I read Tim Jonze Guardian Blog with great interest.
Keeping in mind that the NME and IPC sign his pay cheques on a regular basis it is not a surprise that he is back tracking quickly but he must think we are all mugs if we are to believe him. His revisionist position is that he wanted to be harsher but this is a clear contradiction to his emails pre publication which state "I should mention that for reasons I'll probably never understand, NME have rewritten the Moz piece. I had a read and virtually none of it is my words or beliefs so I've asked for my name to be taken off it. Just so you know when you read it." and then in a subsequent email "I just don't understand that place any more". It also clearly contradicts Conor McNicholas own email which starts "I need to drop you a line about the Morrissey piece running in NME this week. It's going to be much stronger than we'd originally discussed."
Why would Tim be telling me - Morrissey's manager - this if his intention was to be harsher?
I think "Suzanne S" who responded to his blog sums it up better than I can:
SuzanneS
Comment No. 813106
November 30 23:57
OK, so you wrote Merck to essentially tell him:
"Hey, Merck, I would have written a piece ripping your client to shreds, but the NME is pussy-footing around with it, so I asked my name to be taken off of it. When you see the article, please remember that the NME didn't let me portray what a scum I thought Morrissey was. Have a great day."
I didn't know that people bothered with those kinds of courtesy emails. I wish more people would let me know that the only reason they were being nice to me was because somebody else made me.
Finally Tim claims that "Every single quote attributed to Morrissey is 100% correct". What he fails to mention is that they have edited their questions and Morrissey's responses to suit their agenda and to paint him as a racist. They have changed the questions so that they are different from those asked and deliberately twist the tone of the interview. For example what is in print as "You Live In Italy now. Would you ever consider moving back to Britain?" was actually just plain old "Would you move back to Britain ever?" this creates the impression that Morrissey is in no position to comment on what is going on in Britain as he lives abroad. They fail to include that Morrissey's initial response to the question was "I'm staggered how difficult life in central London is now. I don't understand how people cope and where they get the money from to survive. Everything's so unreachable, transport is a mess and I find it slightly terrifying." as that clearly does not support their agenda and the picture they are trying to paint.
"That's not true! You sound like a tory" which sounds like an offended reprimand was actually an affable "You're sounding like my parents . . ." and the same can be said for many of the questions asked and their responses.
Ultimately Tim has tried to give a rational explanation of the position he finds himself in (under pressure from his colleagues and paymasters) and while in the same breath as accusing us of spin has given us all a master class on the subject. Tellingly the one topic he does not raise is his disclosure to Morrissey per our legal papers "Conor told me he thinks you wouldn't want a black man living next door to you". There is obviously no plausible spin that can be put on that and while he may feel we are mugs ultimately he would appear to believe that he has pulled the wool over our eyes about as far as he can.
On a final note I hope you will all be delighted to know that while all of this is going on around us the band are hard at work on the new album and it is sounding terrific!
Best wishes to you all,
Merck Mercuriadis
Los Angeles
November 30, 2007
PS A more accurate and worthwhile Guardian blog on the subject can be found here:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/11/mozgate.html