H!O denied access to interview Morning Musume

As many of you know, H!O (hello-online.org) is a very large fansite of H!P (and related) artists. They give us news before every other site, and tell us when new singles are coming up...

Right now, Anime Expo is taking place, and many English H!P fansites have gotten a press pass to interview MoMusu. H!O arrived early just to secure a place for and interview, but they were denied!

I couldn't quite believe it myself. But I'm sure they had a logical reason... (probably something like the website sharing pictures..) It's still saddening to see this happening. After all, MoMusu wants to branch out to America, right?

Here's a quote from H!O:
"This unfortunate turn of event came as not only a shock, but an insult to Hello!Online and its members, and the western Hello!Project fandom we all embody.

Does the Morning Musume satff have any idea the damage they caused by this poorly evaluated decision. The reason Morning Musume came all the way from Japan to LA is to break into the western world and improve their relationship with western fans. By preventing Hello!Online from the supposingly open opportunity for all press outlets, it is like slapping all western fans in the face and over-riding the efforts our nine beloved girls are giving.

We are not putting blame on anyone. The staff and organizers have been a great help and more than polite in this whole ordeal. And certainly, it was not up to Morning Musume to decide who gets to interview them.

I just can not comprehend why only we were denied without reason, while other western fansites and blogs were granted access.

I fully understand that UFA have all the rights to refuse anyone from interviewing their artist without giving any explaination. Personally, I have lost a great deal of (if not all) respect for UFA as a company.

turbos86
Hello!Online"

Hopefully this won't happen to other fansites. UFA seems to be getting slacker and slacker..

Enough bad news! Here's some great news!

• Melon Kinenbi's next single will be "Sweet Suicide Summer Story"... Hmm..
• Tom from Hello!Blog has successfully made it to America! (We're yet to know how his interview with MoMusu is going to turn out...)
• UPFRONT has announced the top 25 videos for the "3 2 1 BREAKIN'OUT!" competition.
• The winner of the 2008 UF Kansai audition was announced. Her name is Kawamura Mahiro, and she is 13 years old. (She has braces, too!)

That's all for now!