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Whatever Paul McCartney says or does is news. In September, when he went to give a concert in Israel—making up for the Beatles concert that the Israeli government forbade at the last moment, 43 years ago—he was attacked by some pro-Palestinian critics for â€singing to the enemy.†No matter the â€enemy†audience was perhaps 20 per cent Arab, or that he also used his trip to visit Edward Said’s music school on the West Bank. When he sang, he also—in his trademark low-key, non-preachy way—pointed his audience in the direction of compromise and healing.
One of the prices of Paul’s fame is to see his honest words and thoughts twisted almost out of recognition. I saw this happen close up last week when my long conversation with him was published in Prospect. It seems that the press has a mindset about the McCartney-John Lennon relationship that demands anything that Paul says be squeezed into a mould—even if the words don’t really fit at all.
The story was spun a certain way in the British newspapers, led by the Sunday Times. Then the wire service, Associated Press, carried the story around the world, where it was printed in literally hundreds of papers. One report, and the world is given misleading information by editors too uncaring or unmotivated or just plain lazy to make a call to Prospect to ask for the original wording. Not one journalist called me.
The fact is that the interview carries not a word of rivalry with John Lennon. Nor does it say anything about which Beatle discovered the Vietnam war first, (the main themes of the Sunday Times/AP story). There is no foundation for the allusions the story made to McCartney’s (mythical) claim, at Lennon’s expense, to have written the best of the Beatles’ tunes.
The interview runs to about 5,000 words. The discussion on the Vietnam war is perhaps a dozen lines of that. There is one mention of Lennon—when Paul describes how he returned from a conversation with Bertrand Russell to tell the other three what he had heard from the old philosopher about the evils of the war in Vietnam.
I met Paul at the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys over 50 years ago. We were classmates. We played cricket together and I witnessed the first Beatles’ concert when he and George Harrison (in the year behind us) played for our class on the the last day of school. We yelled like groupies!
We have stayed in touch. In May, I sent Paul the column that I wrote on the newspaper hype about the 40th anniversary of the student rebellion in Paris. We decided to meet and discuss our lives and what had made us want to fight racism and war.
We met twice and talked—about school, the Vietnam war, the civil rights movement, right through to the Russian invasion of Georgia. On the way we discussed literature and the impact of FR Leavis on the writing of “Eleanor Rigby” and Paul’s feelings on the likelihood that his songs will still be sung in 500 years’ time.
Paul is a self-effacing, intelligent man. He may grab the spotlight on the stage. But he has no need to twist history. And neither should the press when reporting on him.
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Thank you for this. I am sick of the way the press takes a tiny snippet of an interview and twists it around. Some even had “I was more political than John” in quotes when it is very apparent that Paul said no such thing. I am looking forward to read the entire article/interview/chat between friends as a whole.
terrific!
jonathan
It’s just another small example of how parts of the media twist the truth and provide us with a “reality” that isn’t really there. Makes it even more important to check the facts when it comes to serious issues, otherwise we might go terrible wrong in our ways and thinking.
Many thanks for clarifying things (don’t think “the media” will comment on this though);-)
Sweden, Christmas Day
Thanks for this. What concerns me most was the non-analytical way people read those “I was the political Beatle” articles. It was quite apparent that he said no such thing but people just took it that he did because he said so in the Times. Other journalists commenting on it, when they should know how these things work, was also worrying. It really does make me wonder if there is any part of the media that can be trusted.
YES, I HAVE THE SAME CONCERN. WHY DID NO COLUMNIST PICK UP THEIR PEN AND PUT THE RECORD RIGHT?
Jonathan, you said it yrself. I don’t think the eds were necessarily too uncaring, but unmotivated and just plain lazy, yes. But then that’s not new. You can readily find examples of people just repeating one story that made it into print first. It’s only now it happens faster because of the internet. Or someone may well have simply misinterpreted what they read because they were skimming the original story. I do that myself. Then you re-read and get a different impression. But when yr on deadline, you won’t necessarily take the time.
It’s not just the media, it’s history too. People relate a history according to their own agenda. That’s human nature. So one side of the story survives and the others don’t for whatever reason (their story didn’t make it into a book, perhaps). That’s why in a sense I don’t know if you can ever say for certain that something “really” happened. And it’s going to get worse not better.
yes i can too can miss the point on a first read, but when i’m at my job i read it twice or even 3 times. that’s the way i was taught journalism- by the americans, not the brits! cf the new york times with the times or the independent
The King is dead. Long live the King!
May 1959 – December 2008 James Lebon
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xYRoZELZY3w&feature=related
Last night, we heard a tragic news sound-bite by a female – foreign minister for Israel – allegedly keen to be the next
top dog – where she described Israel’s current interpretation
of the commandment ” Love thy neighbour ” as:
” …The only way to change the reality on the ground ”
No great fan of winning hearts and minds then – moreover,
a message in blood to anyone still convinced that more ‘Wimmin’ in power are the ultimate answer ?
it is a tragedy. it shows just how far we have to travel to bring peace to palestine/israel. if you want to be cheered up (ha ha!)read the old testament from a to z as i did last month.
Would there was time to read your piece – but slightly off-put by MacArthur ( as the hip-replaced good folk of East Sussex refer to their sometime pop star neighbour ) allegedly being a round head & hunt sab. Albeit, typical of the genre , able to shelve his pseudo socialist principles long enough to accept and use ( according to the bad folk of Morton’s ) a gong or two..
Have no idea where this beautiful photograph was taken, but it looks like travelling light could be the way to go
http://www.marcuswrightphoto.com/photo_2151789.html