The New Republic
February 10, 2011
WASHINGTON, D.C. - NPR today had what strikes me as a wildly slanted report on the controversial National Portrait Gallery exhibit 'Hide/Seek,' which honors the contribution of gay and lesbian artists. The exhibit created controversy because, under political pressure from conservatives, it removed a video depicting ants crawling on a crucifix. The unchallenged point of view conveyed by the report was that opponents of the exhibit claimed they were offended on religious grounds but actually were anti-gay bigots. Do some opponents of the exhibit hate gays? Probably. But if you want to test that proposition, you need to see how they react to an exhibit about gays that does not include a crucifix covered with ants. My guess is that most of the critics are actually upset about the message about Christianity. A while ago, I wrote an article for TNR making the case against public arts subsidies. My basic argument is that art is not a clear cut case of market failure requiring government intervention, and the complications involved with either censoring or failing to censor offensive exhibits are hard to square. [link]
