National boycott the S*n day?
Is now the time to start thinking about promoting it and getting a few things prepared?
http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum....0;image
http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum....5;image
Taken from Kenny Dalglish - My Autobiography.
When the S*n came out with the story about Liverpool fans being drunk and unruly, underneath a headline ‘The Truth,’ the reaction on Merseyside was one of complete outrage. Newsagents stopped stocking the S*n. People wouldn’t mention its name. They were burning copies of it. Anyone representing the S*n was abused. S*n reporters and photographers would lie, telling people they worked for the Liverpool Post and Echo. There was a lot of harassment of them because of what had been written. The Star had gone a bit strong as well but they apologised the next day. They knew the story had no foundation. Kelvin MacKenzie, the S*n’s editor, even called me up.
"How can we correct the situation?" he said.
"You know that big headline – ‘The Truth’," I replied. "All you have to do is put ‘We lied’ in the same size. Then you might be all right."
Mackenzie said: "I cannot do that."
"Well," I replied, "I cannot help you then."
That was it. I put the phone down. Merseysiders were outraged by the S*n. A great many still are.
Fans urge boycott of The Scum "newspaper"
Posted on Monday, April 14 @ 19:37:53 GMT by Rushian
Tomorrow, the 15th April, is the 14th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster and people across the country are being urged to boycott The Scum newspaper as the Hillsborough Justice Campaign (HJC) continue their fight for justice. Before Saturday's match with Fulham the HJC handed out 30,000 stickers. Posters, leaflets and letters have also been distributed to newspagents throughout the Merseyside area (many of which are currently forced to take the newspaper by their distributors). Some of these posters were held up on the Kop on Saturday:
http://live.vg.no/live/images/kamp/2003-04/5175.jpg
The background to the boycott lies in the coverage by The Scum newspaper, edited at the time by Kelvin Mackenzie (now head of TalkSport) on the Wednesday following the disaster. It ran a front page article under the banner headline “The Truth” and proceeded to make outrageous claims that the fans had robbed and urinated on the dead, as well as beating up police as they tried to carry out the rescue operation. These allegations have, of course, been proven to be total and utter lies.
http://www.contrast.org/hillsborough/history/media.shtm
The response on Merseyside was one of outrage. Copies of the paper were burnt in the street and a boycott begun. The Press Council was flooded with complaints and ultimately upheld those complaints about The Scum’s disgraceful coverage of the disaster and found them guilty of lying. Despite this damning verdict Rupert Murdoch's newspaper has to this day refused to publish an adequate apology for the coverage and as a result the boycott remains in place.
A recent article in the Press Gazette (20th March) testifies to the power of the boycott:
"The Scum is still struggling with the legacy of Hillsborough, 14 years after the most disastrous publishing decision in the newspaper’s history, the National Readership Survey’s figures suggest. In North West England, The Scum is a poor second to the Daily Mirror"
It has been estimated that the boycott has cost News International £125 million in revenue and half a billion in sales and the newspaper is acutely aware of this:
"Ian Clarke, advertising director at The Scum, admitted this week: 'We know it was a mistake .... but every year it [the boycott] softens slightly as a younger audience comes through.' "
The paper has used many methods to increase sales again including heavy discounting of the price and radio ads on Merseyside up to the disgraceful full page advert in this season's Worthington Cup Final programme.
Whilst the newspaper is boycotted by many Reds across the country many of our younger fans are unaware of the lies that were printed by the rag and the still strong support for the boycott. The best way to make them (and others) aware is through education. For more information on the Hillsborough Disaster and the Justice Campaign visit:
http://www.contrast.org/hillsborough/
Keep the boycott strong and Justice for the 96