New Yorker Disinvites Steve Bannon From Annual Festival After Headliners Pull Out

New Yorker Editor David Remnick has disinvited former White House adviser Steve Bannon from the magazine’s annual festival after numerous headliners said they would cancel their appearances if the Trump strategist was part of the event. “I don’t want well-meaning readers and staff members to think that I’ve ignored their concerns. I’ve thought this through and talked to colleagues—and I’ve re-considered. I’ve changed my mind. There is a better way to do this,” he wrote in a statement hours after the announcement that Bannon would headline The New Yorker festival. “If the opportunity presents itself, I’ll interview him in a more traditionally journalistic setting as we first discussed, and not on stage.” Remnick also explained why the magazine invited Bannon to speak in the first place, saying, “The point of an interview, a rigorous interview, particularly in a case like this, is to put pressure on the views of the person being questioned.” Celebrities including Jim Carrey, Judd Apatow, Patton Oswalt, and John Mulaney announced on social media that they would not take part in the festival with Bannon. “I’m out. I genuinely support public intellectual debate, and have paid to see people speak with whom I strongly disagree,” Mulaney tweeted. “But this isn’t James Baldwin vs William F. Buckley. This is PT Barnum level horseshit.”