Really? Pretty sure food critics aren’t welcomed back for repeat complimentary Michelin starred dining experiences after trashing s restaurant.
Pretty sure serious theatre critics don’t write 7 paragraph “articles” to exclusively snipe about the fact that once upon a time they may have been denied an invite to review a play again, after previously trashing the director’s work
Pretty sure there are about a million different variations of examples of how, NO, this doesn’t seem like an entirely rational way for a journalist to respond at all
It depends on the critic and the artist in question, really.
Some restaurants do exactly what you say, and shun particularly brutal critics – others even Michelin star restaurants, take the critics feedback as constructively as possible, make a few changes, or invite them back when service has improved or monumental success has been achieved, so they can the critics can revise their previously mistaken critiques.
There's a reason why a lot of restaurants do soft opens with critics invited, and there's a reason why many of her Broadway shows and theater companies have a week or so sometimes even longer of warm-up performances, and developmental workshops specifically to take critic and audience feedback and make alterations if they wish to
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Morrissey himself is no stranger to using critics to build momentum for album releases – in the 2004 you are the Quarry cycle, Attck invited critics were invited to listening parties to the write advance reviews of the album, or at least give their advanced impressions of some of the tracks.
In one examples of this from the literary world, Michael Chabon, one of my favorite living American writers and novelists, has spoken directly about the extent to which Johnathan Yardley, literary critic for the Washington Post in his review of Chabon's second novel Wonder Boys – and his challenge to Chabon to write beyond the first person, to explore deeper and wider worlds in subsequent work, did inspire Chabon to strive in his writing of the amazing adventures of Kaviler & Clay, which subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2001.
Not all critics are the same, obviously, and every artist and fan can have their own opinion of a critic's assessment of an artistic work. I don't blame Morrissey or crew for deciding not to give interview or review access to this particular writer, that is Morrissey's right, but the idea that there's a uniform code of professionalism or to a degree which critics should be glowing or warm in exchange for future access is also mistaken.
Regardless, I don't think this article in times is simply sour grapes, however salty and sassy some of the language might be.
www.telegraph.co.uk
