Confronting ‘The Truth’

Jul 2 2008 by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

THE reality is that every national newspaper had that story fed to it but only MacKenzie chose to run it in the manner he did.

A couple of others carried the claims as part of a report and immediately retracted them when it was clear how false and offensive they were. But MacKenzie revelled in it. He had a tale that fitted neatly with his prejudices.

It was his patriotic duty to back Our Boys in Blue regardless of The Truth. For years afterwards the hurt caused, not simply to the Sun’s circulation, was incalculable.

Back then almost four million people were buying the Sun meaning 12 million people were reading it, the majority of whom were believing all what they read. Despite Lord Justice Taylor’s report denouncing the report as lies, Liverpool fans have literally had to fight against the slur over the years. I’ve had at least three brawls with people who have argued that there was clearly no smoke without fire.

All down to the owner of one twisted mind, one gargantuan ego who to this day is convinced tanked-up ticketless Liverpool fans caused the deaths and is proud to admit, “I was not sorry then and I’m not sorry now.”