- by Scott Colothan
- Wednesday, November 28, 2007
- Photo by: Shirlaine Forrest
- filed in: Indie
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The NME has been feeling the wrath of Morrissey fans who are outraged at the magazine’s controversial feature which attacks The Smiths man for voicing his opinion on immigration.
At the time of writing this piece, a massive 84% of Gigwise readers said that the magazine has betrayed Morrissey by publishing the feature.
In a quick nutshell, despite pleas from Morrissey’s management to retract the feature, and an NME journalist curiously abdicating responsibility for the comments in the piece, NME editor Conor McNicholas went ahead and published the piece calling Mozz’a opinion ‘Naïve and inflammatory.”
One particulraly damning section in the comments compares Morrissey's words to the BNP.
Amongst Morrissey’s quotes to the magazine was: “Britain’s a terribly negative place… with the issue of immigration, it’s very difficult because, although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the identity disappears.”
Gigwise has received a number of messages from people blasting the NME for their hard line stance against Morrissey.
One wrote: “The NME are clearly mixing immigration with racism. I’m not against immigration at all, in fact it adds to our culture. But to even insinuate someone is racist for discussing immigration is very, very wrong.”
Another complained: “Immigration is, unlike racism, a hot topic which can be condemned or supported quite viably, either way. So it is NME being quite naive to suggest casting an derogatory view on immigration is a racist view.”
A clear Morrissey fan took it further, writing “I’m glad I have read this article before buying NME, as now I will not be buying it, Morrissey is a huge star, an icon - and if the rest of his fans feel like I do, then I shall be boycotting the NME from now on. Think they’ve shot themselves in the foot with this article.
However, some do support the magazine’s stance against Morrissey, summed up by a Gigwise reader writing: “I also have read the article and you cannot argue with the fact that Mozza’s words read like the BNP manifesto. An organization who’s views and opinions are rooted in racism and fascist thought. England may have a problem with immigration but this is not the root cause of England not being the same place as it was 50 years ago. His comments are misguided.”
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- Wake up people, this is a cheep and criminal move from the editor of a sinking ship, trying desperate measures to sell his paper, using Morrissey as a vehicle to stay above water. Interviewer Tim Jonze is distancing himself from this piece, which is clear indication that words have been twisted and invented. I’m afraid, anyone with half a braincell can see through this scam, and I sincerely hope for his own sake that Mr McNicholas can afford good laywers. How low can one stoop? Shame on yo
- Morrissey has written a number of songs in the past that could be interpreted as openly fascist (e.g National Front Disco) - he has always denied being a racist but there comes a time when you have to say ’if it walks like a duck...’
The bulk of his fans are lefties who know better than to scapegoat immigrants as he has done, and his ignorance will shock many.
If these are his views though, I’m glad he’s left the country. It would be nice if every reactionary bigot
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- The NME’s got form when it comes to besmirching artists and their lack of PC values. Remember when Steven Wells tried to make out the Happy Mondays as a bunch of homophobes?
As The Clash once said, ’There’s A tower in The Heart of London.....They Don’t make the City beat, they’re making all the action stop’.
Nothing Changes I guess.
- I think Moz has a point, this is not england anymore, it has changed. He is not a racist but a realist. even if he did have a problem with ethnic minorities Britain was a country where once we could share our personal views or do we have to live in fear of offending people. He, along with thousands have a saddened view of a country once proud to be called Great Britain. You say racist, i say realist. We have immigration problems now? Wait around another 5 years and we wont know where we are.
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morrisey’s always been a fucking nobhead
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