Snapshot: The Front Page Of Today’s Sun – ‘We Are Profoundly Sorry’

Chris Wright

13th, September 2012

12 Comments

By Chris Wright

23 years after this…

…and this…

…comes this (along with the following editorial: “The Sun’s reporting of the Hillsborough tragedy 23 years ago is without doubt the blackest day in this newspaper’s history. Nothing can excuse The Sun’s Page One presentation, under the headline The Truth. It was inaccurate, grossly insensitive and offensive. This version of events was not the truth.”)…

The Sun editor Dominic Mohan:

“Twenty-three years ago The Sun newspaper made a terrible mistake. We published an inaccurate and offensive story about the events at Hillsborough. We said it was the truth – it wasn’t.

“The Hillsborough Independent Panel has now established what really happened that day. It’s an appalling story and at the heart of it are the police’s attempts to smear Liverpool fans.

“It’s a version of events that 23 years ago The Sun went along with and for that we’re deeply ashamed and profoundly sorry. We’ve co-operated fully with the Hillsborough Independent Panel.”

Kelvin Mackenzie was unavailable for comment.

Posted in Liverpool, Media

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12 Comments

  1. Joe says:

    I understand that, as a football website, you’re right to cover all football related stories, but please can this be the last piece about The Sun’s reaction to the Hillsborough Independent Panel’s report?

    For this “news” organ to gain any sort of free press as a result of what was, at the absolute best, sensationalism and horrific stereotyping at the expense of the dead, dying and bereaved is simply wrong.

    Thank you

  2. plops says:

    Do we know if McKenzie actually knew “the truth”, or did he print that story thinking what he was printing WAS the actual truth? I’ve not worded that very well.

    ALso interesting it says in their letter that The Times, Star and Express also printed identical reports.

    • Chris says:

      I believe MacKenzie’s defence circa 2007-ish was that he was just reprinting reports from a Sheffield news agency and that he had nothing to apologise for.

  3. Ronnie says:

    That letter is something else. What the free press should have been doing is digging into what happened and exposing the lies of the police, the corruption of the council that allowed an un-fit stadium to be used and the inadequate emergency response. Instead a paper that supported and was supported by the government of the day lied and sniggered and took a high-handed position. What a bunch of cunts.

  4. Holland 1945 says:

    MacKenzie is a smart man, he knew what he was doing.

    I was reading some reports about Sun employees at the time just being flabbergasted at how he was pushing the story, but no one had the clout to stand up to him.

    He is a vile, vile man. A smart man, but an evil one.

  5. plops says:

    Right. I imagine even if he wasn’t sure it was true he knew it would sell papers, which I suppose, is his job. Such a cunt. I suppose editors generally are quite clever, but being a cunt seems to really help (see also Piers Morgan, Paul Dacre etc).

    Excuse my ignorance, but is the bit about Liverpool fans without tickets trying to get in true, or is that just nonsense too?

  6. Degs says:

    McKenzie decided that he had ‘evidence’ that meant he could print those lies because they appealed to the stereotypical views he already held about the people of Liverpool.
    He knew they weren’t true, which is why he didn’t bother corroborating the claims that were being made.
    That he didn’t check his source shows him for the ‘journalist’ he is.
    Everything else about him shows him for the vile lowlife that he is.

  7. Mokum says:

    Sure is a lot of attention on something that belongs in a cat’s litterbox.

  8. Joe says:

    Nice how even right above their ‘apology’ (23 years late) they try to deflect blame to the police.

  9. gilbert says:

    PLEASE people stop giving Kelvin MacKenzie any credit as a ‘smart’ man. He is not.

    He is a lazy and inarticulate journalist, who only writes of HIS opinions, opinions apparently formed by conversations of ‘golf-club-bar’ or ‘doctors-waiting-room’ calibre. No news or genuine insight, just ignorant chit chat that doesn’t evoke enough raw passion to be declared a good ol’ rant. His tone reeks of contempt for his readers, as if they should count themselves lucky they have in their very hand a piece of scripture from the prodigious and all knowing cerebellum of mankind’s greatest living journalist, Kelvin MacKenzie Esq.

    I don’t know the man, or care to. I won’t call him a ‘Vile Lowlife’, a writer of such low standards doesn’t deserve such a sophisticated ‘wordy’ nomenclature when ‘CUNT’ will do just fine.

  10. Milkchew says:

    Would love to see the key attributes check list to become a Sun employee.

    No ears – Check
    Massive cunt – Check
    Boarder line retard – Check
    Below average IQ – Check

  11. toonarmytx says:

    As an American I am curious about their original claim that similar stories ran in other papers. Is that true? I assume the major respected papers would have had articles with the ‘official’ police story at the time, as it was the only one being pushed to the press, but surely not in the same crass manner as the Sun…

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