Right-wing media follow Beck in calling for investigation into NEA
On September 11, Glenn Beck stated that only he and BigGovernment.com's Andrew Breitbart have "been calling for" an investigation into the National Endowment for the Arts' August 10 conference call -- during which Beck claims "they," presumably the Obama administration, used the NEA "to buy propaganda for the president." Since then, numerous right-wing media figures, including the Washington Times editorial board, have followed Beck's lead and called for an investigation into the NEA despite the fact that the transcript of the conference call contains no evidence of illegal electioneering or lobbying by government officials.
Beck asks, where are the calls for "investigations into the National Endowment for the Arts?"
Beck: Only Breitbart and myself have "been calling for" investigation into NEA. From the September 11 edition of Fox News' Glenn Beck:
BECK: Number of Democrats, if I have one, the number of Democrats calling for investigations into ACORN, but that one was John Conyers, but he called it off.
So, the number of Democrats asking, yes, there it is -- zero! How is that possible? How about the number of investigations into Van Jones? No idea. Number of investigations into Cass Sunstein? Let's just push him through, why not?
Number of investigations into the National Endowment for the Arts? Remember I told you this story? And they were using the National Endowment for the Arts to buy propaganda for the president? Yeah. I think the only one that I know that's been calling for it is me and Andrew Breitbart. [Fox News' Glenn Beck, 9/11/09]
Beck on NEA story: "The one that you need to start asking questions on is Valerie Jarrett." Beck stated, "First they moved Yosi Sergant. That's the guy who put this thing together, or so we thought. First they moved him, and now he's resigned. Now he's out of the NEA. But Yosi Sergant, just like Van Jones, not the target. The one that you need to start asking questions on is Valerie Jarrett, because Valerie Jarrett, we have the audio, Valerie Jarrett is the one that Buffy [Wicks, deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement] was working for. Buffy, the propaganda slayer." [The Glenn Beck Program, 9/25/09]
Right-wing media answer Beck's call
Wash. Times: "[F]ull investigation" is the "only way" to settle story. In a September 27 editorial, The Washington Times stated that "[a] full investigation by both Congress and the NEA inspector general is the only way to bring this story to a close." A September 14 Washington Times editorial stated that "when you add in the nearly $2 million the NEA handed out to those very arts organizations in the four months before the conference call -- including more than $1 million in stimulus funds -- it is time to start wondering whether a line has been crossed from merely unethical into the land of special prosecutors. Such an investigation might be the only way to get straight answers."
Ari David: "I would unleash Congressional hearings" on all officials involved in NEA call. In a BigHollywood.com post, David asked, "[W]hat would Ari David do about the NEA and ACORN scandals" if he were in Congress, adding, "I would unleash Congressional hearings on ACORN and hearings on all of the government officials involved in the NEA propaganda conference call." David further wrote, "The public hearings I would hold on the NEA scandal would have all the players involved testify under oath. This would include Valerie Jarrett, Rahm Emanuel, Buffy Wicks, Yosi Sergeant [sic] and many others. As we say in Hollywood, it would star a cast of thousands." [BigHollywood.com, 9/26/09]
Ben Shapiro: "We need a full Congressional investigation." In a BigHollywood.com post, Shaprio alleged that government involvement in the conference call is "in blatant violation of the Anti-Lobbying Act," and stated, "Every government employee involved in this conference call should be fined and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We need a full Congressional investigation -- we already know that it infects members of the White House staff, including Buffy Wicks." [BigHollywood.com, 9/21/09]
Andy McCarthy: If this happened under Bush, "there would already be congressional hearings." In a post for National Review Online's The Corner, McCarthy wrote of the NEA call, "Needless to say, if something like this happened during the Bush administration, there would already be congressional hearings and screams for the appointment of a special prosecutor. We're about to see (yet again) how serious the Pelosi/Reid Democrats are about all that 'rule of law' stuff they spout." [National Review Online, 9/21/09]
Powerline blog: "[A]t a minimum an investigation is in order." John Hinderaker wrote of the NEA conference call, "It would take a thorough knowledge of the facts and more legal research than I've had time for to draw a conclusion as to whether the White House or NEA violated the law in connection with the artist outreach, but at a minimum an investigation is in order." [Powerline, 9/21/09]
Claims NEA broke the law are baseless
Following coverage by Beck, media conservatives baselessly claim NEA broke laws. Advancing Beck's and Breitbart's aggressive promotion of the conference call, Fox News' Gretchen Carlson and conservative columnist Ben Shapiro have alleged that the NEA broke laws against lobbying and electioneering during the secretly taped call. In fact, the transcript of the conference call released by Breitbart's website contains no evidence of illegal electioneering or lobbying by government officials.
Beck increasingly sets media's agenda
Following Beck, media cover NEA story, as well as stories on ACORN, tea parties, and czars. After Beck repeatedly promoted allegations against the NEA and Yosi Sergant was demoted, media figures including CNN's Lou Dobbs and Washington Post columnist George Will covered the story. The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Politico, and ABC News also covered the White House's issuing of new guidelines that, as the Times wrote, "instructed government agencies to keep politics away from the awarding of federal grants, a step taken as the administration sought to minimize the fallout after an official at the National Endowment for the Arts urged artists to advance President Obama's agenda." In addition to the story about the NEA, in recent months, Beck has successfully pushed into the mainstream stories about ACORN; the April 15 and September 12 tea parties; and White House "czars" Van Jones, Mark Lloyd, and Cass Sunstein.
Torture, illegal (possibly) wiretapping of American citizens, crimes against the Constitution, and possible illegal wars are NOT OK to investigate.
But...
A conference call with the NEA is a cause for investigation? Really?
Amazing really.
Conservative organizations are NOT interested in actual governance or tacking the touch domestic issues.
They are only interested in small victories based on petty grievances and obsessions over pet peeves.
Yeah, that's COMPLETELY different from how the left acted during the Bush years.
You live in a fantasy world. Stop with the but..but..but..Bush crapola. It didn't fly with the but...but...but...Clinton crapola and it doesn't fly here.
I'm sure that Starkcr can also show us where people were asking Congress to investigate Bush over things like, I don't know, his "alleged" ties to the White Power movement in America. Which would have been equally ridiculous.
Calling for investigations into torture, usurpation of the Constitution, illegal wiretapping, politicizing the DOJ, and a few other things (contractor issues, and so on) is a bit different than investigating Bush for, well, nothing like the right wingers are suggesting we do to Obama.
And your diatribe about bankrupting the country faster is false as well. Since Bush was responsible for the largest expansion of the fed government, and increase in spending ever. Sure, Obama might be on the path to beat that, but he hasn't done it yet. Let's also look at WHY Obama had to spend that money, or get that money, it was called our total economic system, and indeed, the rest of the world's system was on the very brink of collapsing.
What pork projects are you talking about? Care to cite some examples? Again, cite some examples of the media attacking Bush as has been done with Obama using false information, and misinformation. You can't do it.
Yes, and everyone buckled under, which they will this time as well. The Obama administration has already set a bad precedent by kowtowing to these people and kicking out the victims of this harassment campaign, and that was a big mistake.
Hmmm, wonder if a pattern has developed here? Uh, oh. LOL.
Raffling off guns for a campaign, pure genius.
I decided to start a blog to keep track of all the nonsense our local newspaper editorial spews. It's kind of like a local version of media matters. It's http://markgelbart.blogtownhall.com/
It's called the Michael Ryan Watch after the editorial page editor of the paper. They banned me from their message board, and won't publish letters I send that are critical of their editorial page.
I realize town hall is supposed to be all conservative columns, but mine is not. I wonder if a liberal blog will make their site explode.
If you want the truly significant charges to be taken seriously, you can't allow them to be diluted in a sea of petty charges. Fortunately, that's a lesson that isn't learned by the current batch of conservative critics who just want to keep hurling stuff against the wall to see what sticks. That's what the right is doing now and in the long run it'll be self-defeating.
The News Media bring on Liberal (Democrats) Talk Show Hosts as Defense Lawyers for Pres. Obama's and Democrats now-a-days. Notice how these Liberal (Democrats) Talk Show Hosts constantly defend every "un-truth", "smear", "lie", etc. etc. that's quoted by the Right against Pres. Obama and the Democrats. Just shameful when you catch on, huh?
I love this bit. When were there ever congressional hearings into anything the Bush administration did?
I never forget a basic rule of sociology, that the quality of a society's arts reflects its relative openness. I hope I never live in a society where most movies are on par with "An American Carol."
My question: Do you ever consider any issue on its merits? If not, you can save yourselves a lot of time by putting up one big article with the headline: "Democrats Never Wrong; Fox News Always Wrong." Then individual articles would no longer be necessary.
Then again, maybe you will surprise me one day, by actually standing up for some core values rather than offer smoke and mirrors for the power brokers in DC.
1. There was NO child prostitution ring, it was a made up thing. Didn't exist, and doesn't exist no matter how much you guys wish that it did. ACORN is not a part of the Obama administration, and if laws were broken, the people who broke them should be punished according to the law. You remember how that works right?
2. Van Jones did side with the truthers, after he signed an on-line petition, and said petition was changed without his knowledge (still his fault though for doing something silly like that). And guess what? He resigned. Although, he had no reason to. Last time I knew, it wasn't illegal to have thoughts or call for action.
3. The safe school czar, as you call him, did not side with NAMBLA at all, you just made that up, and it's today's right wing talking point that has been, well, debunked. Try again.
4. The NEA (as if right wingers even care about it at all) did not invoke a political agenda, the people they were on the call with, asked specific questions, and the folks gave some answers. If one conference call is all that you have of the NEA pushing some sort of agenda, well, you ain't got much, and again, that "call" has been debunked as being some sort of evidence of the NEA doing so.
My question to you. Do you ever consider an issue on its merits and what actually happened? Or do you just listen to the misinformation being thrust towards you from the right wing media? Sounds like the latter to me, because you've got the talking points down pretty well.
Democrats are often wrong, and when they are, or I think that they are, I'll be more than glad to point it out. This site isn't about being right or wrong, it's about the misinformation being pushed by, and being believed by, folks such as yourself.
How does someone get away with these kind of lies? And how do you deal with people like this, who just make things up?
Our federal government has been out of control for a long time, but these last 2 bufoons have really accelerated things. Bush comes in and talks about free markets and limited government and then expands the welfare-warfare state at the fastest pace in generations. Obama says we've got too much debt and are guilty of imperial overstretch, then promptly doubles down on spending, debt, and even increases the military's budget.
And don't get me started on our glorious central economic planners at the FED. First, they blow up the dot.com bubble with excessive credit then after it pops Greenspan(being cheerleaded by idiots like Krugamn) creates a housing bubble by taking interest rates to zero.
How can interest rates be zero when we have a net negative savings rate? Answer:they can't. The FED tries to replace real savings with a printing press and sets the stage for a bubble. When the artificial credit pretends to touch the real capital it supposedly represents, the prices begin to rise unexpectedly for gooods,services and labor. Actors in the economy are mislead by the artificially low interest rates. It is then that the bubble will pop. The greater the FED created bubble, the greater the inevitable crash. And now this idiot Bernanke(reappointed by Obama) is trying to create a new bubble. This one isn't going to last long though and we are going to get a currency crisis as a result of it.