"Beck Strikes Again; Yosi Sargent Reassigned at NEA" (with video)

Artist Shepard Fairey, left, stands with Yosi Sergant at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art in February.
WaPo:

The National Endowment for the Arts has reassigned former communications director Yosi Sergant, who had become the latest target of FOX News talk show host Glenn Beck.

Acting NEA communications director Victoria Hutter said Thursday that Sergant had left the communications post. The move came after he had come under attack from Beck, a conservative commentator who accused Sergant of attempting to use taxpayer money to fund art to support the president's initiatives.

Sergant's reassignment came after the resignation last weekend of environmental adviser Van Jones, who had been criticized for weeks by Beck.

The talk show host accused Sergant of arranging an August conference call with the White House Office of Public Engagement and United We Serve to recruit artists to create works in support of Obama policies. The NEA has denied that the call was inappropriate, and the White House has said that it did not force Sergant's reassignment.

Sergant became well known during campaign 2008 for his work with artist Shepard Fairey around the iconic Obama HOPE poster, and first came to Washington as a staffer in the White House.

In recent weeks, Beck also had trained his sights on Harvard University law professor Cass Sunstein, a friend of President Obama whose nomination to head the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs had been stuck since January. But the Senate confirmed Sunstein's appointment Thursday afternoon, after voting to end debate on the nomination the previous evening.

Howie P.S.: Earlier today I received a video (03:45), "GRITtv: Aimee Allison & Ari Melber: Right-Wing Attacks on Obama Administration Continue" and was pondering whether to post it.