Free Speech Week was supposed to be a four-day rally that brought in big-name provocateurs like Ann Coulter and Steve Bannon. But although Mr. Yiannopoulos spent lots of energy publicizing the event, he appears to have spent very little planning it.

He and the Berkeley Patriot, the student group hosting his event, failed to confirm most of their speakers, including Ms. Coulter and Mr. Bannon, and they never filed the paperwork necessary to book campus venues. On Friday, the Berkeley Patriot pulled its support for the event entirely.

Predictably, Mr. Yiannopoulos declared at a press conference on Saturday that the Berkeley administration did “everything in its power to crush its own students’ aspirations” to host his event, and vowed nevertheless to speak on Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza “come hell or high water.” The school still expects to spend a handsome sum to secure the unsponsored event. If that seems unwarranted, consider that Berkeley has had to essentially soldier up for unexpectedly violent rallies in their public plaza many times this year.