we are funding this....really?

[Iowa notiller]

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/smithsonian-christmas-season-exhibit-fea

Should the federal government cut the funding for this kind of stuff? Why does it go on exhibit this time of the year? Is the federal government choosing a religion here or trying to defame one?

[bruce MN]

I'm certain that you are expecting us to see what it was, become alarmed by it and not read the article upon which we would then have your lying about "we" paying for this stuck in our minds. I've even got 5 bucks that says that's how you got it from somebody else...along with the alarming revelation that "we" are paying for this smut and blasphemy.

We (the taxpayers) don't pay for museum exhibits. Donors do. We pay the light bill and the janitor and such.

SNIP:

St. Thomas told CNSNews.com that federal funds are not used to pay for Smithsonian exhibits themselves, including the “Hide/Seek” exhibit. The federal funds received by the Smithsonian, she said, pay for the buildings, the care of collections exhibited at Smithsonian venues, and museum staff, including the salaries for curators of exhibits. The exhibits presented at Smithsonian museums, including “Hide/Seek,” are funded by donations from individuals or institutions

[Iowa notiller]

I will be honest with you, Bruce. I did fly off the handle a little bit. But, just turning the lights on and keeping them on, does that make one a little bit accountable to what is being shown?

[tomtoolbag]

  Would you still feel the same way if the exhibits were about agricultural history in America??

[Iowa notiller]

No, as long as the history is accurate.

[arnfarm735]

So you are saying they have seperate accounts for electricity, heat, rent and funding these exibits????

[tomtoolbag]

  Bruce, I don't know if you saw the "about us" page of that website, but it explains a lot.

About Us

CNSNews.com was launched on June 16, 1998 as a news source for individuals, news organizations and broadcasters who put a higher premium on balance than spin and seek news that’s ignored or under-reported as a result of media bias by omission.

Study after study by the Media Research Center, the parent organization of CNSNews.com, clearly demonstrate a liberal bias in many news outlets – bias by commission and bias by omission – that results in a frequent double-standard in editorial decisions on what constitutes "news."

In response to these shortcomings, MRC Chairman L. Brent Bozell III founded CNSNews.com in an effort to provide an alternative news source that would cover stories that are subject to the bias of omission and report on other news subject to bias by commission.

http://www.cnsnews.com/static/about_us

  This is about the founder of that site, and it's chairman.

Bozell is Executive Director of the Conservative Victory Committee (CVC), "an independent multi-candidate political action committee that has helped elect dozens of conservative candidates over the past ten years. He was National Finance Chairman for the 1992 Buchanan for President campaign, and Finance Director and later President of the former National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC). He currently belongs to the Council for National Policy (CNP) and sits on the Board of Directors of the American Conservative Union (ACU)," his biographical note states.[2][3]

Right-wing pedigree

Media Transparency describes[5] L. Brent Bozell III as "a zealot of impeccable right-wing pedigree. He is the nephew of columnist William F. Buckley and the son of L. Brent Bozell, Jr., who assisted Barry Goldwater with the writing of Conscience of a Conservative. He was the chief fund-raiser behind Pat Buchanan's unsuccessful bid for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1992."

Smear campaigns

According to Media Transparency, Bozell helped orchestrate the smear campaign directed at the opposition to Clarence Thomas's appointment to the Supreme Court in 1991. During the 2004 elections Bozell launched a 2.8 million dollar campaign to discredit[6] the "liberal media".

Bozell's August 29, 2004, column[7] on the eve of the Republican National Convention attempted to smear John Kerry by accusing him of "soldier-smearing", for having reported, during his 1971 Congressional testimony, on atrocities being committed in Vietnam.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Brent_Bozell

[bruce MN]

The exhits are funded by private sources...often foundations. If you go there you will see that there are plaques by the exhibits that note who has funded them.

[arnfarm735]

That's what I want -- the list of "private sources" that are funding such "art".  Don't think I will make it to the museum to check out the donors before this exibit moves on.....

I know it works for me when I put a note on my IRS check saying that I only want to "fund" dairy support pmnts.

[bruce MN]

Here ya go:

The exhibition has been made possible by The Calamus Foundation with the leadership contributions of Donald A. Capoccia and Tommie L. Pegues, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Major support is provided by the John Burton Harter Charitable Trust, E*TRADE, Ella Foshay, Vornado/Charles E. Smith, the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, Catherine V. Dawson, Robby Browne and Madison Cumnock, The Durst Organization, Ashton Hawkins and Johnnie Moore, The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Occasions Caterers, the David Schwartz Foundation, Frank J. Sciame, Jonathan Sheffer and Christopher Barley, and Jon Stryker. Additional significant support is provided by many generous friends of the National Portrait Gallery, including Tonio Burgos and Associates, Cambria Estate Winery, Lisa and Porter Dawson, Craig Kruger and Eric Michael, the Toby D. Lewis Philanthropic Fund, The Morrison & Foerster Foundation, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, David von Storch, Alexander and Bonin, H. van Ameringen Foundation, Lisa Bodager and Rebecca Linder, the David Bohnett Foundation, Dan Critchett and Greg Slimko, Mr. and Mrs. James R. Doty, Charles C. Francis, Sidney Lawrence and Thomas Birch, Weston F. Milliken, Leo Mullen and Helene Patterson, the Jerome Robbins Foundation, James Sharp Brodsky and Philip E. McCarthy II, William Sofield, Peter and Barbara Thompson, Paul Travis & Mark Fichandler, Paul Washington and Stan Sagner, and Diane Wondisford.

I don't know if you can find anybody in that list to boycott or to express your displeasure to, but they are who is listed on the Smithsonian's website.

Here''s the exhibit page:

http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/exhhide.html