Mackenzie is seeking an apology over his treatment following the Hillsborough Disaster.
Read that again. Kelvin Mackenzie has told The Spectator he believes he is owed an apology over Hillsborough.
Kelvin Mackenzie was editor of The Sun when the paper infamously ran a front page story claiming Liverpool fans had stolen from dead bodies and attacked the emergency services. It was all lies. Every word of it.
Mackenzie chose to run with the claims, despite the fact other editors had ignored them over concerns about their veracity. What's more Mackenzie personally added the headline: 'THE TRUTH' despite the fact he had no way of knowing if it was. Because it wasn't.
Since that day, Mackenzie's appalling judgement and refusal to issue a sincere apology has made him a hate figure.
Now it seems he is claiming it was all South Yorkshire Police's fault and he wants an apology and compensation from them. South Yorkshire Police were the source of the malicious lies as they scrambled to hide their own guilt. But Mackenzie chose not to further question their claims or their motives and more importantly chose to remove any doubt regarding their horrific lies with his headline.
The Spectator quotes Mackenzie:
"…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?"
Where does that leave you Kelvin? It leaves you where you've been for the past 23 years. As the man who chose to repeat the lies without conducting enough checks to ensure they were 'THE TRUTH'. As the man who chose to report clearly controversial claims, which were proven to be lies, as 'THE TRUTH'. As the man who ignored his own reporter's concerns about the story. As the man who refused to issue a meaningful apology, despite the 1990 Taylor Report finding the blame lay with the police. As the man who took back the pitiful apology he did issue, claiming at the time "I wasn't sorry then and I'm not sorry now."
Only when the recent publication of Hillsborough papers revealed beyond a shadow of doubt the full extent of the police cover-up has Mackenzie admitted his headline was wrong.
Incredibly, Mackenzie also appears to have used his platform in The Spectator to accuse Liverpool fans of picking on him unfairly:
"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?"
Or was it because The Sun, under the guidance of Mackenzie, printed the worst possible lies about the friends and families of the Hillsborough deceased and decided it fit to position those poisonous lies under a headline claiming they were 'THE TRUTH'. Yes, there were some outlets who also got drawn in by the malicious lies of a police cover up, but none that repeated them with such apparent relish and gusto.
I don't believe Mackenzie deserves an apology but if he really wants one, then I do hope South Yorkshire Police make him wait 23 years. And then tell him 'no'.
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