Statement on the Recording of the August 10 NEA Conference Call

Some have asked why I feel that it was okay to record the August 10th White House and National Endowment for the Arts conference call.

The August 10th conference call was organized and called by the White House and two federal agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts and the Corporation for National and Community Service. The invitation to participate in the conference went to people all over the country, both inside and outside Washington, D.C., and included editors and contributors to various media outlets. Additionally, various media outlets announced themselves on the conference call. The media representation included Al Gore’s Current TV, a contributor to Huffington Post, Urb Magazine, Fader Magazine, 215 Magazine, Paper Magazine, Giant Robot, Philadelphia City Paper, Fusicology, MySpace, Global Grind, and Social Brite.

With members of the White House, public federal agencies, and broad media representation, there was no expectation of confidentiality or that the call would not be recorded by one or more of the many participants in this conference call.

As a result of my inquiry into the inappropriateness of this conference call, The National Endowment for the Arts issued a statement characterizing some of the language on the call as “unfortunately, not appropriate” and the White House admitted to some “appearance issues” related to the content of the conference call.

Maybe a better line of inquiry would be to inquire why no one from the media represented on the phone call reported on this inappropriate politicization of a federal agency.