This is Bannon declaring that he has successfully cultivated the public persona that he wants.
Stephen K. Bannon’s Breitbart News often accuses the media of reporting fake news, but the former White House chief strategist says the news media has something right — its depiction of him.
Here’s an excerpt of an interview Bannon gave to CBS, which will air Sunday on “60 Minutes”:
What an answer!
Let’s get one thing straight: This is not a pat on the back for accurate reporting. This is gloating. This is Bannon declaring that he has successfully cultivated the public persona that he wants.
Rose’s question was a gentle way of noting that Bannon is frequently cast as a villain — a man who has said his website is “the platform for the alt-right, ” a small, far-right movement that seeks a whites-only state, yet who has somehow insinuated himself into the top echelon of political power, even now that he is out of the White House. A book about Bannon and President Trump, by Bloomberg News reporter Joshua Green, has been on the New York Times bestsellers list for six straight weeks. It’s called “Devil’s Bargain.” Meanwhile, Politico just ranked Bannon No. 1 on a list of 50 people and ideas “blowing up American politics.”
If Bannon felt he was misunderstood, this was his opportunity to say so. Instead, he endorsed the media’s portrayal of him — and did so on “60 Minutes, ” the most “establishment” news program in America.
On Wednesday, the day that Bannon sat down with Rose, the Daily Mail’s David Martosko, whom Trump considered as a potential press secretary, quoted an unnamed White House official, who said, “For someone who liked to trash talk the media, Bannon sure is kissing up to them a lot, no?”
This official doesn’t get it. Bannon isn’t kissing up; he’s trolling. He’s telling the rest of the media — on one of the media’s biggest platforms — that they have played right into his hands by building him up as a kind of rogue figure, which only amplifies his popularity with Breitbart’s target audience.
In classic form, Bannon used the occasion of his “60 Minutes” interview to say something provocatively in-character.
A conservative like Bannon casting aspersions on the Catholic Church’s ostensibly virtuous motive? What is he thinking?
Then again, what was Trump thinking last year, when he feuded with the pope ?
Bannon, like Trump, is not a traditional conservative. More than anything, he is an anti-establishment outsider, and picking a fight with Dolan (“just another guy with an opinion”) is one more way to solidify Bannon’s image — the image the media has presented accurately.
