Morrissey NME libel case latest

Interesting, This has taken nearly 4 years to get to court
 
Bit more here - http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/1017/breaking49.html

...The former Smiths frontman is suing the NME and its former editor, Conor McNicholas, over a November 2007 interview and has claimed that they deliberately tried to characterise him as a racist.

Morrissey (52), was not at London’s High Court to hear the magazine’s counsel, Catrin Evans, ask for the action to be "struck out" as an abuse of process...
 
Re: NME Rascism slur case

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/1017/breaking49.html

No Great surprise. I do think Moz made a massive mistake getting rid of Merck. He used to come onto this site to defend Moz and to my mind was a great manager through Quarry and Ringleader. Who knows what goes on within Camp Morrissey but I was saddened when Merck left/fired shortly before Jed.
It was hard to see Moz winning this case against the NME anyway. In fact the lack of any info on the case over the last 3 years made me think this outcome was inevitable
 
Re: NME Rascism slur case

The NME has become one of the most poorly researched, manipulative and undiginfied music mags that caters to the lowest common denominator (anything popular that week) it's a pile of chronic moronic dog shit. Just like The Sun.
 
Re: NME Rascism slur case

I used to love going to the newsagent on wednesday, back in the when we had Melody Maker, NME, and Sounds and pick whichever had the the best cover star.
They where a big part of the scene back then not any more the NME just seem to scrabble about in the dirt they follow not lead.sad.
 
More info, bit bizarre to say the least.

From the Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/17/morrissey-takes-racism-battle-court?newsfeed=true

He once claimed to bear more grudges than lonely high court judges. Now Morrissey wants his date in the high court to rebut years of allegations that he is a racist and a hypocrite.

Lawyers for the former Smiths frontman told the high court on Monday that the singer "continues to suffer" reputational damage from a controversial interview he gave to NME magazine four years ago in which he complained about an "immigration explosion" leading to a loss of British identity.

In a written submission, Morrissey said his comments received "a barrage of press" at the time, and added: "Question marks over my being a racist have never since receded".

Morrissey is attempting to sue NME's former editor Conor McNicholas and its publisher, IPC Media, for libel over the interview. Although he was not in court for the hearing, Morrissey could be cross-examined before a jury if a trial goes ahead. Despite being dogged by fresh accusations in recent years, Morrissey has consistently denied being a racist.

The singer's skeleton argument described the row as "a classic case where vindication is the only remedy".

With a reference to the bitter standoff that spans almost two decades – in 1992 NME accused him of "flirting with disaster" and racist imagery after he wrapped a union flag around himself while on stage in Finsbury Park, north London – lawyers acting for Morrissey told the court that "the fight against NME is a matter of public record" and that "the battle lines for the trial have been firmly drawn".

David Sherborne, acting for the singer, claimed that the "extremely serious" and "highly defamatory" allegations were designed purely to raise publicity for the magazine.

However, lawyers for McNicholas and the NME told the court the claim should be struck out. Catrin Evans, acting for the magazine, claimed that financial difficulties, a legal dispute in the US and an acrimonious fallout with his then manager had "distracted" Morrissey from pursuing his claim against NME.

Morrissey threatened legal action against the magazine in November 2007, days after the interview was published.

According to Evans, the singer dropped the complaint for three years before recently reigniting the row. "The court can infer from this that there has been such a delay that is not a genuine bid for vindication," Evans said. "[The claim] simply didn't figure at the forefront of his mind."

Evans claimed that Morrissey "by his own actions" has provoked "more topical" accusations of racism – including an interview with the Guardian in September 2010 in which he described Chinese people as a "subspecies" – since the NME article was published.

"The fact that [Morrissey] has spent the three years since March 2008 recording albums, touring, promoting his new work and presumably doing well enough commercially to be able now to contemplate funding this libel claim, shows that his reputation has been unaffected. His fans apparently still love him," Evans told the court. She pointed out that the offending interview had never been published online and continues to exist "only in Morrissey fans' bedrooms".


Britain's most senior libel judge, Mr Justice Tugendhat, is expected to decide on Tuesday whether the claim should go to trial. Morrissey could testify in court alongside his former manager, Merck Mercuriadis, as well as McNicholas, Krissi Murison-Hodge, formerly the deputy editor, and Tim Jonze, the interviewer and now editor of guardian.co.uk/music.

If the claim goes to trial, more than 250 emails between the NME and Morrissey's manager, as well as a full transcript of the interview, would be used as evidence.

Sherborne, acting for Morrissey, claimed that the documents "speak for themselves". In one email sent to Morrissey's manager two days before the interview was published, McNicholas is quoted as saying that "no one is accusing Morrissey of racism – that would be mad given what Morrissey says".

According to Morrissey's skeleton argument, Jonze told Morrissey in a follow-up interview that McNicholas "doesn't think you have a problem with other races but it sounds like you wouldn't like someone [non-British] to move in next door to you".

In the interview, Morrissey was quoted as saying that "the gates of England are flooded. The country's been thrown away." Asked by the interviewer whether he would return to live in Britain, Morrissey is quoted: "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 British identity disappears."

Lawyers acting for the magazine argue that a fair trial would be impossible given that it would rely on the accurate recall of editorial decisions made five years ago. The court heard that the published article was amended three times between 18 November and 21 November before it was eventually published on 28 November.

McNicholas, whose seven-year editorship of the NME was characterised largely by the well-publicised row, was in court for the three-hour hearing on Monday. The hearing continues on Tuesday.
 
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Does this give the tantalsing proposition of Morrissey using posts on this website as evidence that in some quarters he is still labelled as a racist?
 
People have been throwing the "racist" label at Moz since Panic came out, and it only increased during his early solo years. Really don't see what difference this libel case will make one way or the other, and I would have thought Morrissey had had enough of courts for a lifetime.
 
People have been throwing the "racist" label at Moz since Panic came out, and it only increased during his early solo years. Really don't see what difference this libel case will make one way or the other, and I would have thought Morrissey had had enough of courts for a lifetime.

and yet....no, I think Morrissey has a right to stick up for himself. I wouldn't like it if I branded a racist either.
 
and yet....no, I think Morrissey has a right to stick up for himself. I wouldn't like it if I branded a racist either.

He wouldn't need to stick up for himself if he hadn't kept relentlessly fanning the flames and putting his foot in his mouth for the past 20 years. From Bengali in Platforms to the Finsbury debacle, the "England is flooded" NME mess and then Subspecies-Gate, he really hasn't helped himself. I am convinced that he does most of it sheerly for publicity, but if so then he has shot himself in the foot big-time.
 
I can't wait for another 10 years of new material on the back of this and a follow-up to Sorrow Will Come in The End.
 
He wouldn't need to stick up for himself if he hadn't kept relentlessly fanning the flames and putting his foot in his mouth for the past 20 years. From Bengali in Platforms to the Finsbury debacle, the "England is flooded" NME mess and then Subspecies-Gate, he really hasn't helped himself. I am convinced that he does most of it sheerly for publicity, but if so then he has shot himself in the foot big-time.

Subspecies-gate? Where'd you get that phrase from? A certain Mr E, I do believe!
You're quite right though. Morrissey been an absolute idiot on this subject over the years. Having said that, I do think the NME stitched him up on this particular occasion, especially when you see the email exchanges between Merck Mercuriadis and Timothy Jonze (with Jonze memorably signing off 'Tim x' - yuck!).
 
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Here's what Merck said at the time.
http://www.morrissey-solo.com/article.pl?sid=07/12/01/1610212

Further to my post last night if you still have any doubt about the truth, who is doing the spinning and the NME's agenda please consider the following email sent to me by Tim Jonze the morning following his interview with Morrissey which he now portrays as "offensive". As you can see he was highly offended - only when he realized yesterday that IPC / NME might not employ him anymore due to his indiscretions!
Note the kisses!
Best wishes, Merck Mercuriadis Los Angeles December 1st, 2007


And here's Tim's email:

Hi Merck,
Was great to meet you yesterday. Interview was really good, I was surprised how open and charming and humble Moz was. I'm sure you could tell I was quite nervous, I'm a big fan. Anyway, you said that you might have some guest list spare for tonight. So I was wondering if I could get these on to the list for Friday (tonight), in order of importance...
Guy Eppel Alex Cisneros Fiona Byrne
Guy shoots for NME and wondered if he could take pictures. I said I had no idea but I would ask you if there was any chance of getting him a photo pass. No worries if not. Fiona might be writing a news story on the night for NME.com but if there's no spare tickets I can cover that. If there's lots of spare tickets and you don't know what to do with them, they'd all like plus ones but this might be stretching my luck! Anyway, let me know what the deal is.
Tim x
 
Shocking that he's never done a Jason Donovan though :lbf:
 
Merck Mercuriadas showed conviction and grit in his role as music manager only to become injudicious and indiscreet when it came to this accusation. The initial True-To-You site posts at the time are not ideally for our eyes at that stage, while Morrissey's statement was needed:

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

http://true-to-you.net/morrissey_news_071129_02

http://true-to-you.net/morrissey_news_071203_02

Morrissey's not racist; the 1st amendment would protect him in USA but luck will play a part in how his words would be interpreted in a court in England. I do think ordinary people are fed up with petty pc over-reactions to non-sterilised comments made as part of a discussion about contemporary trends and concerns and if the NME push it, they'll be a laughing stock for the short time they remain in operation.
 
From Morrissey's statement then

My heart sank as Tim Jonze let slip the tell-all editorial directive behind this interview: "It's Conor's view that Morrissey thinks black people are OK ...but he wouldn't want one living next door to him." It was then that I realized the full extent of the setup, and I felt like Bob Hoskins in the final frame of The Long Good Friday as he sits in the back of the wrong getaway car realizing the extent of the conspiratorial slime that now trapped him

Hee hee hee.
 
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