Milo Yiannopoulos is battling backlash after the deadly shooting at the Capital Gazette Newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland on Thursday. Many people are speaking out against the right-wing firebrand, pointing to recent comments he made, calling for “gunning journalists down.”
Two days before the shooting, Yiannopoulos, a former Breitbart editor, appeared to threaten two journalists from the New York Observer after they reached out to him with a request for comment. “I can’t wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight,” he told New York Observer reporters in a text message, which the journalists later released to the public.
Twitter commentators were quick to cast blame on Yiannopoulos for the shooting, arguing that he directly urged violence against journalists. However, Yiannopoulos responded to his accusers with a Facebook post on Thursday afternoon and vehemently denied that his messages could be held responsible for inciting the attack on the Gazette newsroom that left five dead.
“You’re about to see a raft of news stories claiming that I am responsible for inspiring the deaths of journalists,” he wrote. “This is wholly false … I made a private, offhand troll to two hostile reporters, who breathlessly publicized it and like vermin their fellow journalists swarmed to remind the world how much they hate Milo.”
In the lengthy Facebook response, Yiannopoulos emphasized that his statement was a “private joke.” “If there turns out to be any dimension to this crime related to my private, misreported remarks, the responsibility for that lies squarely and wholly with the Beast and the Observer for drumming up fake hysteria about a private joke, and with the verified liberals who pretended they thought I was serious,” he wrote.
A groundswell of Twitter commentators said they believe that Yiannopoulos should be blamed for inspiring the shooting with his anti-journalist rhetoric. Some also lumped in President Donald Trump, noting POTUS’ anti-media stance.
Read comments from several of Yiannopoulos’ detractors:
https://twitter.com/SNFaizalKhamisa/status/1012422866673938432
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/1012438436739874816
https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/1012429823103459332
Milo Yiannopoulos wants people to shoot journalists. Since conservatives seem confused, this is what dangerous rhetoric ACTUALLY looks like. https://t.co/qG3esoAb32
— Adam Best (@adamcbest) June 26, 2018
Couple of days ago Milo Yiannopoulos commented “i can’t wait for vigilante squads to start gunning down journalists”
And now Annapolis Journalists getn gunned down
Again all you… https://t.co/gEDINoGSeF
— Dr. Love (@questlove) June 28, 2018
Violent threat against @CNN few months ago. Trump tweeting gifs and images of violence against media. Incitement of anger towards the media by the echo chamber. Milo Yiannopoulos saying journalists should be gunned down. Why are you surprised by today's tragedy?
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) June 28, 2018
I hope Milo Yiannopoulos is never allowed to step foot in the US again.
— Roland Scahill (@rolandscahill) June 28, 2018
https://twitter.com/rob_bennett/status/1012425609996394496
Here is Milo Yiannopolous’ full response.