Even The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Admits It Cannot Find Anti-Semitic Statements From Stephen Bannon

The left has been completely losing it over President-Elect Trump selecting Stephen Bannon as his chief adviser. They say Bannon’s a giant anti-Semite and white supremacist sympathizer, among other things.

These are the five things liberals are saying about Bannon:

• Bannon has embraced the alt right, a loose network of white nationalists and anti-Semites
• Under Bannon, Breitbart published inflammatory pieces about women, Muslims, and other groups.
• Bannon is a critic of the Republican establishment and the left.
• Bannon has held a number of positions in his career.
• We are not aware of any anti-Semitic statements from Bannon.

As Breitbart notes, “the first two claims are false. The next two claims are true, and innocuous. The final claim is exculpatory.”

The left has successfully hijacked the “alt-right” label. Most people automatically associate it with fringe weirdos. Heck, even I do. They want you to believe that the right is full of sexist white supremacists. That couldn’t be further from the truth, but they continue to say it anyway.

That aside, Breitbart denies that it’s a voice for the alt-right.

Breitbart.com is not “the premier website of the Alt Right.” The only supposed “alt-right” content on the site, among tens of thousands of articles, is one widely-cited journalistic article, “An Establishment Conservative’s Guide to the Alt-Right.”

 

Given the wide international interest in the presidential election, and the evident popularity of Trump among some portions of the alt-right (and unpopularity on the far-left), Breitbart has attracted wider attention beyond the company’s core audience of center-right and conservative readers.

 

But Breitbart is not an alt-right publication, and the daily news content of the website speaks for itself. Moreover, there are no “white nationalists and unabashed anti-Semites and racists” working at, or published by, Breitbart.

 

As one author more familiar with the alt-right noted recently, the main alt-right sites are “/r/altright, Stormfront, and 4chan’s politics board” — not Breitbart News.

But back to Bannon.  As it turns out, even the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) can’t find any proof of those claims.

“We are not aware of any anti-Semitic statements from Bannon,” they write.

While there is a long fact pattern of evidence that Breitbart served as a platform for a wide range of bigotry and there is some controversy related to statements from Mr. Bannon’s divorce proceedings in 2007, we are not aware of any anti-Semitic statements made by Bannon himself. In fact, Jewish employees of Breitbart have challenged the characterization of him and defended him from charges of anti-Semitism. Some have pointed out that Breitbart Jerusalem was launched during his tenure.

 

Nevertheless, Bannon essentially has established himself as the chief curator for the alt right. Under his stewardship, Breitbart has emerged as the leading source for the extreme views of a vocal minority who peddle bigotry and promote hate.

Apparently, if you report the truth, you’re a “platform for a wide range of bigotry.” Good to know.

Breitbart responded thusly–

The statement that “Breitbart served as a platform for a wide range of bigotry” is completely false, and reflects the ADL’s left-wing ideological orientation rather than objective reality. The statement that Bannon is “the chief curator for the alt right” is also completely false, and defamatory.

I’m sick of the left characterizing Trump supporters as a bunch of racist fringe weirdos. It’s not true. Just stop. This is really getting old.