New York Times Runs Correction on M.I.A. Feature
M.I.A.'s distaste for her recent feature in The New York Times Magazine hasn't been much of a secret. The enraged Sri Lankan singer responded to the less-than-flattering piece by tweeting the phone number of the article's author Lynn Hirschberg and later penning a diss track, titled 'I'm a Singer.' M.I.A.'s most rational response to the entire ordeal, was the threat of posting the unedited transcript of the interview on her website, but the New York Times decided to help her out a bit, by running a small correction on the piece on Thursday (June 3).
"While discussing her efforts to draw attention to the civil war in her home country, Sri Lanka, she was quoted in the piece 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."
The Times correction clarified that M.I.A.'s quotes were not presented in the order in which they were actually spoken.
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."
It's doubtful that this small correction will quell M.I.A.'s rage, but it's a start.