Outnumbered Outraged Over Backlash to ‘Free Speech Week’…That Is Almost Certainly Cancelled

As Mediaite reported this morning, the so-called ‘Free Speech Week’ that right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos had scheduled in Berkeley for this Sunday is almost certainly canceled. It appears the whole thing may have been nothing more than an elaborate publicity stunt, with Milo taking the opportunity to hold a theatrical press conference to blame the university and leftists for the event’s cancellation.

However, despite it becoming obvious today that the four-day conservative speech-fest wouldn’t actually happen, the hosts on Fox News’ Outnumbered still decided to do a whole segment on it, replete with hot takes about out-of-control liberals and attacks on free speech.

After giving us a prepackaged report on the campus’s reaction to the upcoming (non) event, host Trish Regan got things going by offering up her observation about the intolerant environment on the California college’s campus.

“I’m always amazed,” she said to fellow host Jessica Tarlov, “by this idea that somehow the university which is supposed to really be a conduit, a diversity of thought and ideas, there is a total intolerance for anything that doesn’t fit into their little box of what they think is right.”

(By the way, the university Regan is bashing has taken immense precautions — shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars for security — to prepare for the event, which again will not even occur.)

Tarlov, a Democratic strategist, explained that she’s a “big fan of listening to conservatives” because it is the only way to “arm yourself with just and true arguments.” Regan countered that Tarlov’s actions would totally not be allowed at Berkeley.

#OneLuckyGuy John Bolton also jumped into the fray, calling it “fundamentally authoritarian” and stating that we “have to wake up to the fact that free speech is under assault in this country.” Host Harris Faulkner added her thoughts about where the civil rights movement would be without free speech.

Again, this event almost certainly will not go off, and it has everything to do with Milo and nothing to do with the college.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona

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