Steve Bannon Was Pulled From The New Yorker Fest After Several Participants Quit
Since 1999, The New Yorker magazine has held The New Yorker Festival, which sounds like an appreciation event for the thousands of doctor’s offices that always make sure there’s a fresh three-year-old copy in the waiting room. It’s an event held over multiple days in which audiences can listen to “a who’s-who of the arts, politics and everything in between” talk. This year, the line-up included former White House Boglin and “little wannabe writer” Steve Bannon. However, after more famous attendees quit the festival, Steve Bannon has been removed from the lineup.
It was announced yesterday that Trump’s former bestie and chief strategist would be interviewed by The New Yorker editor David Remnick. It didn’t take long for the internet, as well as some notable names on the festival lineup, to call out The New Yorker for giving him a platform. And others just flat-out quit, like Judd Apatow, who claimed that Steve’s invitation was an example of “normalizing hate.”
If Steve Bannon is at the New Yorker festival I am out. I will not take part in an event that normalizes hate. I hope the @NewYorker will do the right thing and cancel the Steve Bannon event. Maybe they should read their own reporting about his ideology.
— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) September 3, 2018
He can speak as much as he likes. Let him go rant in Central Park. No business is obligated to interview hateful people. Plenty of people weren’t invited. They have the freedom to make that choice. I have the freedom to refuse to share a festival with him. https://t.co/sWr0kSR6ib
— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) September 3, 2018
Jim Carrey, who really isn’t a fan of the current administration, also implied he was out.
Bannon? And me? On the same program?
Could never happen.
— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) September 3, 2018
Both Patton Oswalt and Jimmy Fallon bailed.
I’m out. https://t.co/JkIOGqCxaM
— jimmy fallon (@jimmyfallon) September 3, 2018
John Mulaney too:
I’m out. I genuinely support public intellectual debate, and have paid to see people speak with whom I strongly disagree. But this isn’t James Baldwin vs William F Buckley. This is PT Barnum level horseshit. And it was announced on a weekend just before tix went on sale. https://t.co/oYk1llNgvV
— John Mulaney (@mulaney) September 3, 2018
The New Yorker Festival must have realized it was going to be pretty hard to sell tickets when all their big-name headliners were dropping out, so they uninvited Steve Bannon. David Remnick also attempted to argue that Steve Bannon’s invitation wasn’t to “normalize hate,” but to take the “opportunity to question” someone who created Trumpism. Okay, surely The New Yorker isn’t that out of touch? Oh wait.
A statement from David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, explaining his decision to no longer include Steve Bannon in the 2018 New Yorker Festival. pic.twitter.com/opayiw5GQ2
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) September 3, 2018
New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell had some feelings about that, saying: “Call me old-fashioned, but I would have thought that the point of a festival of ideas was to expose the audience to ideas.” And Steve Bannon himself was pretty pissed, telling The Wall Street Journal:
“After being contacted several months ago and with seven weeks of continual requests for this event, I accepted The New Yorker’s invitation with no thought of an honorarium. The reason for my acceptance was simple: I would be facing one of the most fearless journalists of his generation. In what I would call a defining moment, David Remnick showed he was gutless when confronted by the howling online mob.”
So I guess now if Steve Bannon wants to talk about his dirty plot to get someone like Trump elected, he’s going to have to take Judd Apatow’s advice and rant in Central Park. He might even get some audience run-off from The New Yorker Festival. Like The New Yorker’s famous dandy Eustace Tilley staring through his monocle while muttering: “My goodness, has hot dog cart water taken human form?”
Pic: ITV via Wenn.com