TORONTO -- London grime star Stormzy has slammed U.K. media organization ITV News for misrepresenting an interview he did with an Italian newspaper, where when asked if there was still racism in Britain, he replied “definitely, 100 per cent.”
ITV News ran the headline “Rapper Stormzy says U.K. is ‘100 per cent’ racist’” on Saturday.
Stormzy took to Twitter to denounce ITV News for “intentionally spinning my words for some click bait,” and for other Twitter users to stop telling him “to stay classy.”
“Where’s their class?” he countered in a tweet. He has since been praised for calling out racism in the U.K. and the media.
Antonello Guerrera, the author of the original interview which appeared in “il venerdi” a weekly magazine from Italian newspaper La Repubblica, also weighed in on Twitter – spelling out Stormzy’s exact response from his transcript.
“Me: Is Britain still racist today? Stormzy: Definitely, 100%” Guerrera’s tweet reads. He then provided a fuller transcript of the interview where Stormzy elaborates on his views.
ITV News issued a correction on Twitter, writing that they had updated their story with a clearer headline, but other users were quick to point out that their changes still did not convey Stormzy’s quote correctly.
“No @Stormzy said he “definitely 100%” agreed with the proposition Britain was still a racist country. Your headline is 100% false (and libellous). Change it,” one user replied.
ITV News has yet to issue an official reply to the accusations, but appears to have deleted the original tweet with the misleading headline.
The original set of tweets issued by ITV News after U.K. grime artist Stormzy slammed the organization for misrepresenting his interview with an Italian newspaper (ITVNews/Twitter)
