Skip to main content

Trending

  • Durham report
  • Steven Crowder
  • Tucker Carlson

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

  • Durham report
  • Steven Crowder
  • Tucker Carlson

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

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' Jesse Watters claims the FBI installed Joe Biden as president as “an intelligence op” after blackmailing him for a decade

    Video & Audio 06/05/23 7:48 PM EDT

  2. Right-wing media celebrate YouTube’s new policy allowing election misinformation

    Article 06/05/23 5:38 PM EDT

  3. Nefarious: Steve Deace’s self-proclaimed “Christo-fascist propaganda” horror movie has been playing in theaters across the US and is now streaming

    Article 06/05/23 3:48 PM EDT

  4. National TV news covered the Supreme Court decision to gut the Clean Water Act for only 21 mins

    Research/Study 06/05/23 11:54 AM EDT

  5. Donald Trump says CNN accommodated his request to change the time of his town hall to not air opposite Hannity

    Video & Audio 06/02/23 10:05 PM EDT

Pagination

  • Current page 1
  • …
  • Next page ››

In This Article

  • Steve Bannon

    Steve-Bannon-MMFA-Tag.png

Related

  1. Steve Bannon: “Close your checkbooks” to the Republican Party

    Video & Audio 06/02/23 11:33 AM EDT

  2. Media Matters weekly newsletter, June 2

    Article 06/02/23 10:58 AM EDT

  3. Anatomy of a smear campaign: How right-wing media neutralized a Pentagon effort to address white supremacy in the military

    Article 05/25/23 9:03 AM EDT

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