![]() ![]() Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. In " News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in-especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now. We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. Even Trump gussied up his overpriced vitamins with more hoopla back in the day.īy signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from Mother Jones and our partners. ![]() The guide was such a lackluster effort that I felt like Bannon really didn’t have his heart in this one, as if he knew he was the most improbable Wellness Warrior ever to grace right-wing media, or get de-platformed from YouTube. If you’ve got symptoms, it recommends even bigger doses of D and Zinc, plus as much Vitamin C as your bowels can handle (really!) and some extra nebulizing. For those seeking to prevent a virus, it recommends using a nebulizer two or three times a day, with a mix of saline and hydrogen peroxide eating 1/3 teaspoon of pink Himalayan salt throwing back massive doses of zinc, Vitamin D and probiotics and imbibing a gallon of water per day. Instead, the guide ran a paltry two paragraphs, barely a few bullet points. Somehow, I’d imagined it would suggest a hot toddy, a cigar, and a dose of anti-malaria drugs for a case of COVID. But I did get the download link for the viral defense guide and was immediately disappointed. Or maybe that was just a happy coincidence. Warily, I typed in my card number and hit submit. Instead, I looked forward to getting the War Room “guide” to better health, and keenly anticipated Bannon divulging the secret behind his distinctive greyish-pink pallor with the select few willing to risk putting credit card numbers into his website. I declined to take this a year-long experiment. But I did get multiple opportunities to subscribe to monthly miracle immunity boosters, sent direct to my home-because “Taking zinc and D3 for just one month is NOT the answer.” In fact, the website told me, unless I’m eating oysters and red meat for every meal, and spend hours outside in the sun, “You are probably zinc & D3 deficient.” I could cure my deficiency by simply signing up for the low, low price of $44 a month-plus free shipping! After all, who could resist getting health advice from the likes of Steve Bannon? As you might expect, the free sample turned out not to be free, exactly. This being a slow news day, I decided to go down the rabbit hole and sign up for the free sample. Bannon is clearly tapping into that demographic. Despite a lack of any scientific evidence, lots of conspiracy theorists, and fanatical promoters of hydroxychloroquine as a COVID cure and prophylactic, believe zinc and Vitamin D can cure or prevent COVID. But the savvy consumer will be able to read through the lines. Yet Bannon now appears in ads on his website for “The War Room Defense Pack,” a collection of zinc and Vitamin D3, with the slogan, “You can’t fight if you’re sick!” Anyone ordering a free sample is treated to a complimentary “War Room Viral Defense Guide,” which doesn’t come right out and say it’s offering a COVID cure, lest Bannon run into trouble with the FDA. People have called Bannon a lot of things over the years. But like many a far-right media figure, including Trump himself (once upon a time), Bannon is now hawking vitamins as a “Wellness Warrior.” Check out our most recent coverage of the coronavirus crisis, and subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.įormer Trump adviser and former Breitbart News chief Steve Bannon does not radiate “pinnacle of health.” The portly, cigar-smoking, possibly former alcoholic is not known for his workout ethic. The coronavirus is a rapidly developing news story, so some of the content in this article might be out of date. ![]()
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