It’s baffling that any liberal institution in times like these would book a controversial pro-Trump speaker without preparing to withstand an onslaught of pressure from its audience. You would think any bookings of say, Steve Bannon, would be made with full awareness of the risks and a laudable disregard for the inevitable wave of progressive backlash.

Yet here we are, and Bannon has just been canceled from the New Yorker’s annual festival amid a string of celebrity drop-outs in protest of his appearance. Editor David Remnick claims he’s been convinced the invitation was a mistake, seemingly because it involved compensating Bannon for his appearance. Realistically, of course, it probably had more to do with the Bannon-inspired dent in Remnick’s celebrity roster.