Kelvin Mackenzie finally apologises for the Sun’s Hillsborough lies – again
THE 96 Liverpool fans who died at Hillsborough in 1989 had their names besmirched by the police and the media. Finally, 23 years later, Sun editor Kelvin Mackenzie has apologised for the Sun‘s coverage.
In the face of massive evidence that the police lied to protect themselves and people died who could have been saved, Mackenzie apologises.
We’ve been her before. In 2007, MacKenzie said on BBC1’s Question Time that he had only apologised for reporting as “TRUTH” the lie that Liverpool fans had been masters of their own fate – “Some fans picked the pockets of victims. Some fans urinated on brave cops” – because Rupert Murdoch had told him to.
In 2006:
During an after-dinner speech to Mincoffs Solicitors LLP (a Newcastle-based law firm) on 30 November 2006, MacKenzie is reported to have said of his coverage of the Hillsborough disaster:
“All I did wrong there was tell the truth. There was a surge of Liverpool fans who had been drinking and that is what caused the disaster. The only thing different we did was put it under the headline “The Truth”. I went on The World at One the next day and apologised. I only did that because Rupert Murdoch told me to. I wasn’t sorry then and I’m not sorry now because we told the truth.
Mackenzie said:
“Today I offer my profuse apologies to the people of Liverpool for that headline. I too was totally misled. Twenty three ago I was handed a piece of copy from a reputable news agency in Sheffield in which a senior police officer and a senior local MP were making serious allegations against fans in the stadium. I had absolutely no reason to believe that these authority figures would lie and deceive over such a disaster.
“As the Prime Minister has made clear these allegations were wholly untrue and were part of a concerted plot by police officers to discredit the supporters thereby shifting the blame for the tragedy from themselves.
“It has taken more than two decades, 400,000 documents and a two-year inquiry to discover to my horror that it would have been far more accurate had I written the headline The Lies rather than The Truth. I published in good faith and I am sorry that it was so wrong.”
Posted: 12th, September 2012 | In: Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
