The hits started Tuesday afternoon, overwhelming my traffic and leaving a giant spike in my bloggy seismograph. I tracked it back to this–although the number one search term driving traffic to my blog was (I kid you not): “PAT SAJAK IS AN ASS***.” From the Washington Post:
Yup. Seems old Mr. Game Show Host is deep into rightie politics. And that’s what drove them to my 2010 post on Pat: This is the May 2014 UPDATE of 2010’s “The Small-Minded Bigotry of Pat Sajak”: The Phillips Foundation held their Novak Fellowship Program dinner on Monday, May 5, 2014. In attendance for big bucks was Pat Sajak:
Helping to warp the minds of tomorrow; Monday, May 5, 2014
And what IS the Fellowship Program?
Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship Program
If you are a working journalist with less than 10 years of professional experience in print or online journalism, you are eligible to apply for an exciting fellowship program offered by The Phillips Foundation. Applicants propose a one-year writing project on a topic of their choosing, focusing on journalism supportive of American culture and a free society. In addition, the Foundation awards separate fellowships on the environment, on free enterprise and on law enforcement.
The Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship Program awards $50,000 full-time and $25,000 part-time fellowships.
(L.) Tom Phillips’ “Foundation” gives (M.) Murdoch a “lifetime achievement award” named after (R.) Novak in 2006.
How much was “given away” (Phillips doesn’t necessarily have first right of refusal to publish on his own Regnery Press or other imprints, but he DOES get to see — and provide editorial guidance — to works in progress)?
TFAS awarded $185,000 in 2013 fellowships to seven young journalists at the dinner. In addition, Weekly Standard Executive Editor Fred Barnes was honored with the Thomas L. Phillips Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented by Brit Hume. Barnes praised the Novak Journalism Fellowship program noting its commitment to “keeping young, smart conservatives in journalism” —many of whom are now reporters for the Weekly Standard and other successful publications.
Oh, and Phillips just dumped it off from “The Phillips Foundation” to “The Fund for American Studies” which is (also) a FULLY DEDUCTIBLE “charity” on May 8th (three days after the dinner). Like the Red Cross or the March of Dimes, you know?
Checks should be made payable to the Novak Fellowship Program, a program of The Fund for American Studies* (classified by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) educational organization). For more information, contact John Farley at 202-509-8940 or [email protected].
Interesting little side note about TFAS: Fred Barnes (the Novak Fellowship awardee this year) is the ONLY non-officer who received compensation in 2012, according to TFAS’ 990 Tax Return. Fred received $24,000. The four officers, of course, received six figures apiece:
The Fund itself was founded by Thomas Edison’s son in the ’60s. Seems to have taken a hard right turn since then. In 2012, they decided to start the same sort of funding of European journalists. Their 2012 budget was about $10 million taken in,$10 million spent with a $6 million dollar “assets” pad.
On the other hand, the Phillips Foundation churgs along on slightly less than $1 million per annum. Largest contributor in 2011 was (according to their 990) Tom Phillips Revocable Trust at $290,000, with $30,000 from the Koch Foundation and $20,000 from Pat Sajak’s foundation — yes, he evidently has one, called “The Lesly and Pat Sajak Foundation” of Pasadena.
The Sajak Foundation burbles along at around $250k per annum, and in 2012, the Phillips Foundation was their largest contribution. In 2011, it was the second largest contribution after a relatively large (for the Foundation’s size) contrigution to Hillsdale College in Michigan (someone’s alma mater, probably. In both cases, Pat gave $20,ooo to keep Right Wing “journalism” lucrative.
Fred Barnes greets Tom Phillips @ Novak Awards Dinner 2014-05-05
And old Pat was the 2008 AND 2012 “Honorary Dinner Chairman”:
Wheel of Misfortune
- 2012 Pat Sajak
- 2011 Donald Rumsfeld
- 2010 Edwin Meese III
- 2009 Edwin Feulner (Founder of Heritage Foundation)
- 2008 Pat Sajak
- 2007 Fred Malek
- 2006 Michael Grebe
- 2005 Peter Kann
- 2004 Richard Gilder (Über-rich hedge fund manager.)
- 2003 Steve Forbes (self-made inherited millionaire)
Hey what’s a little agit-prop among friends?
Novak Fellowships: seducing and cementing loyalty in young right-wing “journalists” on the taxpayers’ dime since at least the last century.
Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship Program [RNJFP] FAQ’s 1. Who is eligible to apply? Working print and online journalists with less than 10 years of professional experience in journalism are eligible to apply. Each applicant may submit only one fellowship proposal per year. Applicants must be citizens of the United States. 2. What types of fellowship grants are offered? The Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship Program offers full-time $50,000 gold fellowships and part-time $25,000 silver fellowships. The gold fellowships include a $40,000 fellowship grant and up to $10,000 to reimburse expenses. The silver fellowships comprise a $20,000 grant and up to $5,000 for expenses. Full-time fellowship winners are expected to devote their full energies to completing their one-year fellowship and should not be employed elsewhere. Part-time fellowship winners may continue employment during the term of their one-year fellowship. 3. What topics are of interest to the Novak Journalism Fellowship judges? Fellowship proposals should focus on journalism supportive of American culture and a free society. This program was created to provide fellowships for projects to be undertaken by journalists who share our mission to advance constitutional principles, a democratic society and a vibrant free enterprise system. In addition to the regular fellowships, we may award special fellowships on the environment, on free enterprise, and on law enforcement. Please view the list of Fellowship winners by year to see the projects that were awarded fellowship grants. 4. If I’m granted a Fellowship how do I submit my project? During the course of the one-year fellowship, the journalism project will be delivered in four quarterly installments and should be double-spaced and no more than 25-30 pages. Each installment should be formatted to have the potential to be published sequentially in a periodical or all together as a book. 5. What is the schedule of grant, and expense payments? In addition to the funds set aside to reimburse the Fellow’s expenses ($10,000 for a full-time fellowship and $5,000 for a part-time fellowship), the fellowship grant will be paid in four increments to correspond with completion of the quarterly writing installments. An installment must be judged acceptable by the Trustees before payment of the corresponding increment.
Welcome to the program…
Here is an announcement of the program in 1999:
Phillips Foundation Promotes “Objective Journalism” By the Phillips Foundation [= Press Release] CNS Information Services 16 December, 1999
(CNSNews.com) – The Maryland-based Phillips Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1990 to advance the cause of objective journalism, is now accepting applications for one full-time fellowship ($50,000) and two part-time fellowships ($25,000 each) for working journalists who wish to complete a one-year project focusing on “journalism supportive of American culture and a free society.”
Working journalists (US citizens) with less than five years of professional experience in print journalism are eligible to apply for the Year 2000 Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellowship Program.
The Foundation said it established this annual journalism fellowship program to assist print journalists who share the Foundation’s mission to advance constitutional principles, a democratic society and a vibrant free enterprise system….
And the kicker?
Your application is judged by a panel of trustees in March after which Finalists will be invited to our offices in Washington, D.C., in April for interviews with the judges. Winners are selected that day. Winners will be announced to the public at an awards dinner held in May each year at the National Press Club. Applications packets should be postmarked no later than February 11, 2014 and mailed to …
Hoorah.
Who is Regnery Press/Eagle Publishing/American Spectator Magazine, et al?
Phillips controls one of America’s most potent print media feifdoms: through his various subsidiaries, he publishes THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR (which was, you might recall, originally funded by Richard Mellon Scaife, and was the source of the so-called “Arkansas Project” and “Troopergate” — see David Brock’s BLINDED BY THE RIGHT for details), and HUMAN EVENTS which has a stable of writers that’s a veritable who’s who of Republican/Conservative poisoned penmanship: Ann Coulter, Newt Gingrich, Robert Novak, Michelle Malkin, Pat Buchanan etc. etc.
Regnery Publishing? THE conservative publisher. Gleaned for their website:
Best Sellers Recent bestsellers of the company [Regnery] include Gary Aldrich’s Unlimited Access, Barbara Olson’s Hell to Pay, Goldberg’s Bias and several others. The company is presently located in Washington, DC. It is a sister company of conservative newspaper Human Events.*
Notable books published by Regnery in 2004 include:
- John E. O’Neill and Jerome E. Corsi, Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry. ISBN 0895260174.
- Robert Patteron, Reckless Disregard: How Liberal Democrats Undercut Our Military, Endanger Our Soldiers, and Jeopardize Our Security. ISBN 0895260867.
- Michelle Malkin, In Defense of Internment: The Case for “Racial Profiling” in World War II and the War on Terror. ISBN 0895260514.
- David Horowitz, Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left. ISBN 089526076X.
Oh, and let’s not forget the book that started a certain Neocon writer on her quest for bestsellerdom:
High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton Ann H. Coulter, Hardcover, 358 Pages, Regnery Publishing, August 1998.
According to Wikipedia: “One of the first well-known books [Regnery] published (in 1951) was God and Man at Yale by William F. Buckley, Jr.” […]
Sajak hosting The Phillips Foundation’s Novak Awards Dinner–05/08/2012
Hey, but what’s a little incest among friends?
Courage.
* Remember that it was Sajak’s over-the-top ‘racism’ screed in Human Events that sparked “The Small-Minded Bigotry of Pat Sajak” in the first place. He seems to now be trying to have the “racism” argument BOTH ways….
UPDATE: He’s claiming it was all just a ‘parody.’ Right.
Pat Sajak: Climate change tweet ‘parody’ Kendall Breitman / Politico
“Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak returned to Twitter to let his follower [sic] know his recent comment on global warming was just “hyperbole.” — “As most of you know, original Tweet was intended to parody the name-calling directed at climate skeptics…
Other ‘hilarious parodies’ like the Ku Klux Klan are also often misunderstood, I am informed …. ========================
A writer, published author, novelist, literary critic and political observer for a quarter of a quarter-century more than a quarter-century, Hart Williams has lived in the American West for his entire life. Having grown up in Wyoming, Kansas and New Mexico, a survivor of Texas and a veteran of Hollywood, Mr. Williams currently lives in Oregon, along with an astonishing amount of pollen. He has a lively blog His Vorpal Sword. This is cross-posted from his blog.
A writer, published author, novelist, literary critic and political observer for a quarter of a quarter-century more than a quarter-century, Hart Williams has lived in the American West for his entire life. Having grown up in Wyoming, Kansas and New Mexico, a survivor of Texas and a veteran of Hollywood, Mr. Williams currently lives in Oregon, along with an astonishing amount of pollen. He has a lively blog, His Vorpal Sword (no spaces) dot com.