Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
The World is on Fire
At a 2014 party at the “Breitbart Embassy," Steve Bannon promised a remaking of AmericaSource: Vice
In September of 2014 I went to Steve Bannon’s house for a party. I was on assignment from Rolling Stone to embed with the staff of Breitbart.com. It was supposed to be a way of illuminating the larger world of gonzo right-wing media. I had never heard of Steve Bannon himself.
The invitation — to cocktails and a seated dinner — listed the location as the “Breitbart Embassy.” It turned out to be a brick townhouse on Capitol Hill, a few blocks east of the Supreme Court building. The Embassy did triple duty as a workspace for the website’s D.C. reporters, a handsome living quarters for Bannon and other company brass, and a swank entertainment venue for a social circle drawn from Washington’s misfit conservative fringe.
Or at least, they were fringe at the time. Bannon, now arguably the surrogate president of the United States, was then Breitbart.com’s executive chairman. He moved among clusters of guests with a big smile. When I was introduced to him, I asked why he called the place the Embassy. “D.C. is like Saigon in ’68,” he said. “You don’t know who your friends are and who your enemies are.” Among friends for the moment at least, he promised that he’d set up time for the two of us to talk one-on-one, and then returned to his hosting duties.
I didn’t recognize many people at the event, aside from right-wing radio host Laura Ingraham and Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions — easily the oldest guest in a millennial crowd. I asked Sessions some questions about his relationship to Breitbart, mostly to be polite to my hosts. He surprised me by giving Breitbart credit for fatally poisoning a congressional immigration-reform deal that he himself had crusaded against. “You might not think it could” kill the bill, Sessions said, “but it did.” He told me that he read the site almost daily and that his constituents regularly quoted Breitbart articles to him by author name. “From my perspective, Breitbart is putting out cutting-edge information that’s independent, geared to the average working American, that’s honest and needs to get out.”
<snip>
During the brief time I spent with him, I never detected personal animus or malice. He was friendly and good-natured. It was clear that a sense of grievance — and awakening — had driven him to an edge zone where he sometimes, maybe often, mistook fantasy for fact. Nevertheless I took it to be genuine. Listening to my recording of our interview now, I’m struck by how much I hear myself laughing and nodding along with his points. That he wanted to gut the establishment seemed more mischievous than actually sinister. Clearly I didn’t understand what he was trying to tell me.
The invitation — to cocktails and a seated dinner — listed the location as the “Breitbart Embassy.” It turned out to be a brick townhouse on Capitol Hill, a few blocks east of the Supreme Court building. The Embassy did triple duty as a workspace for the website’s D.C. reporters, a handsome living quarters for Bannon and other company brass, and a swank entertainment venue for a social circle drawn from Washington’s misfit conservative fringe.
Or at least, they were fringe at the time. Bannon, now arguably the surrogate president of the United States, was then Breitbart.com’s executive chairman. He moved among clusters of guests with a big smile. When I was introduced to him, I asked why he called the place the Embassy. “D.C. is like Saigon in ’68,” he said. “You don’t know who your friends are and who your enemies are.” Among friends for the moment at least, he promised that he’d set up time for the two of us to talk one-on-one, and then returned to his hosting duties.
I didn’t recognize many people at the event, aside from right-wing radio host Laura Ingraham and Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions — easily the oldest guest in a millennial crowd. I asked Sessions some questions about his relationship to Breitbart, mostly to be polite to my hosts. He surprised me by giving Breitbart credit for fatally poisoning a congressional immigration-reform deal that he himself had crusaded against. “You might not think it could” kill the bill, Sessions said, “but it did.” He told me that he read the site almost daily and that his constituents regularly quoted Breitbart articles to him by author name. “From my perspective, Breitbart is putting out cutting-edge information that’s independent, geared to the average working American, that’s honest and needs to get out.”
<snip>
During the brief time I spent with him, I never detected personal animus or malice. He was friendly and good-natured. It was clear that a sense of grievance — and awakening — had driven him to an edge zone where he sometimes, maybe often, mistook fantasy for fact. Nevertheless I took it to be genuine. Listening to my recording of our interview now, I’m struck by how much I hear myself laughing and nodding along with his points. That he wanted to gut the establishment seemed more mischievous than actually sinister. Clearly I didn’t understand what he was trying to tell me.
Read more: https://news.vice.com/story/steve-bannon-breitbart-white-house
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
