Yosi Sergant is history

From Yunji de Nies at Political Punch:

Embattled former National Endowment for the Arts communications director Yosi Sergant is out of a job. Late this afternoon, the NEA released a short statement saying, "This afternoon Yosi Sergant submitted his resignation from the National Endowment for the Arts. His resignation has been accepted and is effective immediately." The agency provided no further details.

Sergant had been under scrutiny after leading a controversial conference call on August 10, where he encouraged artists to create work to promote the Obama administration's agenda. Sergant was initially removed from his post as communications director, but continued to work at the NEA.

Just two days ago, NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman defended the conference call, saying it “was not a means to promote any legislative agenda and any suggestions to that end are simply false.”

Still, the White House thought the incident serious enough issue new guidelines to prevent another such call and to held meetings with the chiefs of staff of the executive branch agencies to discuss rules and best practices. Administration attorneys do not believe Sergant violated any laws.

Score another one for Glenn Beck and Andrew Breitbart. These two men are racking up more notches on their belts than gunslingers at the OK Corral.

Andrew Breitbart is rapidly making his news sites (Breitbart, Big Hollywood and Big Government) into the new Mainstream Media by using the power of the Internet to expose the government corruption that the old Mainstream Media refuses to touch.

Glenn Beck is solidifying his place as liberal’s public enemy number one while increasing his audience and credibility in the process. The left is out to smear Beck as a racist kook, but the more he is proven right, the harder it will be for that meme to stick.

Something to keep in mind is that, like Van Jones, just because Yosi is out doesn't mean that he will be inactive. If anything it is much easier for both men to do their work without the glare of the public eye.

The big question now is, who is next to get called out in the Obama administration?

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Political Punch

The Art of Propaganda: NEA Gets Caught Pushing Obama’s Agenda

Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood has released the full audio and transcript of the National Endowment of the Arts’ (NEA) conference call with pro-Obama artist. On the tapes we learn that the NEA along with White House Office of Public Engagement and the Corporation for National and Community Service hosted a conference call for pro-Obama artists, to get them to focus their talents on promoting key aspects of Obama’s agenda, health care reform being one of the biggies.

Present during the conference was Yosi Sergant former communications director for the NEA (the one who sent out emails announcing the conference call), Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, Nell Abernathy, Director of Outreach for Serve.gov and Michael Skolnick, political director for hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.

While some may wonder what is the big deal, image this.

If the NEA, the nation’s largest funding source for the arts, is promoting Obama’s political agenda through artwork, what happens to those artists that rely on NEA funding that wish to express an opposite point of view? Furthermore, if the NEA is funding pro-Obama artists, then are we as a nation paying to promote excellence in the arts or are we really paying for artistic shills?

I cannot help but to ask where else are such collaborations with the government being applied? Was the Department of Education trying to do the same kind of thing with Obama’s speech to public school children?

Who knows, until the NEA conference call is examined further we can only speculate. Thankfully The Washington Times is digging deeper.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Big Hollywood

Via: Big Government

Via: The Washington Times