Late last week, president-elect Donald Trump announced that he was picking Steve Bannon to serve as his chief strategist in the White House, setting up Bannon to be one of Trump's most influential advisers. The announcement brought immediate outrage given Bannon's history as a filmmaker and chairman of Breitbart News, a website that cultivates and promotes anti-Semitic, racist and white nationalist propaganda in the name of the so-called Alt-Right movement.
“Stephen Bannon was the main driver behind Breitbart becoming a white ethno-nationalist propaganda mill,” wrote a representative for The Southern Poverty Law Center on the group's Twitter account. “Trump should rescind this hire. In his victory speech, Trump said he intended to be president for 'all Americans.' Bannon should go.”
"The appointment of Stephen Bannon as a top Trump administration strategist sends the disturbing message that anti-Muslim conspiracy theories and White nationalist ideology will be welcome in the White House," added Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "We urge President-elect Trump to reconsider this ill-advised appointment if he truly seeks to unite Americans."
Indeed, the stories crafted by Breitbart are cause for concern for anyone interested in basic matters of human rights, fairness, and equity. To get some idea of the kind of propaganda the site published under Bannon's leadership, don't just take our word for it, check out these 13 troubling headlines.
