Welcome to the Breitbart era: Steve Bannon's former site is the new monarch of right-wing media
FRIDAY, AUG 18, 2017 08:00 AM EDT
Welcome to the Breitbart era: Steve Bannon’s former site is the new monarch of right-wing media
Breitbart News has elected a president, reshaped the media landscape and eclipsed Fox News and Rush Limbaugh
HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
So in the midst of a national firestorm over neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates coming together under the banner of white nationalism to “Unite the Right” last weekend in Charlottesville, presidential adviser Steve Bannon, former publisher of Breitbart News, the self-proclaimed “platform of the alt-right,” decided out of the blue to call up Robert Kuttner of the liberal American Prospect to chew the fat. Kuttner told Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi that he believes Bannon when he says he forgot to say it was off the record and that he really saw it as “a candid strategy talk with a comrade.” Kuttner said:
Bannon simultaneously tries to make alliances with lefties on economic nationalism, while doubling down on the racist, anti-immigrant stuff, and assumes that people will naively work with him on selected issues and excuse his larger role. It’s classic hubris.
If Bannon had been able to persuade his boss to tackle infrastructure right out of the gate when the Democrats were still reeling in disbelief, and if he had distanced himself from the worst elements of the right once he took office, that might even have worked. But that also would have required the boss to be someone other than who he is.
People have been focusing on Bannon’s comments that the far right are “losers” who need to be crushed, and his taunting of the left, which he hopes will “keep talking about race” so Team Trumpists can win on economic nationalism. This is disingenuous to say the least. To the extent Bannon truly believes that the neo-Nazis are “losers,” it’s largely a matter of aesthetics. As Vice reporter Elle Reed explained on MSNBC on Wednesday, the “alt-right” is re-branding itself as the new fascism:
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http://www.salon.com/2017/08/18/welcome-to-the-breitbart-era-steve-bannons-former-site-is-the-new-monarch-of-right-wing-media/
