Back in 2007, NME posted an interview with former Smiths singer Morrissey in which he came off as a bit of a racist, doing his best Rush Limbaugh impersonation while talking about how immigration had ruined England. "The gates of England are flooded," he was quoted as saying. "The country’s been thrown away." Yikes! Morrissey claimed the quotes had been fabricated, and took to suing the publication to reclaim his reputation. The libel case goes on this summer, but NME just released a statement apologizing the singer, perhaps to lessen the legal reaming they’re about to receive. 

The statement, in full, reads:

In December 2007, we published an article entitled ‘Morrissey: Big mouth strikes again’.

Following this, Morrissey began proceedings for libel against us. His complaint is that we accused him of being a racist off the back of an interview which he gave to the magazine. He believes the article was edited in such a way that made him seem reactionary.

We wish to make clear that we do not believe that he is a racist; we didn’t think we were saying he was and we apologise to Morrissey if he or anyone else misunderstood our piece in that way. We never set out to upset Morrissey and we hope we can both get back to doing what we do best.

Upsetting Morrissey usually leads to a a few new songs; something with a histrionic title like, "NME, NME, Set Me Free" or "Why Must You Be, NME" or "The NME Is Everywhere." So maybe it’s better for everyone that we were spared any further drama, though I suppose there’s still time for the summer trial to bear depressing fruit: "Only I Can Be The Judge Of Me," or something appropriately legal-related.