Is the Obama administration corrupting the arts by funneling money to arts groups and then not-so-subtly asking them for political work in return?

Big Hollywood Blog first ran late last month with the story of the August 10 National Endowment for the Arts conference call in which White House and NEA officials urged artists to create political pieces promoting health care themes. On paper, the conference call had been led by a government outsider, but that outsider stated during the call that it had been organized at the request of the Obama NEA and the White House.