The People of Liverpool v. The Sun Newspaper: Why Does the War Continue?

On April 15th 1989 one of the worst disasters in English football history took the lives of 96 Liverpool supporters.

Four days later The Sun Newspaper printed an article on the tragedy, accusing drunken Liverpool supporters of causing the riot that led to the deaths.

The headline the paper chose to use that day was "The Truth".

The story accompanying this headline 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’ as well as reported ’pick pocketing from the dead’."

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."

An official inquiry in to the disaster stated the "failure of police control" was the major contributing factor to the deaths.

An incredible amount of evidence that has surfaced since the incident took place has proven the headlines reported by the tabloid to be so incredibly far from "the truth".

19 years later and many people have continued their war against the newspaper.

My Story

As a Liverpool supporter of many years I had obviously heard of the Hillsborough disaster, but what I am ashamed to admit is I never knew anything of what really happened up until a few months ago.

I knew that people had lost their lives, but I did not have the slightest clue as to the size of the scandal that surrounded the disaster.

I certainly knew nothing of the involvement from the media and the hatred vented towards The Sun in particular.

As soon as I was informed of what had happened my immediate reaction was utter shock that I had spent so many years buying the newspaper.

I stopped buying it straight away without another thought.

The reason for this article

Ashamed of the fact I knew absolutely nothing about such an important part of the history of the club I have dedicated my life to, I began to read anything and everything I could find about the Hillsborough disaster.

After some serious time dedicated to staring at my computer screen and one slightly annoyed girlfriend later, I came to the conclusion that maybe I had jumped the gun in regards to my boycott.

Upon further reading about The Sun’s involvement, I realised that maybe my anger should be directed toward one man, instead of generalising against the entire paper.

Kelvin Mackenzie

Kelvin Mackenzie was the editor at the time of the article going to print in 1989.

Despite several other newspapers and news corporations running with similar articles in the days that followed the disaster, none went as far as The Sun did with their accusations, and all retracted their articles with full apologies the very next day.

The Sun with Mackenzie as editor never issued an apology until 1993.

Mackenzie has since publicly stated that he was forced to make that apology by the owner of the newspaper, Rupert Murdoch.

In November of 2006 as a speaker at a dinner party, he was reported to have said he "wasn't sorry then" and he was "not sorry now because we [The Sun] told the truth."

He has apparently claimed to stand by his accusations that ticket-less Liverpool supporters were the cause for the disaster as well as stating that, "There was a surge of Liverpool fans who had been drinking and that is what caused the disaster."

Kelvin Mackenzie has a proven history for slander, lies, and accusations, as well as a track record for bias against the city of Liverpool long before the Hillsborough disaster.

Why The Sun?

The staff at the time of the article have since given eyewitness accounts and interviews to state their disgust with the headlines that were pushed by Mackenzie, some even gave their notice and refused to work for the company any more.

It was a campaign of hate that was certainly not backed by a massive majority of the employees at the tabloid.

If the hate of the newspaper is directed at its owner, Rupert Murdoch—in belief that it was him that masterminded the campaign—then why are his other major companies not getting the same hatred?

The Times, Myspace, Fox Network, BSkyB, and I.T.V. are just some of the many companies owned by Murdoch but as far as I'm aware they don't have the same boycotting The Sun has.

A question

I have been asking myself the question; Why continue to blame The Sun for the wild accusations of a man who stopped editing the paper nearly 15 years ago?

I am expecting some very negative comments in regards to this article and the questions I am asking.

I would like to state that I am not trying to change people’s entitled opinion to feel however they like about The Sun.

I still do not buy the paper, because it is a poor tabloid that uses tackiness and sensationalism to sell newspapers—to me it's part of the modern Jeremy Kyle era of poor journalistic standards.

I hope it is obvious to anyone that I am by no means trying to defend what was written in 1989 by Kelvin Mackenzie when he was editor-in-chief of the tabloid.

But the question is something I would like to know the answer to and I hope to get enough responses from people that might give me some insight as to why this war continues against The Sun newspaper.

I would also like to add my sincerest apologies if anything I have written has offended anyone reading this article, or that any of the points I have stated are factually incorrect.

For further information about the Hillsborough Disaster, this website has an extensive detailed summary of the unfortunate events that took place during that day and the scandal that surrounded it afterwards.