Who is Patrick Courrielche? Obama, Breitbart, and exposing art propaganda

About this episode

Patrick Courrielche discusses his involvement in the NEA scandal and the implications of government influence in the arts.

Patrick reveals the inside details of the infamous 2009 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) conference call he participated in and recorded. The call, involving NEA officials and the White House Office of Public Engagement, encouraged artists to create propaganda-style works supporting the administration's agenda on health care, education, the environment, and the United We Serve initiative His exposé, first published on Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood site (and later referenced in The Wall Street Journal), sparked national outrage, led to congressional scrutiny from Republican senators, the resignation of NEA communications director Yosi Sergant, and new White House guidelines to prevent such misuse of federal resources. We also explore Patrick's personal friendship and professional collaboration with the late Andrew Breitbart. Breitbart not only platformed Patrick's groundbreaking series of op-eds on the NEA scandal but went so far as to nominate him for a Pulitzer Prize. Patrick shares stories of working in the trenches with Breitbart, how Breitbart's vision that "politics is downstream from culture" shaped his work, and why that philosophy remains vital today. From the…

People in this episode

Guest: Patrick Courrielche

Topics covered

• art propaganda
• government overreach
• media and culture
• free expression
• politics and arts
• NEA scandal

Keywords

• Patrick Courrielche
• NEA
• Andrew Breitbart
• art propaganda
• government overreach
• free expression
• media
• politics
• cultural history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: National Endowment for the Arts, White House Office of Public Engagement, Big Hollywood, The Wall Street Journal