It was a a bad idea at the time. Now it’s just a brilliant mistake.
David Remnick, publisher of The New Yorker magazine had, in an uncharacteristic display of shortsightedness, invited white “nationalist” and former Breitbart executive chairman Steve Bannon to headline the “New Yorker Fest,” a multi-venued event held every October for writers and artists, ostensibly for the purpose of bringing together "a who’s-who of the arts, politics and everything in between."
First reported earlier today in the New York Times, Remnick’s original thinking was to conduct a frank interview of Bannon, which he had assured New Yorker readers would be “serious and even combative.”
“I have every intention of asking him difficult questions and engaging in a serious and even combative conversation,” Mr. Remnick said in a phone interview.
But the prospect of elevating someone as poisonous as Bannon, formerly Donald Trump's Chief Strategist, to spout his glib, pseudo-intellectual brand of racism and thinly disguised hatemongering raised serious hackles among New Yorker subscribers, not to mention the other participants in the event.
The backlash was immediate and vehement from the New Yorker’s fan base and employees alike.
Following the announcement that Steve Bannon would be headlining the New Yorker Festival this October, subscribers, celebrities, and even the magazine’s own employees turned to Twitter to vent their frustrations. With director Judd Apatow, comedian John Mulaney, actor Jim Carrey, and musician Jack Antonoff all announcing they had withdrawn from their participation in the festival over Bannon’s inclusion. Mulaney expressed frustration with both Bannon’s presence and the way the festival announced it, tweeting “[T]his isn’t James Baldwin vs William F Buckley. This is PT Barnum level horseshit.”
The reactions on Twitter were fairly unanimous in their condemnation of what appears to be an instance of gross misjudgment in pursuit of marketing on the part of Remnick and The New Yorker.
But New York Times columnist and author Roxane Gay probably nailed it best:
By the end of the day Remnick’s own views on the matter had made a stark transformation:
“I don’t want well-meaning readers and staff members to think that I’ve ignored their concerns. I’ve thought this through and talked to colleagues––and I’ve re-considered. I’ve changed my mind. There is a better way to do this.”
The media have a dangerous tendency to want to elevate people like Bannon-- who have demonstrated their media savvy and ability to sugarcoat their noxious belief systems-- to the status of legitimate cultural “personages” whose words and thoughts merit at least consideration, if not approval, particularly if those same people have demonstrated some qualities of camera-friendly charisma.
That is a mistake. Hermann Goering was known for his guile and charm, a “figure of ebullient entertainment.”
That didn’t make him any less a fascist.