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So, if any of you've seen the nbc4 promos for their series "your stimulus dollars", the last couple days they've been running promos about how they were going to examine how your tax dollars were going to Ohio arts organizations and whether that was a good use of stimulus dollars.
Initially it caught my attention because work of an artist we know, Tyler Bohm, was in the background of the promo video. And naturally I was intrigued because the whole lead-in atmosphere was one of "you won't believe how they're wasting your tax dollars?!?!".
Fast forward to tonight and the actual segment, host by Mike Bowersock...
Apparently, 450k of stimulus money was routed to the Ohio Arts Council via the stimulus bill (nbc4's number, not mine). Mind you, this represents 0.000057% of stimulus funding from the 2090 ARRA, or, if we restrict this to Ohio's population, a one time cost of approx 4/10ths of 1 cent per individual resident (given an assumed population of 11.5m). But, 450k sounds like a big sexy number, to Bowersock at least, even if in the big scheme of things it's a pittance.
But, it only gets better from there as Mike follows the OAC disbursements. After noting that 10k went to preserving a paid position at a Dublin arts facility, and how another 10k went to a Worthington facility, he brings in one of my favorite goofballs from The Buckeye Institute of Ignorance to parrot about how these particular tax dollars are not funding bridges or dams like the stimulus money the New Deal allocated did... and, they get a Republican strategist to say the same thing. As if, you know, all this money went to bridges and dams like the New Deal, that would be a much better spending of our hard-earned stimulus dollars (mind you the stimulus dollars are just printed money that didn't exist pre-stimulus). Now, to be fair, they had clips of two arts supporters, but ones who obviously didn't see the ridiculous statements made by the "other side".
Now, this is how ignorant the quoted conservatives/libertarians (and it goes for most of them - yes, I'm painting with the broad brush) are on the New Deal, which almost all of them just reflexively hate that same way they didn't like eating brussel sprouts as kids. Not one of them was bright enough to google the simple fact that the New Deal had public works art projects funded as part of its implementations, that or they deliberately obfuscated that fact. Given that this anti-art line has been parroted many times in the past, I'm voting that they're just ignorant.
So, for nbc4, Mike Bowersock, and your uninformed guests, is a list of some of the Public Works Art Projects funded via the New Deal:
Public Works of Art Project 1933-34
The Treasury Dept. Section of Painting and Sculpture (October 1934 - October 1938)
It was operated under the procedures of the U.S. Department of the Treasury Section and funded by the Works Progress (later Projects) Administration (WPA), producing 89 murals, 65 sculptures, and about 10,000 easel works for $873,784 between 1935 and 1939
and
Now, lets just look at the 3rd one in the list by itself, which spent 850k+ in '35 dollar. We find that in today's dollars that would amount to 13m+, which if divided equally among all 50 states would still amount 260k per state, or almost the entire allocation given to OAC in the entire stimulus.
So, if this was the smallest of New Deal Arts Projects (as it's described by Encyclopedia Britannica, bastion of liberal propaganda), where's the beef in the nbc4 burger of false outrage Mike? There is none, and if you all used google as well as you manage to prattle on about your facebook friends' comments during the broadcast, you might have learned this fact and could've actually provided some semi-accurate information in a proper context. Oh, and you could avoid being hosed by ignorant guests whose only association to the New Deal is to burn it in effigy whenever they get the chance.
FYI Mike, listening to the Buckeye Institute or a Republican on the New Deal is like taking chicken-raising advice from a fox.
So thanks nbc4, and Mike Bowersock, thanks for throwing the arts under your busload of ignorant guests and comments.
And yet you wonder why your ratings aren't better...
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