The NEA, Everyone’s Favorite Scapegoat
Didn’t we already do this once before? Do we really need another huge NEA controversy over something that shouldn’t be controversial at all? Apparently Congressman John Kline thinks so:
Rep. John Kline (R-MN), the top Republican on the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, is calling for a congressional oversight hearing into allegations that officials with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and the White House inappropriately used federal resources to promote a political and legislative agenda. Kline made his request in a letter delivered yesterday to the committee’s Chairman, Rep. George Miller (D-CA).
“The stated role of the NEA is to increase access to the arts and arts education, not to promote any legislative agenda,” Kline wrote. “This is also an inappropriate use of the NEA’s authority as a grant maker, and could be interpreted by some grant recipients as coercion to promote a political agenda.”
Kline’s call for a hearing comes in response to revelations that NEA, CNCS, and White House officials convened a conference call on August 10th during which select artists were allegedly encouraged to create art that would support the President’s agenda. News outlets reported yesterday that the White House is taking steps to prevent such a call from happening again, acknowledging the troubling appearance of this use of taxpayer dollars.
Look, I have some serious doubts about the NEA myself, but at least mine are based in something resembling reality. Turning this stupid conference call into a political scandal is breathtakingly cynical. (Although Hanlon’s Razor offers another explanation.) At a time when the nation is wrestling with a million-and-one legitimate, critical issues, it’s as though the NEA is being trotted out to say, “Don’t think about health insurance… Look over here! Gay people who hate Jesus are using your tax dollars to spread their worldview!”
For the record, here’s the official explanation and play-by-play from Americans for the Arts.
I’m tempted to exhume my own shopworn argument that the NEA should get out of the business of directly funding the creation of art, since it opens the door to exactly this kind of inanity. But in the same way that George W. Bush made me a Democrat, I’m starting to change my mind. Anything that Glenn Beck finds this upsetting can’t be half bad.
Update: As usual, Ian Moss has a thorough treatment.
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Sorry, I can’t defend an organization as corrupted as the NEA. No matter their good intentions they are simply not equipped nor can they be trusted to act fairly in any capacity related to or as a judge in the Fine Arts.
@Jim - The NEA has a lot of problems, but I just don’t understand calling them “corrupted”. Where’s the corruption? They’re more dedicated to the peer-review process (arguably to a fault) than any other bureaucracy I know of.