The University of Michigan has been forced to cancel a debate between Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos and CNN contributor Sally Kohn due to the excessive nature of Kohn’s speaking fees.

The debate between Yiannopoulos and Kohn was set to take place following Kohn’s comments in relation to the silencing of conservative opinions on college campuses. According to the CNN contributor and progressive activist, it’s “good” if conservatives feel unable to speak up as they’re simply using “free speech” to vocalise anti diversity and regressive viewpoints.

It seems that one way Sally Kohn is preventing conservatives from speaking out on campus is by setting her speaking fees so high that students can’t afford to invite her to debates.

Yiannopoulos, a vocal free speech defender, has a much different opinion to Kohn and planned to debate her on the topic until the University of Michigan announced that bringing Kohn to the college “would put us in deep debt.”

According to emails seen by Breitbart, Kohn initially quoted a fee of $11,000, “plus incidentals, travel, lodging, etc”, but later reduced and then finally dropped the fee upon discovering that Yiannopoulos doesn’t charge for speaking events at colleges.

Kohn did however that stipulate that in exchange for dropping her fee, she must be allowed to interview Milo for her new book. Still, Kohn’s travel and accommodation bills were too high for students to accommodate and as a result, the event has been cancelled. Milo is however touring college campuses across the country.

Kohn told Breitbart via email that she lives off speaking fees. The Dangerous Faggot Tour, which arrived in Baton Rouge for a highly anticipated talk tonight at Louisiana State University, plays to student audiences at no charge.

This morning Milo withdrew his consent to be interviewed by Kohn for her book, telling Breitbart: “I’ll focus on giving interviews to people who don’t price-gouge 19-year-olds.” 

Lucas Nolan is a conservative who regularly contributes articles on censorship and free speech to Breitbart. Follow him on Twitter@LucasNolan_ or email him at lucas@yiannopoulos.net