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The Unlikely Defiance of the Bannon Narrative
The Hollywood Reporter
Steve Bannon’s an anti-semitic, racist, homophobe who wears a KKK hood while praying at the altar of white Jobu (google it), where his pinned voodoo dolls consist of the liberal triumvirate; Hillary, Barack and Joy Behar. It’s true because I heard it on CNN. “President-elect Trump’s choice of Steve Bannon as his top aide signals that white supremacists will be represented at the highest levels in Trump’s White House,” said Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) MSNBC spends countless hours handwringing over how much Bannon hates immigrants, Jews, and whatever that black movie was that just won Best Picture, yet no one heard of, but… #OscarsSoWhite.
It’s well reported Bannon made a fortune investing in that little 90’s ‘TV show about nothing’ as well as his successful stint at Breitbart, you know, that “white ethno-nationalist propaganda mill” (Southern Poverty Law Center). What is rarely mentioned was his extensive banking, M&A, and inside Hollywood deal-making experience. The Hollywood Reporter just published an interview with Bannon’s partner at The Firm, a talent management and production company where the uber liberal Jeff Kwatinetz manages to filet the media’s Bannon narrative while skewering almost every one of his fellow progressives. Imagine your pleasure in watching THR readers’s heads explode all across L.A.’s Westside. Better get your umbrella SoCal, as there’s a 100% chance it will be raining botox.
Jeff Kwatinetz, Bannon’s former Hollywood business partner, now says he can’t take it anymore so he has decided to go on the record for the first time with The Hollywood Reporter.
As a liberal, I don’t judge people on their politics, I judge them on their character, and from what I knew then and what I know now, Steve has great character. He’s not a racist or anti-Semitic. Things like that are absurd.
Did you ever witness anything that could be interpreted as anti-Semitic?
I know that he’s not anti-Semitic. I am absolutely positive that he’s not anti-Semitic or racist. It is absurd. I am Jewish, Roy Furman was Jewish, Andrew Breitbart was Jewish. He is not anti-Semitic. Period.
So why does MSNBC keep talking about him being anti-Semitic?
Because they’re wrong.
Why isn’t anyone else in Hollywood sticking up for him like you are now?
I don’t believe that’s true. I know of two others who talked to reporters on background whose statements were ignored, as were mine.
You speaking in defense of Bannon — is that dangerous to your career?
It’s dangerous because people want to believe what they’ve been told to believe. I’m telling you that the guy is a good person. I know it. And if it hurts my career to tell the truth about someone, then I guess it’s going to have to hurt my career, because he is a good person.
Kwatinetz sounds genuine and rich enough to not care (partly due to deals he did with Bannon). He recalled employees pleading with him to come out and tell their truth about working with Bannon. As a staunch liberal who states he has given seven figures to the DCCC [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee], liberal presidential candidates and others, he has no reason to risk being cast out by his own tribe, other than he feels he had to tell the truth.
I have Republican friends and Democrat friends, but I saw a study last week that said most people in California who voted for Hillary Clinton don’t have any friends who voted for Trump, and I believe that. Democrats think Republicans are devils and Republicans think Democrats are devils. But Steve is not a devil. He’s a great guy, and if it gets me in trouble for telling the truth, then it gets me in trouble.
At a time when it feels we have all returned to our corners, and our communication breakdown is going from bad to worse we need more folks to speak the truth. It’s good to know some integrity remains in the Hollywood Left.
Bravo, Mr. Kwatinetz.
Published in General
Look who just popped up.
I disagree.
It’s not almost a cliche. It is a cliche. :)
Krauthammer said this almost 15 years ago, and I’m reasonably sure that he was not the first.
Back in the 90s I and many others said the Democrats are the evil party and Republicans are the stupid party.
That was before the Republicans proved they are evil, too.
“Imagine your pleasure in watching THR readers’s heads explode all across L.A.’s Westside. Better get your umbrella SoCal, as there’s a 100% chance it will be raining botox.”
I laugh every time I think of this quote.
Dave,
I don’t think my avatar (Andrew Breitbart, may he RIP) would have been a “Breitbart reader” after his empire was taken over by Steve Bannon — Andrew was above all else a truth teller. But after Andrew’s untimely death, Bannon turned his creation into a propaganda organ. I consider it a betrayal of Andrew’s ideals.
I never read the Breitbart site anymore (though I enjoy very much listening to Breitbart’s man in England, James Delingpole).
That’s exactly what Megan Barth (who worked with Andrew) just said in my most recent podcast. Media would be wise to get back to that.