All of our most deepest sympathies go out today to the families of the vicitms of this terrible tragedy and all those who attended on this day, to the city of Liverpool still grieving the loss of so many of their own. 20 Years has passed but nothing has been forgotten. The memories of the 96 will live on in our hearts and minds for eternity. Justice for the 96 that lost their lives through in my view criminal negligence on behalf of the authorities. Authorities that are very often quick to blame others for problems but who are very shy to take on responsibility themselves.
I have had a number of conversations recently concerning the tragic events at Hillsborough twenty years ago. To our dismay it has become increasingly clear that there are still many people who still believe wrongly, that Liverpool fans were some how to blame for the tragic events that ended with the deaths of 96 Liverpool football fans. On the 19th April 1989, four days after the tragedy, The Sun newspaper misinformed the population in a completely fabricated account of events in the most grotesque sensationalist manor imaginable written under the bold headline The Truth.
Over 4 million people in the UK bought the Sun Newspaper on this day. A figure nearer to 10 million would have been likely to read these vicious lies. Is it any wonder that there are still many who believe that drunken football hooligans were to blame for this tragedy? So why would a British newspaper intentionally wish to misinform the population concerning events on this day?
To answer this question you really do not have to dig too deep to come to some pretty clear conclusions. A very brief look at the history of the Sun newspaper would certainly suggest that this newspaper masquerades as a friend of the working man, while in reality consistently stabs them in the back. Don’t just take our word for it, you only have to speak to many members of the Fire Brigade who were seeking a pay rise in recent years that worked out to be only an equivalent of about seven pounds an hour for their important work, (way below the Police) for their brave and important efforts. The Sun began to smear the leaders of the Fire brigades union in attempt to turn public opinion against them. Even connecting them with Saddam Hussein.
Or indeed feel free to speak to ex-minors that were fighting for the survival of their jobs and communities in the early eighties and see what many of these hard working men think of the newspaper and their attacks on their union leader at the time Arthur Scargill. It is criminal that agenda driven corporate newspapers like The Sun are free to smear individuals. Muddying reputations is a practice carried out by newspapers in the UK and it should be illegal and carry massive custodial consequences as to destroy a reputation is not that different from murder, as one’s personality and reputation is their identity.
The Sun does not simply report the news any more it creates perceptions and forms opinions that suit the agenda of Rupert Murdoch and his powerful friends. Newspapers get away with printing untruths every day as they are not held properly accountable for their actions. Relative prominence of apologies and corrections and an automatic right of reply for citizens misrepresented by the press would as a direct consequence mean national newspapers would be forced to exert themselves to report real news and be less likely to lie and report stories from dubious sources. This can only be a good thing for truth, justice and real journalism and to be honest anybody that tells you any different has an interest in keeping our population dumbed down and unaware.
Please take the time to sign our petition and help bring truth and justice into UK Journalism. The press should be the eyes and ears and voice of the people, holding power accountable, not the voice of power telling the masses what to think. Make sure the lies printed smearing the city of liverpool cannot be repeated in the future.
There has been an abundance of hysterical rumour and front page unfounded allegations accusing and abusing the McCann family since their daughter’s disappearance. It is not only Express newspapers that were guilty of terrible front-page lies and allegations, just about all the tabloids dealt in untruth and rumour, blurring the lines between opinion and fact. Even the broadsheets have on occasion perpetuated certain myths in connection with this case.
What has been made clear once again by the abuse of the McCann family is that at present newspapers feel free to report unfounded rumour and vicious allegations in bold front-page headlines. The complete fabrication of stories is proven once again and still massively common in tabloid journalism. By the liberal use of supposed ‘close sources,’ journalists are then free to write any old bull that fits the particular slant the publication is taking with a story.
We are very pleased that the McCann’s won their front-page apology by taking on this publishing giant in the courts. The greater percentage of people in the UK however could not afford the massive financial undertaking and indeed huge risk of losing an expensive libel trial. As legal aid is not available the huge legal costs of such a trial could easily mean losing your home and all your life savings. This is a very unbalanced situation and does not protect the individual from such personal attacks by the media.
The relentlessness of these slanderous media attacks put a massive strain on a family already under immense pressure. Vicious lies and gossip is then spread around as many people believe these newspapers to be credible and the allegations therefore to be true or to at least contain some truth. A vicious judgemental mass of vitriol is then focused on this family. Internet chat rooms are then filled with idiots who comment on what they believe to be true as they attempt to piece together all of the, leaks, lies, vitriol and opinion based reporting.
News entertainment for millions of wannabe judgemental detectives encouraged to gossip and bitch at every turn by a very sad and hypocritical tabloid press.
“Stop hiding behind the media, PR spin and lawyers Kate and help the police if you believe she is alive.” – A comment from a Daily Mail reader exclaims!
What absolute bloody ignorance, but then bloody ignorance seems to be what our newspapers are intent on breeding in this population. This person clearly has no idea what the McCann’s are going through. Oh, but they think they know all sorts of things, certainly enough to base this kind of stupid opinion. So she knows for sure that the McCann’s are not helping the Police does she, oh really! What, because the Daily Mail or The Sun, or The Mirror, or The Express or The Star told her so in an opinion piece article based around ‘a close source’ or a supposed ‘family friend.’ Oh it must be true!!! No, just more irresponsible, lazy journalism!!!
Tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapper is not so innocent after all. Every day in tabloid blogs and chat rooms disgusting vitriol is centred on this week’s hate figure. Tabloid lies and speculation are repeated as truth and much vitriol is encouraged by the misinformation, by the lies and the opinion pieces, by the gossip and the vicious rumour. Because all this has been passed off as journalism when in reality most of these journalists have not even left the office in London. (except maybe for a pint or a line of coke or a nail appointment). It is just bitchy, lazy, cheap journalism that is horribly sensationalist and created by a lowlife tabloid press intentionally appealing to base instincts by spicing up stories for salacious entertainment and profit. It is Wrong! with a capital W but has a huge influence on the opinions of our population.
Why would a newspaper cause so much unnecessary pain and suffering to this family already tormented by grief. The simple but completely unsatisfactory answer is for profit. Basically these corporate organisations have profited by another family’s misery without any concern for the truth or their feelings. The McCann’s, living in torment at the loss of their child are then accused, with no evidence, of murder by newspapers read by millions and millions of people everyday. This is a criminal abuse of power.
Susan Healy, Kate McCann’s mother has been quoted as saying
“That the untrue stories had caused great hurt to the family and friends. “Kate is quite bitter about it, as you’d expect. To see all those headlines again this week shocked me. It shouldn’t be legal.” “It was a diabolical time and I don’t know how anyone gets satisfaction with writing lies like that.”
Mike Jempson, Director of The Mediawise trust, the excellent and informative website and charity organisation http://www.mediawise.org.uk sums the situation up:
“This newspaper has profited hugely by running hundreds of stories implicating the couple. Their main object was to increase sales by playing to the prurient interests of their readers. Speculation became news – the more sensational the alleged ‘revelations’, the better. It is this cynical abuse of power as much as any additional hurt caused to the couple and their family, which should now be exercising the minds of editors, journalists and the Press Complaints Commission (PCC).”
Indeed tabloid journalists and the PCC should hang their heads in shame. This kind of misreporting however will continue until the press are made more accountable for wrong actions. It must be understood that newspapers are arms of powerful media conglomerates; hugely influential corporate organisations that it clearly seems have lost all sense of responsibility and the PCC, the press’s self regulating body, clearly does nothing to remind them of their responsibilities. The PCC in the main looks after the interests of the magazine and publishing industry and is not protecting the rights of individuals.
These Corporations only wish to increase profit but at what expense to real journalism and our democracy. They are polluting the news we read. We cannot afford for our newspapers to continue on this downward spiral feeding the population sensationalised lies and rumour simply because it sells. We must encourage greater honesty and integrity in journalism as our newspapers have a wider responsibility to inform this population effectively.
Self-regulation is clearly not working. This is a fact pure and simple. If self-regulation were working this newspaper would not have felt confident to abuse its power. Currently, newspapers have nothing to fear from overstepping the mark as the PCC (The Press Complaints Commission) do not enforce ‘The Editors Code’ which newspaper’s are supposed to abide by.
The fact that this code is not enforced has been made painfully evident by the treatment of the McCann’s. It is a ridiculous situation where these massive corporate conglomerates are not held accountable for wrong actions. Nobody is keeping them in line so they are free to continue spreading their lies and vicious rumour for profit.
This case should also encourage the PCC and its paymasters – the newspaper and magazine publishing industry – to rethink their objections to fines and compensation for trouble caused when the Editors’ Code is breached. They argue that financial penalties would bring in the lawyers and reduce the likelihood of swift resolution. Their real concern is to avoid spending any money at all – Express Newspapers and the Star cut their losses to avoid even larger bills from Messrs Sue Grabbit and Runne. Perhaps this case will convince them that prominent corrections and apologies and a graduated scale of compensation payments would be a more effective reminder of their responsibilities to the public. If the PCC offered such a deal as an alternative to litigation it would truly level the playing field for those who cannot afford to take on the publishers.
Many newspapers have a false credibility these days created in part by the limited amount of prominent apologies and corrections printed in our newspapers. This is because the PCC has no power to enforce the Editor’s code, which all newspapers are supposed to abide by. This lack of accountability is allowing sloppy lazy malicious journalism to continue on its downward spiral.
Libel trials are hugely expensive and legal aid is not available to fight your case. Everyday lies are printed without redress, the tabloids know they can get away with it and know there is a market for gossip so they simply peddle these page-filling lies in place of real journalism. Tabloid newspapers these days think only of their bottom line like any other corporate industry and have lost all sense of their civic responsibility. If a story captures the public’s attention and sells papers they continually run with it actively seeking out the next sensationalist headline which if not available they simply fabricate and fill out with much opinion-based hot air.
Over 100 articles contained false allegations by Express newspapers. Many of them front page accusing them directly of killing their child when there was no evidence suggesting this was the case. Whatever happened to innocent till proven guilty in this country. Why do we allow these newspapers to deal in injustice?
It is disgusting and highlights once again the frighteningly low levels the British press are prepared to stoop to everyday in exploiting an individual’s trauma for commercial profit.
Mr Horrocks, the Head of BBC news made these comments recently concerning the tabloid media:
“The situation that many facts are not reliably established has not stopped many of our press and broadcast colleagues from treating rumour as being newsworthy,”
The BBC absolutely needs to distinguish between fact and rumour. But the enormous febrile and emotional atmosphere, enflamed by a media for whom this story is a potential commercial opportunity, have made that hard.
“I can’t help reflecting that all this mass of hysterical rumour stands in very stark contrast to the one incontestable sad fact – a little girl has disappeared in unexplained circumstances.”
We have instigated many conversations recently concerning the tragic events at Hillsborough nearly twenty years ago. To our dismay it has become increasingly clear that there are still many people who still believe wrongly, that Liverpool fans were some how to blame for the tragic events that ended with the deaths of 96 Liverpool football fans. On the 19th April 1989, four days after the tragedy, The Sun newspaper misinformed the population in a completely fabricated account of events in the most grotesque sensationalist manor imaginable written under the bold headline The Truth.
Over 4 million people in the UK bought the Sun Newspaper on this day. A figure nearer to 10 million would have been likely to read these vicious lies. Is it any wonder that there are still many who believe that drunken football hooligans were to blame for this tragedy? So why would a British newspaper intentionally wish to misinform the population concerning events on this day?
To answer this question you really do not have to dig too deep to come to some pretty clear conclusions. A very brief look at the history of the Sun newspaper would certainly suggest that this newspaper masquerades as a friend of the working man, while in reality consistently stabs them in the back. Don’t just take our word for it, you only have to speak to many members of the Fire Brigade who were seeking a pay rise in recent years that worked out to be only an equivalent of about seven pounds an hour for their important work, when the Sun began to smear the leaders of the Fire brigades union in attempt to turn public opinion against them.
Or indeed feel free to speak to ex-minors that were fighting for the survival of their jobs and communities in the early eighties and see what many of these hard working men think of the newspaper and their attacks on their union leader at the time Arthur Scargill. It is criminal that agenda driven corporate newspapers like The Sun are free to smear individuals. Muddying reputations is a practice carried out by newspapers in the UK and it should be illegal and carry massive custodial consequences as to destroy a reputation is not that different from murder, as one’s personality and reputation is their identity.
The Sun does not simply report the news any more it creates perceptions and forms opinions that suit the agenda of Rupert Murdoch and his powerful friends. Newspapers get away with printing untruths every day as they are not held properly accountable for their actions. Relative prominence of apologies and corrections and an automatic right of reply for citizens misrepresented by the press would as a direct consequence mean national newspapers would be forced to exert themselves to report real news and be less likely to lie and report stories from dubious sources. This can only be a good thing for truth, justice and real journalism and to be honest anybody that tells you any different has an interest in keeping our population dumbed down and unaware.
Please take the time to sign our petition and help bring truth and justice into UK Journalism. The press should be the eyes and ears and voice of the people, holding power accountable, not the voice of power telling the masses what to think.
