Bannon stands alone

OPINION:

Steve Bannon - for one brief, glorious day - unified what had been a fractured, combative and disunified conservative media community (such as it is.) Since the rise of Donald Trump’s candidacy in late 2015, the reporters, pundits and thought leaders on the right have been bickering, sniping and debating with each other about the very future of our political movement and the ideological purity of the publications we work for. 

But not Wednesday, January 3, 2018. 

On that day, Steve Bannon, the former White House adviser and Executive Chairman of Breitbart News was able to do what no politician, no media figure and no big money donor or investor has been capable of doing. He brought us all together for a unified cause: 

To denounce, ridicule and condemn… Steve Bannon

After President Trump’s scorching and devastating statement about his former “staffer” it was virtually impossible to find anyone to say anything in defense of Bannon. And that’s not much of a surprise because for as long as Bannon has been involved in the conservative media he has engaged in a scorched earth agenda. 

Bannon is finally reaping what he has sown in the conservative media. After eight years making documentaries, hosting fringe radio programs, taking the reins of Breitbart after the death of its founder, Andrew Breitbart, and eventually transitioning to the Trump campaign and White House, Bannon stands alone. 

Unlike Breitbart (the man) who routinely sought to unify voices on the right in opposition of what Andrew called “the Democrat Media Complex,” Bannon enjoyed a policy of chaos. He used the website as a weapon (his own words) to destroy his enemies, and his enemies were often websites, publications and broadcasters who he felt were not ideologically pure enough for his unique and unorthodox Jacskonian/Roosevelt vision of the conservative movement. 

After several years of attacking fine people at The Daily Caller, Townhall, National Review, The Blaze, Weekly Standard, Red State and Hot Air (not to mention multitudes of talk radio hosts and even a good portion of analysts, reporters and anchors on Fox News,) Bannon’s chickens finally came home to roost. 

While I was covering the story in real time on my radio program on WMAL in Washington, I invited Dr. Sebastian Gorka on to try to bring some balance to the proceedings. Gorka is a Bannon ally who is also loyally devoted to President Trump. He perfectly represents the dilemma so many found themselves in yesterday. “Do I stand with Bannon or POTUS” many were asking themselves.

Gorka did a fine job walking a narrow line on the topic and mostly questioned the validity of the source of the Bannon quotes (The Guardian and Michael Wolff, two usually dubious origins for stories int he conservative realm) but the flaw in this argument was that Bannon had not denied any of the comments. And surely if he wanted to he could have mobilized his formidable team at Breitbart to push back. There was nothing. 

Furthermore, Trump came out with all guns blazing against Bannon. After that statement it was pretty hard to think that Wolff or the Guardian had made up Bannon’s quotes. Listen to my exchange with Gorka here: 

When Bannon found himself on the wrong side of President Trump, even though half of the above mentioned sites are still publishing content in opposition of Trump’s Administration, they all seemed to enjoy what used to be the norm: a unified and enjoyable take-down of a common enemy.

Bannon united them all. Even Drudge joined in. 

It’s astounding to behold and worth stepping back and admiring for just a moment. After all, by the end of today’s news cycle we’ll all be back to arguments over Trump’s temperament or his tweets or accusations of Russian collusion. But not now. 

Now we stand together with a unified voice facing off against our common enemy, just like we used to when Andrew Breitbart was running the site that still bears his name. 

It’s incredible and ironic that Bannon, after his years of polemic and vitriolic abuse, has become that common enemy. On election day 2016 even Hillary Clinton couldn’t do that.