The New Yorker Invites Steve Bannon to Headline Literary Festival

The New Yorker magazine, a publication renowned for its high-brow content, is charging fans $59 to hear former White House chief strategist speak about “the ideology of Trumpism” at an upcoming literary festival. News that Bannon will be headlining The New Yorker Festival in October sparked immediate backlash on Monday, with fellow festival speaker Judd Apatow saying he's “out” if Bannon was at the event. “I will not take part in an event that normalizes hate. I hope the New Yorker will do the right thing and cancel the Steve Bannon event. Maybe they should read their own reporting about his ideology,” he wrote on Twitter. Other users also vowed to cancel their New Yorker subscription over the publication’s decision to give Bannon a platform. “This normalizing of fascism and white supremacy is a disgrace,” author Mona Eltahawy wrote on Twitter, echoing the sentiments of many other writers and journalists. New Yorker editor David Remnick, who is due to interview Bannon at the festival, told The New York Times he plans to ask him “difficult questions” and engage in an “even combative conversation.” “The audience itself, by its presence, puts a certain pressure on a conversation that an interview alone doesn’t do,” he said. The festival, which runs from Oct. 5-7, will also feature Parkland activist David Hogg, as well as writers like Haruki Murakami and Zadie Smith.