Author of error-filled 'Fire and Fury' book says he caused Steve Bannon's downfall

Matt Vespa
Townhall
Wed, 10 Jan 2018 10:51 UTC

The palace intrigue is everywhere with Michael Wolff's error-riddled book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House." Yet, there's also some pushback from the news media over its veracity. Maggie Haberman of The New York Times said there are parts of it that are just wrong. CNN's Jake Tapper also torched the book's accuracy. His colleague Alisyn Camerota also told her viewers that this book really isn't journalism. You would think that a book about the Trump White House would include speaking with members of the president's cabinet; Wolff did no such thing. The book caused a rift between Breitbart's soon to be former executive chairman Steve Bannon, who served as chief White House strategist, and President Trump, namely over calling Donald Trump Jr.'s July 2016 meeting with the Russians, which amounted to nothing, treasonous. Trump responded by saying that Bannon, who had already left the White House, had lost his mind. It didn't take long for Bannon's allies to bolt from him. The Mercer family, Bannon's main financial ally, decided to cut ties shortly after this blow up. Matt Drudge decided to move on, even Rush Limbaugh said he was done with him.

Bannon had returned to Breitbart News upon leaving the Trump White House last August. Even there, the board was mulling ousting the chairman. Yesterday, it was announced that Bannon would be stepping down. The man who claims responsibility for his downfall: Michael Wolff. Though he said in his appearance on The View that he does not feel good about it (via ABC News):

Bannon was a key source in Wolff's book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," and offered sharp criticism of the president and others, including his adult children.

"Shortly after arriving in this White House, [Bannon] began to understand that ... Trumpism and Donald Trump were at a significant distance from each other," Wolff said. "I think Steve wrestled with that in very, very tough ways. Ultimately, I was the recipient of his enormous frustration."

"So you're the reason he's out?" Joy Behar, one of the hosts on "The View," asked.

"I'm the reason he's out," Wolff responded.

It's certainly given the newsrooms of the Big Three-ABC, NBC, and CBS-a lot of material, flooding their evening and morning news programs about this book at the expense of burying other significant news stories that, of course, would either help Trump or trash Hillary. Newsbusters broke down the numbers:

From January 3 through January 9, the networks stuffed their evening and morning programs with over two hours of coverage of the Wolff book and the subsequent fallout for former Donald Trump aide Stephen Bannon.

But other big news, like the FBI re-opening the investigation into the Clinton Foundation scandal (11 minutes, 10 seconds) and the Dow Jones cracking the 25,000 mark (5 minutes, 46 seconds) were swamped by the Wolff book coverage (2 hours, 20 minutes, 5 seconds).

CBS was the most obsessed network, as it jammed its programs with 49 minutes and 40 seconds of coverage of the Wolff book and Bannon news. ABC wasn't far behind as it spent 46 minutes and 22 seconds on the book and its repercussions for Bannon. NBC devoted 44 minutes and 3 seconds to the Wolff and Bannon topics.

Comment: By now it has become clear that the book is full of inaccuracies and that instead of journalism, it is gossip. However, even gossip contains a kernel of truth, and both Trump and Bannon know it. The proof is that this gossip was enough to cause the rift between the two of them.