The Sun has responded to Liverpool football club banning its journalists from attending matches in response to the paper’s disgusting coverage of the Hillsborough disaster.
The rag has now claimed that the ban would be bad for football and fans (not sure they’d agree) after executives at the club made the decision on Thursday night. This means that Sun journalists will no longer have access to Anfield or Liverpool’s training facility.
Executives are reported to have made the decision following talks with campaign groups who are angry at The Sun’s treatment of Liverpool fans following its coverage of the Hillsborough disaster, The Huffington Post reports.
Last year Liverpudlians were furious when an inquest ruled that the 96 fans who died in the crush were killed unlawfully yet The Sun and its sister title The Times failed to cover the news on their front page.
The inquests embarrassed The Sun who had previously accused ‘hooligans’ for the disaster under the headline ‘The Truth’. Despite the newspaper apologising for its coverage of Hillsborough back in 2012 the paper is still widely despised in Liverpool.
In its statement responding to the ban, The Sun said:
The Sun and Liverpool FC have had a solid working relationship for the 28 years since the Hillsborough tragedy. Banning journalists from a club is bad for fans and bad for football.
The Sun can reassure readers this won’t affect our full football coverage.
The Sun deeply regrets its reporting of the tragic events at Hillsborough and understands the damage caused by those reports is still felt by many in the city.
They add that a new generation of journalists on the paper congratulate the families on the hard fought victory they have achieved through the inquest.
The Sun claims that it hopes to renegotiate with Liverpool Football Club about access. Not sure they should hold their breath.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.