NEA SCANDAL: The Public Still Deserves Answers From the NEA

The Washington Times is reporting that Yosi Sergant is no longer Communications Director of the National Endowment for the Arts.

I find this troubling on several fronts. First, it is always unfortunate when someone loses their job and I do not celebrate in the news of Mr. Sergant’s removal from his Communications Director position. However, he is a public servant and there are consequences for the behavior he displayed once the news of the conference call was released.

Yosi Sergant

But more troubling has been the National Endowment for the Arts’ reaction to conference call inquiries. The position that the National Endowment for the Arts is taking is that the agency was solely a participant on the call and any suggestion that the call was meant to promote a legislative agenda is “simply false.” I believe further review of the invite and audio recordings from the conference call will lead to a different conclusion – clearly revealing the intent of the call as well as the NEA’s role in initiating the meeting.

An effort of this nature is not approved by the Communications Director of the NEA. The National Endowment for the Arts has still not answered who approved encouraging a handpicked arts group, one that played a key role in the President’s election as mentioned throughout the conference call, to create art on the very issues that are currently under contentious national debate – those being health care and cap-and-trade legislation.

I think the public deserves a clear answer from the National Endowment for the Arts on this matter.