After a video in which Milo Yiannopoulos appears to condone pedophilia resurfaced over the weekend, publisher Simon and Schuster pulled its deal to publish Yiannopoulos’ book “Dangerous.”
Statement: After careful consideration @simonschuster and its @threshold_books have cancelled publication of Dangerous by Milo Yiannopoulos
— (((Adam Rothberg))) (@AdamRothberg) February 20, 2017
The announcement from Simon and Schuster followed a statement from the conservative conference CPAC announcing that Yiannopoulos had been disinvited from speaking at the conference, citing “the revelation of an offensive video in the past 24 hours condoning pedophilia.”
Yiannopoulos, a leader of the “alt-right” white nationalist movement and editor at Breitbart News, appears in a video criticizing the “arbitrary and oppressive idea of consent.” He also said that relationships between 13-year-olds and adults can occur “perfectly consensually.”
Following outcry over the video resurfaced by conservative site The Reagan Battalion, Yiannopoulos apologized and tried to clarify his remarks.
“I would like to restate my utter disgust at adults who sexually abuse minors. I am horrified by pedophilia and I have devoted large portions of my career as a journalist to exposing child abusers,” he said in a statement posted to Facebook.
He said he was “partly to blame” for the controversy over his comments.
“My own experiences as a victim led me to believe I could say anything I wanted to on this subject, no matter how outrageous. But I understand that my usual blend of British sarcasm, provocation and gallows humor might have come across as flippancy, a lack of care for other victims or, worse, ‘advocacy.’ I deeply regret that. People deal with things from their past in different ways,” he said.
