Media

Obama: Bannon, Breitbart shifted media narrative in ‘powerful direction’

by Joe Concha - 11/02/17 10:34 AM ET

Former President Barack Obama said during a discussion in Chicago on Wednesday night that former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon and Breitbart News “did something pretty interesting” by shifting the political narrative “in a powerful direction.”

The remarks came as Obama was wrapping up the inaugural Obama Foundation Summit, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

“Bannon and Breitbart did something pretty interesting,” the 44th president said after making a surprise appearance at a discussion titled “Responsibility of Powerful Online Platforms,” according to the Sun-Times. “Now, they didn’t create a whole new platform, but they did shift the entire media narrative in a different direction — in a powerful direction.”

“The question is: Are you able to do that in reverse but to things that are true and are not designed simply to churn anger and resentment and frustration?” he said. “So solve that, will you?”

{mosads}

Some notable former Obama officials and associates were in attendance at the summit, including former chief of staff Denis McDonough and former White House photographer Pete Souza.

Bannon resigned as White House chief strategist on Aug. 18 and immediately returned to Brietbart News to serve as its executive chairman.

In 2016, Breitbart ranked 45th in the list of most-trafficked websites in the U.S., according to rankings from Amazon’s analytics company, Alexa.com.

“With over two billion page views generated in 2016 and 45 million unique monthly visitors, Breitbart News has now surpassed Fox News (#47), Huffington Post (#50), Washington Post (#53), and Buzzfeed (#64) in traffic,” the nationalist site boasted in January.

As Trump has struggled in his first year as president, with a RealClearPolitics average of polls showing him at 39 percent approval as of Thursday morning, Breitbart’s traffic has decreased considerably. But the website is still relatively robust when compared to other political sites, averaging approximately 24 million monthly viewers.

“It’s pretty obvious the mood at Breitbart is fired up and ready for war,” Breitbart political editor Matthew Boyle told The Washington Post in August.

“But the real question is whether the political class, media establishment and the swamp are ready for us. Our viewpoint of exposing failed institutions remains the same,” he added. “Now our captain is back at the helm of the pirate ship.”

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Tags Barack Obama Breitbart Denis McDonough