With the man who turned Breitbart "News" from a conservative outlet to one catering to "alt-right" white nationalism having now been promoted to the top ranks of Trump's National Security Council, let's take another look at just what sort of voice Steve Bannon brought to Breitbart. How he got, in other words, to the position by Donald Trump's side that he enjoys today.
One of Bannon's key changes to Breitbart was opening the platform to explicit bigots and racists. Under Bannon's leadership, Breitbart writers include the founder of an anti-LGBT hate group.
In the past, Ruse used his perch at Breitbart to peddle conspiracy theories about the hate-crime murder of gay teen Matthew Shepard. He described Shepard as a "winsome young homosexual," "achingly handsome," and "delicately chiseled," and blasted "Matthew Shepard Inc." for promoting the "lie" that homophobia contributed to his murder.
Also welcomed into the fold by Bannon: Katie McHugh, an openly racist Breitbart writer whose contribution to American political discourse include "slaves built the US the way cows built McDonalds."
As for the precise sorts of stories that Steve Bannon brought to Breitbart, they were sufficient to merit a full write-up from the Southern Poverty Law Center in the spring of last year, not long before Bannon was selected to help run Donald Trump's own similarly race-obsessed campaign.
Stories under Bannon consisted of the promotion of far-right conspiracy theories:
[Last] February, Breibart produced a short anti-Muslim video about South Carolina introducing an anti-Shariah law bill. The 51-second video pieced together video of stoning executions and harsh punishments to warn that Shariah law would undercut American justice. The claim echoed similar statements made by Anti-Muslim activists who fear that “creeping Shariah” will soon preempt the Constitution.
The promotion of racist literature:
In September 2015, a piece on the Breitbart website attacked Pope Francis for his comments about the United States welcoming more refugees by invoking the racist novel Camp of the Saints – a popular book in Alt-Right circles.
The mainstreaming of and praise for white nationalist figures:
The piece ignores the racist views of the Alt-Right founders –– white nationalists Richard Spencer, Jared Taylor and others –– instead referring to them as the movement’s “intellectuals.”
Bannon also brought to Breitbart regularly promoted features focusing on "black on white crime" and "immigrant crime," devoted to reporting incidents of crime against white Americans by non-white perpetrators—a frequent focus of white supremacist sites and, now, an effort that will be promoted by the U.S. government itself via Trump executive order.
It's not likely Steve Bannon could have obtained so much as a security clearance in any past administration—his ties to extremist figures would have probably nixed such thoughts, and Donald Trump and staff had to invent a new title in order to give Bannon a place in the White House that would not be subject to Senate approval.
Now he's on the National Security Committee, where he will be helping to guide national security policy from the very top levels. It's impossible to overstate just how radical—or insane—this move is.