Has the Times Made a Jaw-Dropping Error of Judgement Regarding Liverpool?

The Sunday Times last night published an article by journalist John Aizlewood which is sure to spark the fury of Liverpool fans, call into question the newspapers judgement and the journalists objectivity.

The article in question seems to be an attempt at satire.

The one-sided mocking of the Liverpool manager fails spectacularly, it instead comes across as a xenophobic personal attack.

The Liverpool managers nationality is frequently highlighted, he is portrayed as having a poor command of the English language and of general managerial incompetence.

In isolation this article could be dismissed as a poorly written aberration of judgement.

However, further research on the journalist reveals he has a personal blog, which has several shocking and offensive comments.

His latest blog entry describes his day at the Liverpool Blackburn match, days before the anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.

It is sickeningly titled, "I See Dead People."

In it he mocks the Liverpool fans and accuses the club of forgetting Heysel,

"They're in mawkish and belligerent mood today since it's the near-anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.

"The pain is still raw, just as raw, I'd imagine, as the pain of the relatives of the Liverpool fans' Heysel victims is in Turin, but nobody speaks of them here."

An earlier blog entry, from March 17th, was about another trip to Liverpool, to cover the Everton Stoke game.

In it he attacks the people of Liverpool,

"this city's curious mix of mean and maudlin means it could never be my kind of place. Never ever.

"To me it'll always be the place where teenagers give away their unwanted babies and then spend the rest of their lives regretting it, but, hey, what do I know?"

The main Liverpool fan forum "RAWK" caught the article within minutes of publication, and the early response is clearly one of astonishment and anger.

One poster said "the blog article is absolutely outrageous and disgusting. "I see dead people"? That is genuinely shocking."

The Sunday Times is owned by News International, as is "The Sun," the paper which accused Liverpool fans of robbing the dead at Hillsborough days after the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans at the disaster. In 2004 it published an apology.

(Jaime Wards follow-up article here)