America's Great Divide: Steve Bannon (first interview) | FRONTLINE
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN people recommend it as an unfiltered way to understand Bannon's worldview and the populist movement, and praise PBS for releasing full interviews.
What it is
The full, long-form FRONTLINE interview with Steve Bannon, recorded in 2019 for the documentary series on the Obama-to-Trump era. He discusses his populist politics, the Trump campaign and White House, and his view of the establishment.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2021 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec nwienert · 2021-01 · on “YouTube bans Steve Bannon's podcast channel”
If you want to genuinely understand the other side and not comfort yourself by relying on simple slanderous slurs to do the work, this is worth at least an hour of your time: [this video]
Recommends j8hn · 2021-01 · on “Two Worlds: So Much Prosperity, So Much Skepticism”
After the 2016 election I was really curious as to how Trump could be elected. Most of my peers brushed it off as dumb, racist white people, but I really wanted to understand. Especially since I had family who had voted for him who I don't consider to be dumb or racist. I'm from the coast and live in the city. When taking a road trip through the Midwest, it hit me that people from the rust belt and rural areas had to vote for his message. Honestly it was depressing to see the decaying factories and poverty stricken areas. He was giving them hope and was going to fight for them. Anyway, I may be wrong but that's just my perspective. Someone posted this video here yesterday with Steve Bannon e
Cites lettergram · 2022-10 · on “Most Americans think money comes before mission at U.S. news organizations”
I don’t think you’re necessarily wrong. PBS generally has been some of the best news / reporting I’ve seen. That said, it’s still driven by ideology — “good” being defined by someone. You can see it in the titles of their documentaries and programming. If you go through their programming objectively and put yourselves in the mindset the opposing side it becomes rather clear. This includes things like portraying nationalism as bad or Christianity as evil (see some of their frontline documentaries) While the bias is there. PBS is generally one of the least bias in the space, I think that’s what makes it so frustrating. A slight improvement in breadth and depth would make it amazing. I also hav
Cites lettergram · 2022-11 · on “American society is so focused on race that it is blind to class”
Lol this is why Trump was elected… it’s what makes the “establishment” of both parties oppose him. It’s why we are constantly reminded by the economist that “republicans and trump are racists”. Steve Bannon actually explains this quite well in a PBS Frontline interview [this video] It’s infuriating to constantly have the Economist pushing the idea “the country is racist” or “so and so is racist” for many years now. Only to point out what most people know - a poor person in west Virginia is likely to be white, and have more in common with a poor black person from DC than a wealthy white person from DC.
Cites bilegeek · 2025-03 · on “How each pillar of the First Amendment is under attack”
Not just an inferred point, it's been explicitly stated before. In the longer form interviews (can't find everything in full at the moment), the context is the news media in particular, but it applies to the general public as well. [1] [LINK] [2] [this video] (short clip) [3] [LINK] (another short clip)