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Jun 03, 2010 M.I.A. By Laura Studarus

After an unflattering New York Times interview left M.I.A. looking less than glowing, the rapper fired back, releasing audio that proved the writer had combined her quotes ot of context and sparking “Truffle Gate 2010”— by ordering the lavish truffle-French fries that were later used as evidence of the singer’s hypocrisy. Today, after the M.I.A. released both the writer’s phone number and rebuttal song “Haters” The New York Times released the following statement. (via The New York Times)

”The cover article in The Times Magazine on Sunday profiled the singer and political activist M.I.A. While discussing her efforts to draw attention to the civil war in her home country, Sri Lanka, she was quoted as saying: “I wasn’t trying to be like Bono. He’s not from Africa — I’m from there. I’m tired of pop stars who say, ‘Give peace a chance.’ I’d rather say, ‘Give war a chance.’ The whole point of going to the Grammys was to say, ‘Hey, 50,000 people are gonna die next month, and here’s your opportunity to help.’ And no one did.”

While M.I.A. did make those remarks, she did not make the entire statement at the same point in the interview, or in the order in which it was presented.

The part that begins, “The whole point of going to the Grammys,” up to the end of the quotation, actually came first. The part that begins, “I wasn’t trying to be like Bono,” and ends, “Give war a chance,” came later in the same interview. The article should have made clear that the two quotations came from different parts of the interview.”

Weighing in on the beef on his Twitter account, The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy declared the rapper, “M.I.A., the Glenn Beck of the left.” (via Pitchfork)

While there’s no excuse for lax journalism (even if it does allow for clever Tweets), the controversy can’t hurt her upcoming album, right?

(www.miauk.com)