Seen this tweet...
Great FT piece on continued unpopularity of The Sun in Lpool & whether #notw decision is lesson from Hillsborough http://t.co/pPzLPg4 #JFT96
Cant access the article online as you have to register so wondered if anyone here had access and could copy and paste??
DuffyWaldorf
8-7-11, 09:59
The storm of public outrage that blew away the News of the World has been blowing for 22 years in Liverpool.
Britain’s most popular tabloid is to be closed down after admitting hacking into the telephones of murder victims, their families and the relatives of dead soldiers. Readers and advertisers deserted the paper in droves, just as they did in Liverpool in 1989 when The S*n, its daily sister paper, accused “drunken fans” of causing the deaths of 96 Liverpool FC supporters who were crushed at a match at Hillsborough.
“You still get people who won’t touch The S*n,” says Mark Ireland, who owns a newsagents near Anfield, Liverpool’s home ground. He sells 200 copies of the arch-rival Daily Mirror tabloid every day – and just 20-30 of The S*n.
They sold about equally before Hillsborough, when the 96 were crushed at a big cup match] because fans crowded outside the ground were allowed into one end by police, who then refused to open a gate to let some out.
Under the headline “The Truth”, just four days after the disaster on April 15, 1989, The S*n claimed: “Some fans picked pockets of victims; Some fans urinated on the brave cops; Some fans beat up PC giving kiss of life”. It cited unnamed police sources and a Conservative MP but a subsequent official report cleared fans of wrongdoing, blaming the police and the design of the ground.
Kelvin MacKenzie, the bombastic editor who drew up that front page, apologised, though he later claimed at a private lunch that he was forced to do so by Mr Murdoch and stood by the story.
Mr Murdoch continued trying to win back Liverpool, a city of 430,000, but now appears to have given up. In 2004 The S*n admitted the coverage was “the most terrible mistake in its history” in a full page commentary. Graham Dudman, managing editor, travelled to Liverpool to meet The Hillsborough Family Support Group but it voted to refuse him an audience. An NI spokeswoman would not comment on the situation but executives appear to accept that Liverpool is a lost cause.
The experience there may have convinced them that it was not worth defending the News of the World.
A random survey of several newsagents around the stadium found the Mirror outsold the S*n five to one. Nationally the S*n sells 2.8m, twice as many copies as the Mirror and its Scottish stablemate, the Daily Record. Across Merseyside retail sources say the S*n sells a fifth less than it should. The cost in lost sales has been put at more than £50m.
At Lime News, opposite the train station in the city centre, the story is the same. Joe Rooney, the owner, sells five Mirrors to every S*n five to one.
He puts The S*n on the bottom of his rack, “where it belongs”. “I had a S*n reader pick up the Independent instead today because he wanted a different view of the phone hacking.”
“Deleting those messages is beyond belief.,” said Mr Rooney. “Murdoch has got too much power.”
Retailers in the area are unlikely to refuse to stock the paper, as many did with the S*n in the aftermath of Hillsborough but many are taking fewer copies.
Steve Rotheram, MP for Liverpool Walton, told parliament on Wednesday: “News International lied to the country in 1989 and it appears they are still lying today.”
Margaret Aspinall, chairwoman of the Hillsborough support group, who lost her son James, 18, in the disaster, told the FT the phone hacking was “an absolute disgrace”. She said she would never forgive The S*n for undermining calls for a public inquiry. No official has ever been held to account for the disaster.
“It tarred us forever. And it has prevented us getting justice.”
Mr Ireland said. “The phone hacking of victims and grieving families is just unbelievable. Anyone who has got kids will feel that.” But he believes the ire will subside and the scandal sheets survive, even if under different names.
“People say they disapprove but those are the papers they buy.””
Mr Ireland said. “The phone hacking of victims and grieving families is just unbelievable. Anyone who has got kids will feel that.” But he believes the ire will subside and the scandal sheets survive, even if under different names.
“People say they disapprove but those are the papers they buy.”
Thanks Duffy! Appreciated.
GrumpasaurusRex
8-7-11, 12:15
News Intl haven't given up on Liverpool as a lost cause.
Otherwise why would they have websites like ClickLiverpool which gives a headline, and when you click through to the story it opens up in The S*n?
Why did they bother sending St George's Flags with The S*n logo to Tesco stores around Merseyside the day before the Royal Wedding?
Just to reiterate (to casual viewers, not to EST members), #DontBuyTheSun
JFT96.
Benny-Noons-Ghost
8-7-11, 19:32
You know my biggest fear?
It coming out that a Hillsborough victim's family was hacked :AG:
Truly hope that never happened. I think that'd hurt more than anything that has come out so far, and would take disrespect to a whole new depth.
[ps. if anyone takes offence to this post, or feels it is in bad taste, neither of which were intended and was solely about me expressing a bad fear that I have, then you are more than welcome to request to a MOD that it be deleted]