26 September 2012

Bitten Biter Bites Back! - MacKenzie To Sue Police?

Kelvin MacKenzie and the Sun headlines smearing football fans at Hillsborough.
He argues that the lies promulgated by the force in the aftermath of the tragedy in which 96 Liverpool fans were killed prompted him to publish a front page headlined "The Truth".
Writing in tomorrow's issue of The Spectator, the former Sun editor speaks out for the first time in detail about his fateful decision to use the headline. It led to him suffering, he writes, "personal vilification for decades".
MacKenzie reveals that it was necessary to have his house patrolled by police and that he has faces physical danger should he enter the city of Liverpool. - Guardian
Kelvin MacKenzie Instructs Lawyers to Seek Apology from Police Over Hillsborough 'Vilification' - PressGazette
The Spectator reports today:
Writing in tomorrow’s Spectator, the former Sun editor speaks out for the first time in detail about his fateful decision to print the now infamous ‘THE TRUTH’ headline in the red-top the day after the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.
The terms of the apology and any compensation are to be debated, but MacKenzie tells of police patrols being increased around his house and the physical danger he faces in the city of Liverpool.
Kelvin admits that he was wrong, ‘but the people who have got away scot-free are South Yorkshire Police.’ He is seeking recompense for ‘the lies their officers told’.
MacKenzie was quoted saying:
Now I know — you know, we all know — that the fans were right. But it took 23 years, two inquiries, one inquest and research into  400,000 documents, many of which were kept secret under the 30-year no-publication rule, to discover there was a vast cover-up by South Yorkshire Police about the disaster. Where does that leave me?
He also suggests that other publications ran the same “copper-bottomed” story but The Sun was only one singled out:
Liverpool fans didn’t turn on other media, only the Sun. That has always puzzled me. Was it picked out because the paper had always backed Thatcher, while the city had always been pro-Labour? - PressGazette
(Alex Thomson's Gotcha! 'doorstepping' of MacKenzie)

Reaction from South Yorkshire Police:
A South Yorkshire Police spokesman said the force "awaits Mr MacKenzie's letter with interest".
"It is well known that many media outlets ran similar stories at the time based on the same sources but chose to treat them differently," he said.
"Mr MacKenzie was responsible for the particular headline he chose to run with." - BBC News
Reaction from journalists and others on Twitter: