Morrissey

November 29, 2007 in Uncategorized

 

I don’t know how many of you will be fans of The Smiths, or their former front-man Morrissey. For the uninitiated, The Smiths were one of the most influential indie bands of the 1980s. Their very-English, very-dry, beautiful and haunting songs were and are the soundtrack to many people’s lives in England.

 

But even if you are not a Morrissey fan, this is fascinating:

 

http://true-to-you.net/morrissey_news_071127_01

 

To be brief, a reporter for the NME (a music magazine in the UK) conducted two interviews with Morrissey, and wrote a profile. During those interviews, Morrissey spoke about immigration. The NME reported that he said:

 “The gates are flooded and anybody can have access to England and join in… If you walk through Knightsbridge on any bland day of the week you won’t hear an English accent… You’ll hear every accent under the sun apart from the British accent.” 

The editorial board of the magazine deemed his comments so offensive that they rewrote the article to reflect their own views. The rewrite was apparently so comprehensive that the original journalist (Tim Jonze) asked to be taken off the byline because it no longer represented his “views or beliefs.”

 “While Morrissey is obviously entirely entitled to his point of view we’re not beholden to re-print them without comment,” editor Conor  McNicholas wrote to Morrissey’s management in an email, according to the singer’s website. “And given that his views are not those that we’d normally expect to come from someone in the very liberal world of rock’n'roll, we’re not able to either support them or print them without comment.”

The piece subsequently ran with the dual credit “Interview: Tim Jonze, Words: NME.” Based on the content of the article, Morrissey is now threatening legal action.

 “The story reads like a cynical exercise by yet another NME editor trying to put his name in the history books via a poorly thought out and terribly executed attempt at character assassination,” reads a message on the singer’s website. 

Having not read the complete article, I can’t comment on its contents. But at first glance this appears to be an incredible instance of editorial interference by the NME. Does any board of editors, based on the quotes used in a profile piece, have the right to rewrite the article to reflect its own political opinions? 

 

Someone would have to work very hard to convince me this is not an abuse of power. 

 

Just for good measure, I should say that this post should obviously not be taken as condoning Morrissey’s statements in the NME article, or any kind of xenophobia. What shocks me for the purpose of this post is the action of the NME editors, regardless of what they were editing.

 

Saying that, I am surprised by the quotes, particularly because Morrissey has previously been very outspoken against racism in all its forms. In fact, that alone makes me doubt the accuracy of the piece.

 

Michael