I thought this needed posting as unbelievably yesterday I was round someones house who claims to be a fan, but had that sh!trag lying on his sofa. When I pulled him up on it, he didn't know what the problem was. So for anyone else out there who hasn't been educated properly, no more excuses after reading this post.
The boycott of The Sun goes back to April 1989, almost 18 years ago. On April 15th 1989 a disaster took place which resulted in the deaths of ninety-six Liverpool supporters at Hillsborough, the home ground of Sheffield Wednesday, during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. Ninety-six people had their lives crushed out of them. Many more are said to have ended their own lives since as a consequence of that disaster. A lot of injustices came out of that disaster, far too many to list here. This post concentrates on one injustice that could have been avoided or at least corrected but wasn't. A British newspaper printed lies as fact, and that newspaper or it's editor at the time still haven't made an unconditional apology for what it printed.
The front page of The Sun newspaper on the Wednesday following the disaster read as follows:
Just four days after they had lost loved ones and many had narrowly avoided death themselves, families of the victims were greeted with this headline. People that witnessed it first hand or knew someone that was there obviously didn't believe it, but the majority of people across the country didn't see it & believed what they read. As recently as our semi final against Chelsea in April I heard a comment about us 'robbing our own dead fans', so the mud has definitely stuck. This story was a complete & utter lie, and has been proved to be a lie, yet the paper or it's editor at the time Kelvin MacKenzie still haven't issued an apology over 18 years later. In November 2006 MacKenzie inflammed the situation further claiming he 'wasn't sorry then and not sorry now', which led to the protests in January 2007 during our FA Cup third round tie against Arsenal.
At the time of the tragedy Kenny Dalglish was in charge of the club. The following passage is from his autobiography relating to the lies that were printed:
The press coverage was difficult to comprehend, particularly the publication of pictures which added to people's distress. There was one photograph of two girls right up against the Leppings Lane fence, their faces pressed into the wire. Nobody knows how they escaped. They used to come to Melwood every day, looking for autographs, and that photograph upset everyone there because we knew them. After seeing that I couldn't look at the papers again.
When the Sun came out with the story about Liverpool fans being drunk and unruly, underneath a headline 'The Truth,' the reaction on Merseyside was one of complete outrage. Newsagents stopped stocking the Sun. People wouldn't mention its name. They were burning copies of it. Anyone representing the Sun was abused. Sun reporters and photographers would lie, telling people they worked for the Liverpool Post and Echo. There was a lot of harassment of them because of what had been written. The Star had gone a bit strong as well but they apologised the next day. They knew the story had no foundation. Kelvin MacKenzie, the Sun's editor, even called me up.
“How can we correct the situation?” he said.
“You know that big headline – ‘The Truth’?” I replied. “All you have to do is put ‘We lied’ in the same size. Then you might be all right.”
Mackenzie said: “I cannot do that.”
“Well,” I replied, “I cannot help you then.”
That was it. I put the phone down. Merseysiders were outraged by the Sun. A great many still are.
There is no excuse for buying or reading The Sun. None whatsoever. If you read that newspaper, or worse still you buy that newspaper, after reading this post, then you are not fit to call yourself a Red. No matter what competitions they are running. Regardless of any 'exclusives' they claim to have, even if it is the only paper left in the shop. Saying you bought it to get a £10 holiday isn't good enough. It’s really simple:
Don’t buy the Sun.
For more on the media coverage, visit
http://www.contrast.org/hillsborough/history/media.shtm or
http://football.guardian.co.uk.
Topic: "How to Lose 3/4th of Liverpool's Electorate" by Ed Miliband (Read 2829 times)