts organizations and recently expressed a desire to return to funding individual artists, bringing more from the group into the pool of potential grantees.” It is the “largest single funder of the arts in the United States.”

In other words, it has a whole lot of power and influence over artists.

Although the Obama administration and friends are clearly trying to use the NEA to further a partisan agenda, the NEA was founded to “support excellence in the arts, to increase access to the arts, and to be a leader in arts education.”

As if all of that isn’t bad enough, the NEA later tried to cover it up, pretending nothing unethical happened.

It should be clear that “[u]sing the arts to address contentiously debated issues is political subversion.” I can only nod my head in agreement when Courrielche concludes that “the fact that the White House played a role in encouraging the arts to address contentious issues should also be considered a government overreach.”

The Obama administration and its allies have clearly gone too far. They’re crossed the line. Federal agencies are turned into propaganda tools. This is something we haven’t seen in the U.S. since, well, ever. This administration knows no shame. Everything is permissible in order to push its legislative agenda through the collective throat of the American people. And the MSM are covering it all up, refusing to spend time and attention to the ACORN scandal first and now the NEA scandal.

It’s a good thing that there are people like Andrew Breitbart and his crew at Big Hollywood and Big Government willing to expose this administration for what they are.

More at:

Hot Air: “Did the White House Use the NEA to Stump for ObamaCare?”

Jim Geraghty: “Why is the Allegedly Nonpartisan NEA Chatting with the Maker of SuperBarack?”

The Sundries Shack: “Another Obama Scandal, this Time at the NEA.” The blog’s author Jimmy explains that the NEA and the White House may have violated the Hatch Act which prohibits government employees from soliciting political activity from people who get government grants.

Michelle Malkin and the Washington Times ask readers to help identify those who were on the call. If you’ve got time to spare, help out.

Big Government’s Nick Gillespie: “How to Corrupt Artists in One Quick and Easy Telecon”

Yes, they broke the law

Roger Kimball: And it’s only the beginning!

Lastly, Breitbart and Courrielche spoke about this scandal with Sean Hannity. Watch it: