As a jack-of-all-trades journalist, writing news, features and sport, and everything in between, it’s hard to develop a ‘beat’. Whether or not a ‘beat’ actually exists in modern journalism is hard to say, but in my own case the only thing I can claim a specialty in is sailing, which is where my journalism career began.
Other than that, work is a constant struggle to cram in the research necessary to produce quality stories and informative news items. And it’s part of the gig, so you do it as best you can. I’ve been caught out on one occasion, when I hadn’t the time to read an author’s new book, and he spat out a narky little wrist-slap before reading the resultant feature. Meh.
However, when you’re a niche specialist, you’re always working within your comfort zone, and are expected to be a bit more knowledgeable. So, to give a current example, when you’re given the nod by the editor of a music magazine as ‘one of our best’ and sent out to interview (or do a hatchet job on) a known behemoth of musical intellect and belligerence such as Morrissey, you’d be expected to know your onions. Or at least be au fait with music in general.
What does it say about NME that one of their supposed best doesn’t know ‘anything about David Bowie’?
From Morrissey’s Guardian blog piece:
‘Tim accepted every answer I gave him with a schoolgirl giggle, and repeatedly asked me if I was shocked at how little he actually knew about music. I told him that, yes, I was shocked. It was difficult for me to believe that the best writer from the “new” NME had never heard of the song Drive-in Saturday; I explained that it was by David Bowie, and Tim replied “oh, I don’t know anything about David Bowie.”‘
The piece is a response to a front-page story about Morrissey in which the NME alleges he’s a racist. Morrissey claims that it was a stitch-up job, and has issued writs against NME (see the solicitor’s letter here.) I haven’t read the piece, but the spat is nicely boiled down here. Morrissey apparently says he’d hesitate to move back to England from Rome, because immigration has caused England to lose a lot of its instrinsic character. A few out-of-context quotes, and Morrissey’s all a-flame.
His scathing retort paints a fairly dark picture of the journalist concerned, Tim Jonze, particularly given this relatively credible biog on the Guardian site:
‘Tim Jonze is a freelance writer whose work has been published in NME, the Guardian, Uncut and i-D magazine. He specialises in writing about music and pop culture and has interviewed the likes of Oasis, Ian Brown, Lily Allen, Arctic Monkeys and the Mighty Boosh.’
Jonze’s own take on the interview is here. And it’s markedly different.
The truth, as always, will lie somewhere in between, and will probably come out in court. Expect it to (g)rumble on for some time to come.
More: Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now – Monotone Morrissey
Via: Nadine
