I think especially after the events of the past year most Liverpool fans know about the boycott of The Sun, but I'll post it just in case anyone still hasn't heard. The boycott of The Sun goes back to April 1989 - At the time of writing that is almost 24 years ago.
On April 15th that year a tragedy occured which caused ninety-six Liverpool fans dying at Hillsborough, home to Sheffield Wednesday, during an FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. ninety-six people had their lives crushed out of them. Many more are believed to have terminated their own lives since as a result of the disaster.
Many wrongdoings came out of that disaster, too many to list here. This editorial focuses on one piece of injustice suffered that could quite easily have been avoided.
What sparked the boycott of The Sun? Lies were published as fact by an English tabloid paper, and that publication refused for years to make an unconditional apology for what they had printed. Its editor at the time has not made an unconditional apology in all of that time.
The front page of The Sun newspaper on the Wednesday after the disaster read as follows:
On April 15th that year a tragedy occured which caused ninety-six Liverpool fans dying at Hillsborough, home to Sheffield Wednesday, during an FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. ninety-six people had their lives crushed out of them. Many more are believed to have terminated their own lives since as a result of the disaster.
Many wrongdoings came out of that disaster, too many to list here. This editorial focuses on one piece of injustice suffered that could quite easily have been avoided.
What sparked the boycott of The Sun? Lies were published as fact by an English tabloid paper, and that publication refused for years to make an unconditional apology for what they had printed. Its editor at the time has not made an unconditional apology in all of that time.
The front page of The Sun newspaper on the Wednesday after the disaster read as follows:
So only four days after their friends & family had died, four days after many of them had narrowly escaped death themselves, Liverpool supporters were greeted by those headlines. People actually believed those headlines. Those who had been there did not believe the headlines naturally, nor did those who knew people who had been there. But many people did believe those headlines; people who were not Liverpool fans, plus people who didn't like football at all. The headlines planted seeds in a lot of people's minds that the 96 Liverpool fans perished as a result of the actions of their own kind.
A Wikipedia article states: “The story accompanying these headlines claimed that ‘drunken Liverpool fans viciously attacked rescue workers as they tried to revive victims’ and ‘police officers, firemen and ambulance crew were punched, kicked and urinated upon’. A quote, attributed to an unnamed policeman, claimed that a dead girl had been abused and that Liverpool fans ‘were openly urinating on us and the bodies of the dead’.”
Just read over that again, it was really printed by a national newspaper.
Liverpool hero and manager of the club at the time Kenny Dalglish was hugely upset by the tragedy. He went to numerous funeral services and visited people in hospital, some of whom were in comas; he spent time with those that had suffered the death of their loved ones. In his book he speaks about the disaster and recalls the media coverage:
A Wikipedia article states: “The story accompanying these headlines claimed that ‘drunken Liverpool fans viciously attacked rescue workers as they tried to revive victims’ and ‘police officers, firemen and ambulance crew were punched, kicked and urinated upon’. A quote, attributed to an unnamed policeman, claimed that a dead girl had been abused and that Liverpool fans ‘were openly urinating on us and the bodies of the dead’.”
Just read over that again, it was really printed by a national newspaper.
Liverpool hero and manager of the club at the time Kenny Dalglish was hugely upset by the tragedy. He went to numerous funeral services and visited people in hospital, some of whom were in comas; he spent time with those that had suffered the death of their loved ones. In his book he speaks about the disaster and recalls the media coverage:
"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."
With the findings this year of the Independent Hillsborough Panel Report, The Sun finally offered an apology. What is clear though is that the apology was forced. They knew for a long long time that the story was untrue, yet they kept silent in all that time. Were it not vital to make that apology to protect the reputation of their paper they would have never made it.
They spoke untruths about our supporters and didn't apologise until caught. There's really nothing more to it - don't buy The Sun.
They spoke untruths about our supporters and didn't apologise until caught. There's really nothing more to it - don't buy The Sun.
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