Simon & Schuster Cancels Publication of Milo Yiannopoulos Book
February 20 2017 - 09:42PM
Dow Jones News
By Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg
CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster publishing arm said Monday it
has canceled the upcoming publication of a book by Milo
Yiannopoulos, after a video surfaced in which the controversial
conservative journalist appeared to condone sex between men and
young boys.
A spokesman for Simon & Schuster declined to provide any
additional comment or to discuss whether the publishing house would
seek to get back its advance, which was previously estimated in the
range of $250,000.
The book, titled "Dangerous," was expected to publish this June
through Simon & Schuster's Threshold Editions imprint.
Over the weekend, a video emerged online in which Mr.
Yiannopoulos said, among other things, that he didn't consider it
pedophilia if an adult has a sexual attraction to a 13-year-old who
is "sexually mature."
On Monday, the American Conservative Union rescinded an
invitation to Mr. Yiannopoulos to speak at its upcoming
Conservative Political Action Conference, citing "an offensive
video in the past 24 hours condoning pedophilia," according to a
statement on Twitter by ACU chairman Matt Schlapp.
Efforts to reach Mr. Yiannopoulos, an editor and writer at
Breitbart News, were unsuccessful. However, in a posting on
Facebook he described himself as a child-abuse victim who is
"horrified by pedophilia" and said his "usual blend of British
sarcasm, provocation and gallows humor might have come across as
flippancy."
After writing he doesn't believe that "sex with 13-year-olds is
okay," he wrote, "Anyone who suggests I turn a blind eye to illegal
activity or to the abuse of minors is unequivocally wrong. I am
implacably opposed to the normalization of pedophilia and I will
continue to report and speak accordingly."
Mr. Yiannopoulos has made controversial remarks on topics
including Islam and women. He was banned by Twitter after a series
of tweets about actress Leslie Jones that the social-media site
determined were abusive.
In early February, violent protests broke out at the University
of California, Berkeley ahead of a scheduled appearance by Mr.
Yiannopoulos, leading to the event's cancellation. In the past, he
has had defenders on the right on free-speech grounds.
When Simon & Schuster signed Mr. Yiannopoulos to a book
contract late last year, critics said the publishing house was
helping to spread hatred.
The signing became so contested that Carolyn Reidy, Simon &
Schuster's chief executive, sent a letter dated Jan. 23 to authors
and shared with staffers in which she wrote that the publishing
house does "not support or condone, nor will we publish, hate
speech. Not from our authors. Not in our books. Not at our
imprints. Not from our employees and not in our workplace."
Ms. Reidy wrote that the book Mr. Yiannopoulos proposed would be
"a substantive examination of the issues of political correctness
and free speech, issues that are already much-discussed and argued
and fought over in both mainstream and alternative media and on
campuses and in schools across the country."
Despite the controversy surrounding "Dangerous," in anticipation
of the book's release it ranked No. 83 on Amazon's best-seller list
on Monday afternoon. By early evening, the book was no longer
listed on Amazon.
Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at
jeffrey.trachtenberg@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 20, 2017 21:27 ET (02:27 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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