Milo Yiannopoulos Leaves ‘Breitbart’
Milo Yiannopoulos resigned from Breitbart News on Tuesday, following recently surfaced comments in which he appeared to defend pedophilia.
The senior editor resigned after widespread rumors that he would be fired from Breitbart, reported the Hill.
“Breitbart News has stood by me when others caved,” said Yiannopoulos.
“I would be wrong to allow my poor choice of words to detract from my colleagues’ important reporting, so today I am resigning from Breitbart, effective immediately. This decision is mine alone. They have allowed me to carry conservative and libertarian ideas to communities that would otherwise never have heard them. They have been a significant factor in my success. I’m grateful for that freedom and for the friendships I forged there.”
Milo’s resignation comes just a day after Simon & Schuster canceled a book deal with the controversial writer. CBS News reported that the book, set for release in June, was pulled by the publishing house just hours after Yiannopoulos was disinvited from this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, “because of past comments about relationships between boys and men.”
Adam Rothberg, a representative of Simon & Schuster, announced the decision to pull Milo Yiannopoulous’ book on Twitter.
Statement: After careful consideration @simonschuster and its @threshold_books have cancelled publication of Dangerous by Milo Yiannopoulos
— Adam Rothberg (@AdamRothberg) February 20, 2017
Preorders of the book were already topping Amazon’s bestseller lists, ranking 83rd overall and No. 1 in Censorship & Politics.
The controversial comments made by Yiannopoulos are from the Drunken Peasants podcast. In the video, Milo defended pedophilia, saying that the practice can give boys “security and safety and provide them with love and a reliable rock where they can’t speak to their parents.”
The New York Daily News reported that Yiannopoulos “also said a Catholic priest taught him how to give oral sex.”
The recently resurfaced video is from January 2016.
Breitbart editor-in-chief Alex Marlow said that Yiannopoulos’ remarks are “absolutely indefensible,” adding that “they’re appalling and very disappointing,” and came as a “total surprise to people in the Breitbart organization.”
The Washington Post reported that Breitbart’s staff “had threatened an internal revolt if [Yiannopoulos] wasn’t fired or disciplined.” Several Breitbart employees threatened to “quit in protest” if action wasn’t taken against Yiannopoulos.
Milo Yiannopoulos defended himself on his official Facebook page, saying that his comments were misinterpreted and were simply typical of his “usual blend of British sarcasm, provocation and gallows humor.”
https://www.facebook.com/myiannopoulos/posts/851826321621931
Milo Yiannopoulos is no stranger to controversy. He has come under attack for a number of inflammatory comments, reported the Huffington Post. The British writer is known for mocking the Black Lives Matter movement, Muslims, and women. He recently said that transgender people have a “psychiatric disorder.”
Last year, Yiannopoulos was “permanently suspended from Twitter” because “after his followers barraged Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones with abusive and racist tweets.”
In spite of all the controversy surrounding Milo Yiannopoulos, Breitbart has steadfastly stood by him. On Sunday, the website published a piece about Yiannopoulos which declared “one gay Brit has done more for conservatism than 30 years of establishment conservatives,” something Milo said about himself on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Sunday.
Milo also compared himself to President Trump on the show.
“Now I know some conservatives find my style a little abrasive and my message a little coarse, but they’re working, and they’re working in the same way that Donald Trump is,” said Yiannopoulos. “He’s not refined… but he gets the job done, and I think I’m doing something of the same on college campuses.”
Milo Yiannopoulos gave a press conference on Tuesday following his announcement that he was leaving Breitbart. The statement, which was published on Facebook, announced that he will start his own “media venture.”
Yiannopoulos added that his book has attracted attention from other publishers and will come out this year, as planned. He plans to donate 10 percent of royalties to “child sex abuse charities.”
[Featured Image by Drew Angerer/Getty Images]
