Among the Intellectualoids: The Culture of Dependence
Malenic, Marina
by Marina Malenic The Culture of Dependence gress will vote as early as May on the presiWhat ever happened to shutting down the NEA? dent's proposed $150-million NEA budget. Although the...
...And you also avoid capital gains taxes on the increase in the value of the asset...
...The Story of Colors, written by Subcommandante Marcos of the Mexican Zapatista rebels, features a picture of the author in a black ski mask and ammunition belts...
...Speaker The budget was cut by a token $1.5 million lenger, one of the six members appointed Newt Gingrich challenged celebrities lob- annually, six members of Congress, appoint- to the National Council of the Arts...
...In all, 89 percent of MPR's operating budget comes from private sources (compared to roughly 7o percent in state and federal funds demanded by other public radio stations...
...Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul, and Mary, took Obey's cue and carried the tune from folksy to fantastic: "The arts have forever been the tool used by leaders of governments around the world to advance compassion, articulate dreams, and foster tolerance...
...The statement was apparently unrelated to the scheduled March I release of MPR commentator Garrison Keillor's recent novel Me...
...Though Ivey withdrew funding for the project when it was brought to his attention by a reporter, citing concern about the "international destination of funds," some believe this was only to prevent public scrutiny at a time when the NEA's budget was up for review...
...In awarding the funds to Marcos's publisher, the agency had followed the usual three-tiered process of review: consideration by a literature panel...
...When you give an appreciated investment asset, you can claim a tax deduction equal to its fair market value, provided You have held the asset for at least one year...
...Meanwhile, the NEA's supporters are as With this softening well under way M a vocal as ever...
...review by the chairman...
...a vote by the National Council for the Arts...
...Obey said he'd worked hard last year "to put the money back in the NEA, in order to help build the human spirit and help bring the American people back together as a nation...
...The American Spectator • May 1999 61...
...Cass Balappeared to be on its last legs...
...The $600,000 MPR now receives from the state (just two percent of its operating budget) pales in comparison to the nearly $27 million it earns from programming, contributions, and sales of show products...
...That same day, a harmonica-playing Democratic Rep...
...save by inVeSting, TAS...
...We would much rather let the taxpayers rather than the government decide," he said...
...By targeting MPR for budget cuts and privatization, it seems the governor is preaching to the choir...
...At the same time other public radio stations are saying to their legislatures, 'You gotta help us out,' we were creating a product that people are more than willing to support...
...The Creative Coalition, MARINA MALE NI c is an editorial assis- blissful era of bipartisanship, it appears the whose members include Hollywooders tant with TAS...
...Meanwhile, Senof the taxpayers' money...
...For the first 21 years of its existence MPR did not request or receive any public funding, and only started receiving state funding for capital improvements when it began expanding into rural areas of Minnesota...
...A s the GOP has become weak-kneed, at least one politician is bringing the laissez-faire approach to cultural funding home to his state...
...We took very seriously the charge of the Reagan and other administrations to self-finance," said MPR's Will Haddeland...
...Begun in 1965 as part of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program, the NEA spent roughly half of its budget last year supporting museums, theater groups, and opera companies...
...by Jimmy (Big Boy) Valente as Told to Garrison Keillor, a satire of Minnesota's first former pro-wrestler governor...
...Haddeland, however, expresses no alarm at the prospect, suggesting sensibly that perhaps a tax credit be given to contributors...
...Despite this going to be ex-officio members of the coun- ator Jeff Sessions, another Republican on tough rhetoric from Republican leaders, cil, I think everybody was pretty nervous," the Council and once a vocal critic of the nothing happened...
...funding altogether...
...Attempting to take the reins of a Reform Party revolution, Governor Jesse Ventura In the feud between Garrison Keillor and Jesse Ventura, a critical lesson was lost...
...NEA Chairman William Ivey told the San NEA, appears to have moderated his posiIn 1997, House legislation that would Diego Tribune this March...
...The NEA just doesn't want a fight," said Susannah Mississippi Byrd, one of the publishers of the Marcos book...
...Although the 52-percent increase the administration has asked for is unlikely to hen Republicans seized the W When reform—and not extinction— pass, "You will pretty much see the line House in 1994, the National became the new tune in 1998, Congress held, with a small increase possible," said a Endowment for the Arts (NEA) became more entangled with the NEA...
...Keillor's emphasis on entrepreneurship is part of the culture at MPR, which approaches programming as a product to be sold rather than art for art's sake...
...In fact, Keillor's own response is unexpected: He becomes defensive at suggestions that he is part of an MPR establishment feeding at "the public trough," as Ventura says...
...David Obey hosted a congressional sing-along to promote the NEA...
...It is a radical prospect for some to have to convince their audience of the value of their product...
...The process of NEA grant-making Dick Armey saw eliminating the NEA Council of the Arts—in effect joining the works about as well as it can work, but none and its $99.5-million annual appropria- NEA to oversee grant awards...
...I f you are thinking about making a contribution to us, please consider a gift of appreciated investment assets...
...I'm a writer, a pure entrepreneur...a person who writes a book and has no guarantees of success," Keillor recently said...
...The American Spectator Educational Foundation is an Internal Revenue Code Section 501 (c)(3) educational organization–i.e., a not-for-profit...
...It's actually tion...
...That the governor's announcement did not cause more alarm in the state—or among the 2.7 million who tune in to "A Prairie Home Companion" — is surprising...
...spokesman for Republican Rep...
...If even our staunchest giving up yet" on agency reform, and even to the states failed, largely because con- critic gets up close to that work to actually allows that his boss is "no longer out in servatives still held out for abolishing arts- look at what the grants are all about, he front" in criticism of the NEA...
...A spokesman says the senator is "not have replaced the NEA with block grants worked out very well...
...NEA has again escaped the knife...
...The Internal Revenue Code actually makes it inviting to contribute in this way...
...Ventura's plan would end funding for public radio in three years...
...tends to soften in his opinion of the agency...
...Now there's some Midwestern common sense Republicans in Congress can learn from...
...7 7 announced in February his intention to end state funding for Minnesota Public Radio (MPR...
...Neither, it appears, do congressional Republicans...
...Though the feud between the wrestlerturned-pol and the bookish entertainer has fizzled, a critical lesson was lost on both fans of pro-wrestling and of erudite rambling: When it comes to dubious federal programs, these antagonists have found a mutual foe...
...But that's not what bothers the agency's opponents...
...Just a week before Obey's soirée, for example, arts tsar Ivey made an eleventh-hour decision to withdraw funding for a children's book...
...For further information about making a contribution to us, please contact Vanessa Robertson, Special Projects Director, at 703-243-3733, ext...
...They're concerned with the funding that goes to individual artists, whose work they view as largely inaccessible, if not outrageous...
...Con- such as William and Alec Baldwin, as well 60 May 1999 • The American Spectator as former NEA Chairman Jane Alexander, published an open letter to Congress in March urging support for the president's arts budget...
...When I of the members really have time to look at tion as "one good way we can save some learned that members of Congress were every grant application...
...And hying for the NEA to fund their own pri- ed by the leadership of both parties, were what about the promised reforms in the vate endowment, while Majority Leader made ex-officio members of the National agency...
Vol. 32 • May 1999 • No. 5
