John Henry buys Boston Globe – the paper that blamed ‘grotty’ Liverpool fans for Hillsborough
LIVERPOOL FC owner John Henry is buying the Boston Globe for $70m from the New York Times Co., who bought the newspaper in 993 for $1.1 billion. Says Henry, who also owns the Boston Red Sox:
“The Boston Globe’s award-winning journalism as well as its rich history and tradition of excellence have established it as one of the most well respected media companies in the country.”
Globe editor Brian McGrory assures a lack of owner influence:
“We have no plans whatsoever to change our Red Sox coverage specifically, or our sports coverage in general, nor will we be asked. The Globe’s sports reporting and commentary is the gold standard in the industry.”
Back in 2010, the Globe covered Henry’s takeover of Liverpool thus:
“Two months ago, Red Sox owner John Henry and his partners in New England Sports Ventures purchased Liverpool FC, historically one of Europe’s greatest soccer teams… For now, the Red Sox PR machine is pumping out happy news about Henry’s visits to grotty Liverpool… Even by the deranged standards of European soccer, Red fans are totally bonkers. Their excitable Internet fan sites are still agonizing over a 21-year-old soccer riot that killed 96 people.”
The paper later clarified its “reporting error“:
“Because of a reporting error, Alex Beam’s column on Tuesday in the ‘g’ section mischaracterised the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster involving Liverpool soccer fans as a ‘riot’. The official investigation into the disaster, which cost 96 lives, placed the blame primarily on poor crowd control and inadequate stadium design.”
However, the part about Liverpool being “grotty” stands…
Posted: 3rd, August 2013 | In: Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
