Steve Bannon, innovator in weaponized news, is hoist with his own petard: Keith Boag

He's gone, but give Steve Bannon credit.

The former Breitbart CEO turnedsenior strategist in President Donald Trump's White House was one shrewdinnovator in the dark arts of weaponized news, and he was able to parlaythat into the biggest political upset in modern American history.

But it looks as if Bannon's skill in manipulating media might have helped spark the friendly fire that killed his political career.

It might be that this skillwas what made Bannon the primesuspect when Oval Office gossip turned against the national security adviser, Gen. H. R. McMaster, as it did this month.

Were it not for neo-Nazis, North Korea, Russia, the Mooch, etc., thiswould have been the talk of Washington for weeks.

Day after day the Breitbart home page has opened with a story, even two,about Bannon's nemesis, McMaster recall it was McMaster who, soonafter joining the White House team, removed Bannon from the NationalSecurity Council.

Breitbart had it that McMaster is a closet globalist (Aug. 2), anti-Israel,pro-Iran and soft on terror (Aug. 3) too politically correct (Aug. 4) andunstable (Aug. 4) "Report: H.R. McMaster 'Increasingly Volatile' and 'Frequently BlowsHis Top'".

Those are just some of many examples, but the take has always been thesame: the nationalsecurityadviser is an enemy of the Trump agenda anda globalist with Democratic tendencies. Breitbart was relentless.

Former Breitbart staffer Ben Shapiro doubts Bannon was dictating tohis former staff. He insisted to the New York Times this week that Bannonas leaker "doesn't make a lot of sense" because "it's too obvious."

But when you look at many of the Breitbart stories about McMaster theyare actually sourced in other media Politico, the Atlantic, the JerusalemPost and that's exactly the tactic Bannon bragged of using in the 2016campaign, one he describes as "anchor left and pivot right."

The quote is from Devil's Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency, a page-turner for the politicalsubstance abuser by Bloomberg journalist Joshua Green. It's mostly aboutBannon.

Green describes how Bannon was seeding mainstream mediawith anti-Hillary Clinton stories even before the 2016 campaign.

Co-opting the establishment media

Bannon realized years ago that for a news story to get "the biggest blastradius" it had to first appear in the media of the liberal establishment. Andthat was true even for stories attacking the liberal establishment.

Never mind all the bluff about "fake news."Bannon saw the reputation ofthe New York Times, for example, as a guarantee that a story from itspages would seep into other media and migrate across the politicalspectrum.

By contrast, stories that begin outside the establishment mainstreamoften don't seep anywhere but remain"trapped in the conservativeecosystem."

Bannon's biggest success was Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich, whichallegedcorruption in the Clinton family and from which pre-publicationstory lines were exclusively shared with the New York Times and theWashington Post.

Clinton Cash was written by Peter Schweizer, but Greenreports the mastermind behind the whole project, including its rollout,was Bannon.

In any case, Bannon just doesn't sound like a guy who could cut himself offfrom the place where he used to work at the moment it's covering theplace where he now works or did until Friday. He even hada waiver fromgovernment ethics rules that allowedhim to contact Breitbart whenever hewanted.

So with all of that happening around him, is it any wonder McMasterand his friend, the new chief of staff Gen. John Kelly, would see aproblem and resolve to fix it?

More enemies: The Trump family

Bannon's enemies beyond the generals are understood to have come toinclude the Trump family who, understandably, believe that only theytruly have their father's interests at heart.

Whether Bannon's exit signals a divorce from other members of theBreitbart wing of Trump's base will become clear over time.

The billionaire Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah were key backersof Trump's campaign and investors in Breitbart. It was they who insistedBannon take control of Trump's campaign last summer and that he bringon Kellyanne Conway. How will that play out?

There remain in the White House other Bannon allies with lines toBreitbart. Sebastian Gorka, who sometimes seems he could have a role in The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, is the foreign affairs adviser to thepresident. He holds a PhDthat's been described by serious academics as"mail order" level and was once national security editor for Breitbart. Is helong for his White Housejob?

Generals vs. Valkyries?

Julia Hahn, a special assistant to the president, is ex-Breitbart. She wasone of threereporters that Bannon dubbed "theValkyries."In Devil's BargainBannon says of Hahn, "when she comesinto your life, shit gets f...ed up."

It's possible the generals won't wanttheir shit f...ed up.

They apparently didn't want someone who enjoys thinking about the"blast radius" when leaking news stories and they put an end to it.

It seems a long time ago (or was it only yesterday?) that White Houseofficials were clutching their pearls aboutleakers andthreatening dire consequences if they ever caught one.

It seems they finally have. Must feel good.