SHINee, who recently returned with their 3rd mini-album 2009, Year Of Us and title track Ring Ding Dong, has spoken up on behalf of SM Entertainment. Joynews24 had conducted an interview with the members of SHINee and asked if they knew about them being called the "puppets" of SME. SHINee responded with a resounding statement:

That's prejudice against SM Entertainment. SME gives us a lot of say and freedom. Even during our album preparations, they ask us for our opinions. The albums are released under our name and thus it is our music. The public appear to have a predjudice against idols. Just like how the same song, Chocolate Love, can be presented differently by two different groups, SNSD and f(x), we have our own opinion and own colour. The company supports us, no doubt. However, being forced to do something does not and should not happen. SME helped us a lot in the beginning as we didn't really know what to do. But as we gained more experience, we start to express our opinions. The company reflects our opinions on many things such as the lyrics, pairing of members and our style. Without such supportive environment, we won't be able to sing our songs like we sing them now.

SME listens to the artists' opinions and everyone is close, unlike other entertainment companies. Everyone respects each other and supports each other, just like you can see in Dream Concert or SM Concert. Artists of SME are trained well from the beginning to the point where people say that SME's artists are very well mannered.

We've seen them since they were trainees but didn't expect them to debut so quickly. Did not think Sulli would be so tall and beautiful, haha. Now we know what it feels like to have juniors, and we can see why groups that are senior to us have been so nice and caring to us. We're following the tradition by giving lots of advice to f(x).