HOME | IMC UK | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

Liverpool Indymedia

The Sun's apology will cut no ice with Liverpudlians - and with good reason

Andrew Coombes | 22.07.2004 15:29 | Analysis | Social Struggles | Liverpool | World

'It is time to move on' according to the Sun, following widespread criticism
of the paper's interview deal with Everton striker Wayne Rooney. Rooney has
suffered abuse for his deal with the newspaper, infamous for its reporting
of the Hillsborough disaster. The Sun has again apologised for its 'The
Truth' story, made a few short days after the disaster that eventually
claimed 96 lives. Yet the Sun's apology will not cut
much ice with those on Merseyside.

The Sun's apology will cut no ice with many Liverpudlians - and with good
reason

'It is time to move on' according to the Sun, following widespread criticism
of the paper's interview deal with Everton striker Wayne Rooney. Rooney has
suffered abuse for his deal with the newspaper, infamous for its reporting
of the Hillsborough disaster. The Sun has again apologised for its 'The
Truth' story, made a few short days after the disaster that eventually
claimed 96 lives. Yet my feeling is that the Sun's apology will not cut
much ice with those on Merseyside.

One could argue that it is rather unfair for Liverpudlians to chastise Rooney
directly,a gifted 18-year old footballer to whom a slice of Becks style coverage
in a tabloid daily is very flattering. It is nonetheless understandable why there
has been so much fury at the deal Rooney has cut, and there is no reason why
The Sun should have expected anything less (Graham Souness received a
similar amount of misapprobation when he spoke to the Sun in a 1992
exclusive). The Sun stated in its editorial on July 7th that it is has
apologised in the past for its reporting of the disaster, and that it has no
hesitation in apologising again. However, such apparent contrition is only
window dressing when there is no analysis provided on how their dreadful
'The Truth' story did more to set back the cause of justice than perhaps any
other single event in the aftermath of the disaster.

'The Truth' was, ultimately, one of the most mendacious pieces of journalism
ever committed to print. The piece reported that fans urinated on police
attempting resuscitation. It brazenly stated that Liverpool fans raided the
pockets of injured and dead fans. It reported that Liverpool fans leered at
the exposed breasts of a female fan who had been mortally injured in the
crush. It referred to the Liverpool fans as being a drunken, seething mass.
And, crucially, it reported these unsubstantiated allegations as fact. This
appalling journalism (if such a tag can be applied), was not just a slight
slip-up that a simple 'hands up, Guv' apology will ameliorate.

96 Liverpool families travelled to Sheffield for inquests on their lost
loved ones with the full knowledge that Britain's best-selling newspaper had
effectively criminalised them. One would like to suppose that our legal
system would remain largely untainted by the sweeping statements of a
tabloid newspaper looking to sensationalise an already emotive event. But
then, one tends to underestimate the power of the media in shaping popular
attitudes, amplified when a few handy regional stereotypes are there to peg
a fellacious story on. In the courtroom, stereotypes were again intrinsic to
the way that the inquests were steered. Fans were described by several
police officers as an uncontrollable mass, only intent on gaining entry to
the ground to watch an FA Cup semi-final. Tellingly, blood alcohol levels
were referred to at length at the inquests, an unprecedented move that no
doubt was influenced by the kind of reporting that the Sun pushed as
'truth'. The reporting that was made by The Sun became commonsensical, and
hence public figures who were largely unqualified to speak on the events at
Hillsborough were faithfully given column space - from Bernard Ingham (who
referred to 'a tanked up mob' as being to blame) to Brian Clough, the
overwhelming negative statements concerning the events at Hillsborough and
those about Liverpool residents were faithfully relayed. Granted, the Sun
did not report many of these statements themselves, but it was largely
responsible for promulgating an environment where mythic assumptions around
the disaster and the city could be played out, and rehearsed as fact. 15
years later, the families of the Hillsborough dead have still not received
the justice (and the full and comprehensive inquest) they so deserve, and to
a large extent because of the powerful outside pressures that infiltrated
the courtroom and affected the decision making processes made therein.

The Sun states in its editorial 'The Sun of 2004 no more deserves to be
hated on Merseyside than Wayne Rooney does'. Such bleating shows the Sun
does in fact not care about the Hillsborough families one jot, and only
illustrates that it has failed to grasp the depth of hatred that exists on
Merseyside for the effects that its false reporting provoked. The Sun
conveniently plugged into a set of assumptions about the behaviour of both
football fans and Liverpudlians, and with those assumptions helped engineer
an untruthful dominant ideology that, left unchecked, caused immense hurt
and suffering. For the Sun to give a mawkish apology behind the image of a
football prodigy is a further insult to the Hillsborough families. In 2004,
the newspaper seems to have forgotten that the hundreds of families torn
apart by the Sun's abhorrent reporting 15 years ago had nothing to hide
behind. The Sun stole the innocence of those killed or injured at
Hillsborough.

But above all this, The Sun obviously feels it has paid for its mistake. Its
editorial states that 15 years is a long time - nine years longer than the
Second World War. To which the people of Merseyside will say - 15 years is a
hell of a long time without justice. For The Sun to say that the old staff
have cleared their desks and that now there are new faces at the paper
betrays a failure of understanding that the disaster's aftermath has on
Merseyside, and thus makes the latest apology distinctly hollow.

In short, The Sun needs to offer more than an apology in the tone of a
petulant child that feels that its after-school detention is up. It must now
step forward and demonstrate a full understanding of the real events of the
disaster and its aftermath, from its own journalistic failings to the
mendacity and evasiveness of South Yorkshire Police. A full and truthful
context must be given to The Sun's readership. The 96 innocents who never
came home from a football match deserve nothing less.

Andrew Coombes
- e-mail: sammoandy@hotmail.com

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

...

22.07.2004 16:02

Excellent post.

Once spoke to a S*n journalist in the mid/end nineties who claimed that their version of events was in fact "the truth" and that Liverpool fans were committing those vile acts - some change in their attitude there then!
I pointed out that members of my own close family almost died and he changed his tune to say how terrible it must have been, conveniently forgetting his sweeping lies a few minutes before.
So when I saw that the S*n had "apologised" my first reaction was that they wil say anything to suit the situation or who they are talking to.
I read the "apology" on another website other than theirs (why should they get a point on their popularity hit-counter from me?) and saw instantly that my first reaction was correct. They just did not know when to stop. They had to go on and make out as if Liverpool people were the bad guys; the guilty party in all of this - simply for holding them responsible for something they did!! But then, their journalism is so "here to day gone tomorrow", so two-faced anyway that should we expect any different?

It is not for the S*n to decide when it is time to accept an apology. And I have yet to buy this line that Rooney was "misguided" or is just a young lad and so could not know better. I know relatives who have lads younger than him and they know why they do not read the S*n (as well as its awful journalism anyway!). Rooney is as much to blame as anyone for the story going to the S*n. He is 18 for heaven's sake, not 8!

As for Bernard Ingham and Brian Clough I would expect no different. Pair of rentagob pr*cks.

Jay


It's all macrophobia (truly and meaningfully).

22.07.2004 19:00

Flo Snow used to be a penguin!

Green Bert.


Injustice

23.07.2004 14:10

Superb post.

Many people on Merseyside have not forgotten what happened at that time, and the dreadful 'reporting' that followed from the S*n. Not only did they have no evidence at all for what they did write, all being hearsay and allegations, but, as Sammo says in his very well-written post, this hearsay somehow became fact, and even so-called establishment institutions and establishment figures swallowed it hook, line and sinker. So much for British law, so much for the benign establishment.

We can only ask, and I am certain those who are directly involved would, why there hasn't been a full and genuinely independent inquiry into just exactly what did happen. When things are covered up in high places, the average person merely asks 'what have they got to hide?'

The real hand of power in Britain was seen in this tragedy, one that comes down hard on those who are not part of respectable society, or who are already in some ways oppressed in one way or the other. The Hillsborough tragedy was a travesty of justice, and the visible sign of inherent injustice in British society.

Timbo


Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

[navigation.actions2016]

[navigation.actions2015]

[navigation.actions2014]

NATO 2014

Actions 2013

G8 2013

Actions 2012

Workfare

Actions 2011

2011 Census Resistance
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Occupy Everywhere

Actions 2010

Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands

Actions 2009

COP15 Climate Summit 2009
G20 London Summit
Guantánamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
University Occupations for Gaza

Actions 2008

2008 Days Of Action For Autonomous Spaces
Campaign against Carmel-Agrexco
Climate Camp 2008
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Smash EDO
Stop Sequani Animal Testing
Stop the BNP's Red White and Blue festival

Actions 2007

Climate Camp 2007
DSEi 2007
G8 Germany 2007
Mayday 2007
No Border Camp 2007

Actions 2006

April 2006 No Borders Days of Action
Art and Activism Caravan 2006
Climate Camp 2006
Faslane
French CPE uprising 2006
G8 Russia 2006
Lebanon War 2006
March 18 Anti War Protest
Mayday 2006
Oaxaca Uprising
Refugee Week 2006
Rossport Solidarity
SOCPA
Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls
WSF 2006

Actions 2005

DSEi 2005
G8 2005
WTO Hong Kong 2005

Actions 2004

European Social Forum
FBI Server Seizure
May Day 2004
Venezuela

Actions 2003

Bush 2003
DSEi 2003
Evian G8
May Day 2003
No War F15
Saloniki Prisoner Support
Thessaloniki EU
WSIS 2003

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech

Publish Your News


Temporary Scroogle search

-->