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'A mess of low-context writing': Milo Yiannopoulos' former book editor ripped his manuscript to shreds

Maxwell Tani   

'A mess of low-context writing': Milo Yiannopoulos' former book editor ripped his manuscript to shreds
Politics2 min read

Milo Yiannopoulos

Michael Masters/Getty Images

Milo Yiannopoulos in Australia.

  • Milo Yiannopoulos' former editor ripped the initial manuscript he submitted to Simon & Schuster.
  • The editor took issue with Yiannopoulos' sense of humor, logic, and writing style. 


Right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos' book deal fell through after a tape revealed that he appeared to endorse sexual relationships with teenagers. 

But according to a manuscript revealed as part of Yiannopoulos' $10 million lawsuit against Simon & Schuster, editors had "substantial concerns" with the book's tone and message to begin with.

Simon & Schuster editor Mitchell Ivers, who has edited books by conservative figures including President Donald Trump and Fox News' Tucker Carlson, criticized Yiannopoulos' writing at length, pointing out logical fallacies in arguments, and saying that Yiannopoulos' "ego gets in the way of authority" in certain passages.

"You can't cite ONLY the one study that proves your point," Ivers noted. "You have to offer it as a counter to the studies that DISPROVE your point."

Ivers took issue with how Yiannopoulos covered subjects he was supposed to have some authority on.

He described Yiannopoulos' section on the Gamergate controversy as "a mess of low-context writing, in which you assume the reader shares your previous knowledge and point-of-view, and muddled thinking," and summed up Yiannopoulos' chapter called "Why Ugly People Hate Me" as "terrible."

Moreover, Ivers seemed to find Yiannopoulos to be an un-humorous subject, urging the former Breitbart News blogger to cut jokes that Ivers repeatedly said were not funny, and telling him not to make cruel analogies like comparing liberals to school shooters.

"Three unfunny jokes in a row. DELETE," Ivers said after Yiannopoulos joked about putting a warning label on a Bikini Kill record that Yiannopoulos referred to as "Bikini Kills."

Yiannopoulos has undoubtedly had a difficult year.

Yiannopoulos was forced out of Breitbart News following his comments about pedophilia, and was forced to cancel a major event he planned at the University of California-Berkeley. 

BuzzFeed News later published embarrassing leaked emails that exposed Yiannopoulos's deep ties to white supremacists. Just weeks later, hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer, a major former Yiannopoulos backer, acknowledged the right-wing provocateur has "caused pain and divisiveness undermining ... open and productive discourse."

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