This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Before Barack Obama's campaign, Yosi Sergant was a local public relations guy and a constant presence in the Los Angeles arts and grassroots scenes. He represented Shepard Fairey among other organizations before he got the idea to have artists make posters for the campaign. One of those, Fairey's HOPE, became a huge hit and a driving force and symbol of the campaign. Sergant was then offered a job in the White House as the arts liaison and eventually was named the Communications Director at the National Endowment for the Arts.
Somehow, after the Van Jones incident, FOX News host Glenn Beck caught wind of a conference call Sargent was involved in. The Huffington Post sets the scene:
At issue was an August conference call in which the NEA encouraged select artists to participate in an administration project dubbed "United We Serve" and led by the first lady. Beck attacked Sergant and the NEA on his Fox News talk show, accusing the agency of propaganda efforts similar to those used by Nazi Germany. And now Sergant has been tossed overboard, making him Beck's second victim in his campaign to rid the administration of perceived radicals, socialists, communists, fascists, anarchists and all other manner of nefarious influences.
