Skip to main content

Trending

  • Meta
  • Debt ceiling
  • Twitter

Social Media Menu

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Utility Navigation

  • Take Action
  • Search
  • Donate

Media Matters for America

Main navigation

  • News & Analysis
  • Research & Studies
  • Audio & Video
  • Archives

Media Matters for America

  • Nav
  • Search

Main navigation

  • News & Analysis
  • Research & Studies
  • Audio & Video
  • Archives

Trending

  • Meta
  • Debt ceiling
  • Twitter

Utility Navigation

  • Take Action
  • Search
  • Donate

Social Media Menu

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
steve bannon
Sarah Wasko / Media Matters

Steve Bannon rails against student debt forgiveness then brags about his Ivy League degree

Real America’s Voice producers reportedly get paid $30,000 a year

Written by Madeline Peltz

Published 08/25/22 1:52 PM EDT

Share

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Print

Comment

  • Comments

On the August 25 edition of War Room: Pandemic, Steve Bannon bragged about his Ivy League degree after railing against debt forgiveness, and claimed that his audience would get a “better education” watching his conspiracy theory-driven show than they would at Harvard Business School.

Video file

Citation From the August 25, 2022, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room: Pandemic

In the previous segment, Bannon decried student loan forgiveness, and said “if the [degrees] weren’t worthless, they’d be able to have jobs that could pay it off. The terms of these loans are not that brutal.”

Notably, Real America’s Voice, the channel that carries the show, pays their producers $30,000 a year, according to the Washington Post.

In a studio outside Denver, next door to a youth prison, 15 or 20 people put Real America’s Voice on air. Many are in their 20s or 30s and earn about $30,000 per year, said current and former employees.

Forgiveness of student debt could be life-changing for the Real America’s Voice staff working for such a low wage.

On top of that, Bannon admits himself that he screams at his underpaid staff, including his own daughter, describing the War Room as a “hostile work environment.”

Video file

Citation From the June 7, 2022, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room: Pandemic

Additionally, Jennifer Senior reported for The Atlantic that while shadowing Bannon for a profile, she witnessed him screaming at his staff:

You allowed it to happen, you stupid motherfucker!”

This is what Bannon sounds like when he loses it. I had heard about his famous temper, but had yet to witness it in real time.

“You know why? ’Cause you don’t give a shit.”

The target of his pique is one of his employees. I will later feel terrible about this and apologize. He is yelling at the employee based on a mistake I made—I’d been pestering Bannon about a bizarre newsletter that I thought was issued by War Room but in fact came from a fan site. Bannon thought the employee was to blame.

“If I didn’t give a shit, I wouldn’t be here doing this stuff,” the employee replies.

“Bullshit,” Bannon says. “You’re doing this for a fucking paycheck. Go fuck yourself.” He then calmly turns to Cameron, the producer. “Do we have Ben at the border?” Suddenly the tantrum has the quality of WWE wrestling—dialed up for my benefit, a performance.

Was it for my benefit? I ask the employee.

He shakes his head. No. He stares at his computer, grim-faced.

The Latest

  1. Fox News hosts say Fox employees don’t take sick days, “we just come in and cough all over each other”

    Video & Audio 02/03/23 6:19 PM EST

  2. Facebook struggled to control election misinformation in 2022. Now it is letting Trump, the leader of the election denial movement, back on the platform.

    Article 02/03/23 12:55 PM EST

  3. LA Times’ sympathetic profile of Fox News’ Bill Melugin lets him off the hook for his role in the network’s racism

    Article 02/03/23 12:18 PM EST

  4. Daily Wire host complains about a Spanish GOP response to the State of the Union: “We're going to out-woke the woke”

    Video & Audio 02/03/23 11:37 AM EST

  5. Tucker Carlson gave a friendly, conspiracy-laden interview to notorious 9-11 Truther and anti-vaxxer Catherine Austin Fitts

    Article 02/03/23 11:11 AM EST

Pagination

  • Current page 1
  • …
  • Next page ››

In This Article

  • Steve Bannon

    Steve-Bannon-MMFA-Tag.png
Comments
0 Comments
Share Count
0 Shares

Related

  1. Matt Schlapp tells Steve Bannon CPAC will be “a little bit Hungarian” in its treatment of the press

    Video & Audio 02/02/23 12:24 PM EST

  2. Steve Bannon on Speaker McCarthy's remarks after meeting with Biden about debt limit: “It's the best I've ever seen McCarthy”

    Video & Audio 02/01/23 5:33 PM EST

  3. Sheriff Mark Dannels uses frequent right-wing media appearances to demonize immigrants and push falsehoods about the border

    Article 01/31/23 2:29 PM EST

Media Matters for America

Sign up for email updates

Footer menu

  • About
  • Contact
  • Corrections
  • Submissions
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

Social Media Menu

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

© 2023 Media Matters for America