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1st December 2023
02:27pm GMT
Emily Mullen
@guardian Such a terrible obituary. Full of errors. https://t.co/FU24LLJQqS
— The Pogues (@poguesofficial) December 1, 2023
"With his broken teeth and large ears, Shane MacGowan, who has died aged 65, might have seemed the most unlikely frontman for a pop group."Referring to this opening line, one commenter wrote: "Absolutely vile words and behaviour." This is not the first time The Guardian have come under fire this year for their obituary of an Irish singer-songwriter. Back in July 2023, several fans of Sinéad O'Connor hit out against the paper's obit for her, with it being described at the time as "unnecessarily judgemental", "nasty" and "unfair". In particular, fans of O'Connor took issue with the following two passages in The Guardian piece:
"If the global superstardom conferred by Nothing Compares 2 U was brief – she lacked the determination needed to keep a top-flight pop career aloft – O’Connor nonetheless remained a household name for the rest of her life." "Her fervour was accompanied by an inability to edit her pronouncements: years before oversharing became the internet’s default mode, she regularly revealed troubling personal details about her mental health, relationships and family, causing one journalist to mock her as 'the crazy woman in pop’s attic', to which she took great exception."Meanwhile, just hours after news of MacGowan's passing, there was already a large push to make 'Fairytale of New York' a Christmas number 1 this year.
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