Why The Independent hates independence - Morrissey Central (March 28, 2018)

Summary

Morrissey's response to an article in The Independent.

Statement

The importance of an artist (or political figure) is sometimes evident in the efforts taken to silence them. Two weeks ago, with stiff-backed priggishness, The Independent printed an extreme Hate Piece so loaded with vile bile that it almost choked on its own endless capacity to be appalled. As its target, it seemed evident that The Independent found me so morally shredded and physically repulsive that I appeared to fascinate them, whilst it also seemed obvious that any announcement of my painful death would make them laugh loudly. Yes, this is what we’re dealing with. Their moral outrage is certain that it has hit upon something as they take a stab at just about everything whilst hitting nothing. Telford grooming gangs? Hardly worth a whisper in The Independent. Instead let’s demonize Morrissey - who deserves our indefatigable abuse since he appears to be saying some things that many people are actually thinking. To truthophobics, I am apparently worse than useless.

You see, The Independent ‘newspaper’ isn’t actually a paper with news, and it will express only the views of their editor/dictator, whose name is Christian Broughton. What he will tell us is happening and what we see is happening are two entirely different things. In order to find out the truth of anything, you must take note of what Christian Broughton does not allow into print. My manager (Peter Katsis) spoke to Christian Broughton after the Hate Piece had appeared, and he asked why Broughton had sanctioned such a diabolically contrived and bitterly inaccurate mess. Broughton pointed out that “it would be difficult to find anyone at The Independent who agreed with Morrissey’s views.” This almost- illiterate reply fully reveals The Independent’s dog-yapping will to destroy anyone with a view that doesn’t match their own. The Independent, you see, must supervise and censor art - that is their function. But what are my views? And why do they ‘get at’ the stiff boundaries of The Independent? And what is The Independent independent of? Truth? Shame? They state confidently that, when I recently asked a packed audience at Glasgow Arena if they actually liked Nicola Sturgeon, that half the audience walked out in disgust towards me. As you can guess, without any principals of justice. The Glasgow audience, in fact, roared a deafening “NOOOOO!” in reply to the question, and not one person was known to have left the venue in protest. The Independent is willing to lie to its readers in order to create a skewed truth, and to hell with any principals of justice. If the newspaper is willing to take such silly risks with very basic facts then what on earth could they report that you would actually believe? They tell their readers that I “loathe Nicola Sturgeon” (which is untrue), and they explain by way of sneering slur how I am “loving Brexit”.

I believe I have mentioned Brexit twice in my entire life, and neither comment expressed love. I had explained how Brexit had been a strike for democracy because of the disgust that the political elite had shown towards the people who did not vote the way that they were warned to by media bullies. But why attack anyone who loves Brexit? Almost two years on from the result, the EU still has not allowed the UK to leave its clutches - which simply explains exactly why the Leave campaigners voted as they did in the first place. Doesn’t it twig? However, any Brexit loathing by The Independent does not reflect majority opinion, and this lends them no independent thought whatsoever, but blind bureaucratic arrogance instead. This is symptomatic of a modern, shredded British society, where free speech no longer exists. When the print media are lost for a reply, they simply change the subject by naming their opponent as ‘racist’, which is the perfect ploy because most people are naturally appalled to be called racist, and they step back in silence, and the debate collapses unresolved. Use of the word often only ever comes from people who themselves are intolerant. It works. Even though England introduced the world to democracy, great art and great literature, it is now leading the way with a dark and largely hidden agenda where no one is entitled to disagree; only one interest and opinion must prevail within the print media. Art is now fully outside tabloid journalism, and the gaping hole shrieks at us via the commercial arena with its automatic laughter and the impotent emotion of reality TV. The American genius William Burroughs was once interviewed on Radio 1 in the 1970s. Today’s Radio 1 is such an intellectually paralyzed blast of surface that it would not remotely consider interviewing anyone of the nature or intellect of Burroughs. Is civilization over? The cannibalistic mobile grave known as The Guardian suggests so. Thrilled at the knowledge of their own power, both The Guardian and The Independent daily confirm the views of everyone who morally objects to them (and The News of The World turns in its urn.) Their intolerant and totalitarian criticism of others reveals so much about themselves. Perhaps newspapers just cannot keep up with the open-ness and tolerance of internet news sites? The future of The Independent seems only a question of your commitment to it. It claims that I support Harvey Weinstein - someone about whom I know almost nothing. I do not believe I could recognize him in photographs. The Independent also claims that my audience have deserted me - yet this month I have completed my most successful UK tour, selling 22,000 tickets in London alone, selling out concerts at Alexandra Palace, The London Palladium, Brixton Academy and The Royal Albert Hall, all played within the space of 8 days. The Independent has an almost breathless capacity for misinformation and deception. Its uncontested rules of hate are like a fully drawn bow aiming its arrow at 42 targets, yet hitting none; bitter at the core, yet taking a stab, as its writer moves with one-way-or-another-you-will-remember-my-name outrage.

I am neither Loony Left nor Far Right. I am a humanitarian. I have not ever once voted in a British election because I have not ever discovered a party that represents my views. My main social concern is the abolition of the abattoir, the continued existence of which in modern times is beyond sane belief. I confess that my life in music has been stunted by shyness, and this remains. I am too interior, and this can often seem like bone splitting arrogance. But it is not. I do not want to be like anyone else in music because there is no point. I want to bring something different into view. When I attempt to clarify, I will admit that it often sounds like an attack. I believe England can look after itself. It does not need the EU to police its laws, its thought, its borders or its liberty. It does not take a genius to arrive at this viewpoint.

Because The Independent cannot keep their own views under control, it seems obvious to me that we must source our information from alternative news outlets - they, at any rate, are telling us that we should. British mainstream media is now so politically correct that basic truth is actually impossible, and although it is obsessed with promoting social diversity they will not accept diverse opinion. Most British newspapers can only offer secrecy. When news is offered as opinion, it can only therefore be biased. Last year I completed a questionnaire for The Daily Mail in which one of their questions was ‘Whom do you most dislike?’. I replied ‘Theresa May, because of her support for killing foxes and badgers.’ The questionnaire appeared in print, but the Theresa May reply was missing because it obviously didn’t fit with the Mail’s political position as Theresa May’s personal notice-board. Journalists only ever talk to other journalists, it seems.

‘The London intellect, so pert and shallow, like a stream that never reaches the ocean.’ E. M. Forster.

I have been criticized in the UK for so long (nowhere else!) that anything said about me no longer strikes me as a threat because I am still, after all, here. We should, I think, be striving for something more morally useful than whatever The Independent vomits out by way of spite.

Katie Boyle, who very sadly died this week, said “you have to accept [the press] telling complete lies about you. You can’t take legal action because that fans the flame.” I see what she means!

In 1887 the masthead of The New York Times began its famous slogan: All The News That’s Fit To Print. In 2018, The masthead of The Independent should read All The Shit That’s Fit To Print. The Independent has tried to put me out of circulation: and viva hate, to that!

Morrissey

23 March 2018.

Archived original post here.

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