Pitchfork

While Morrissey's lawsuit against the NME late last year got all the attention, it wasn't the only court action Moz took against a publication recently over charges of racism against the singer.

UK rock rag The Word ran a review of that recent Greatest Hits set in its March 2008 issue that read more like a diatribe against Morrissey. Moz's camp took particular offense to the closing paragraphs of the review, penned by David Quantick, which included the following:

What vexes me is that once Morrissey made music that talked about the underdog, the victim, and those in the minority. Now he makes music that excludes those people. The odd song about a Mexican gang member and a lonely lesbian doesn't disguise the fact that he's quite happy to dismiss a whole chunk of the population as people who, to use the nasty phrase from [Viva Hate's] 'Bengali in Platforms', don't belong here.

Never mind that he's the 2008 equivalent of a '70s rock exile, opining about a country he only really knows from a Knightsbridge hotel window or a cab to Wembley Stadium. Never mind that as the child of an immigrant parent he really should know better than to attack immigration (which is, you ignorant quiffy rock exile, what keeps this country from being a Royal Family-led NF [National Front] tourist park).

For his waving of the flag (for publicity too, it would seem), for his ingrained habit of paying lip service to anti-racism while talking like an old Tory immigration spokesman, and for his abandonment of everything that made the Smiths a band for outsiders, Morrissey should be ashamed of himself. Sadly, he never will be.

Ignorant quiffy rock exile! Ouch!

Morrissey filed a libel suit against The Word's publisher, Development Hell Limited, alleging defamation. The publisher offered a court-ordered apology today in a statement read at England's Royal Courts of Justice. The apology portion of that statement reads as follows:

It has been drawn to the Defendants' attention that the closing paragraphs of Mr. Quantick's article could have been construed to suggest that Mr. Morrissey was a racist, held racist opinions, or that (as the child of migrant parents) he was a hypocrite. The article suggested that Mr. Morrissey has in the past paid lip service only to anti-racism.

The Defendants never intended the article to have the meanings suggested above and wish to make absolutely clear that they disassociate themselves entirely from any such inferences that might be drawn from the article. The Defendants accept that it would be absurd to accuse Mr. Morrissey of being a racist or of espousing racist views. They equally accept that Mr. Morrissey is not a hypocrite, in relation in particular to the views he has expressed in the past in relation to British cultural identity.

The Defendants accept that Mr. Morrissey is well known as a keen supporter of anti-racist groups and the Defendants wish to make absolutely clear that they never intended the article to suggest that Mr. Morrissey was anything other than a sincere supporter of anti-racism initiatives.

The Defendants wish to take this opportunity to apologise to Mr. Morrissey for any offence or distress that he may have been caused by the closing paragraphs of the article and are happy to make the position clear.

Morrissey accepted the apology, and related the incident to his suit against the NME, which has not yet been resolved: "I am obviously delighted with this victory and the clearing of my name in public where it is loud and clear for all to hear. The NME have calculatedly tried to damage my integrity and to label me as a racist in order to boost their diminishing circulation. Word magazine made the mistake of repeating those allegations, which they now accept are false and, as a result, have apologised in Open Court. I will now continue to pursue my legal action against the NME and its editor until they do the same."

And never content to stir up controversy in just one country, Morrissey recently reiterated his position on Canada's seal industry in a statement posted on True to You. Lamenting that, due to his moral stance, he could not accept several invitations to play in the country (including at a Buffy Sainte-Marie tribute), Moz remarked as follows:

As we all know, the psychologically and constitutionally sickening Canadian seal-kill has started and is once again in full-cry.

The horror of the Canadian seal-kill is untranslatable, and although I fully realize that highly concentrated evil exists in other countries-- Japan's dolphin slaughter, Iceland's newly-revived whaling, the cat-skinning trade in Switzerland, and China with just about every injustice imaginable-- there is something especially menacing about Canada's seal-kill.

Loyola Sullivan (Canada's Ambassador for Fisheries Conservation) is a man of glacial coldness who claims that the seal-kill is "humane"-- a view he might alter if his own skull were cracked open with a spiked axe.

The fact that the seal-kill provides a livelihood for fishermen is an insultingly dim excuse for it to take place-- after all, the German gas chambers of World War 2 also provided work for someone.

The seal-kill takes place to satisfy greed for fur-pelts, and this Canadian government is happy to drag the global image of its own country down, and make it a place that people such as I couldn't bear to visit.

Well then.

Morrissey will, however, headline the O2 Wireless Festival in London on July 4.