All of that said, we're not really talking about censorship here, and there are compelling reasons besides ideology not to afford Bannon a major platform.

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Most of the people arguing that Bannon shouldn't be given that platform argue that his politics amount to thinly veiled racism and that that's beyond the pale. But whether you believe that, there is a much more fundamental question — one of just how newsworthy a subject he is and who is getting more out of these interviews.

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Bannon no longer serves in the White House. He no longer runs Breitbart. He was cut off from his financial benefactors, the Mercers, who in turn led many other key conservative allies to abandon him. He also, by his own admission, still doesn't talk to Trump, with whom he had a very public falling out. “I don’t need to talk to Donald Trump,” he said defensively in June.

But it's something else that he said in that same interview that's key. Speaking with ABC News, Bannon suggested he doesn't need to speak directly with Trump on the phone, because he already talks to him — “every day through the press and the media."

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Part of the problem with Bannon interviews today is that they are hyped as “exclusives,” and he is afforded high-profile gigs like the New Yorker one, as if he is an influential president-whisperer or leader of a major American movement. There is almost no evidence that either is the case. Yes, as Zakaria notes, Bannon is trying to spread nationalism in Europe right now, and that's a major development worth tracking.

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But these interviews are huge currency for Bannon, more so than your average subject. They provide relevance to someone without much relevance otherwise. Because he's a controversial figure and probably good for ratings, he is treated like a major “get,” when he's really more akin to a random pundit/strategist like so many other cable-TV talking heads. He may be able to speak to what drives Trump, but there are plenty of other former aides who can speak to that topic. There's little reason to believe Bannon provides any new and unusual insight, given that Trump's nationalism predates Bannon's time on the 2016 campaign and this topic has already been chewed over extensively, including in Joshua Green's wonderful book, “Devil's Bargain."