Cheers Donga, hadn't seen this, Fantastic. Huge respect to Alex Thomson and Channel 4, you kinda get a bit paranoid with all the coverups in the past and tend to lump all journalists into the same club, refreshing to see Alex not just paying lipservice to the general mood and taking some time out of his day and going after a few direct answers.
Both really! He will talk because with the current mood around Hillsborough he will have to. Will he be honest and tell the whole truth, no chance, just do the minimum he can get away with to try and get enough redemption to not look like the elephant in the room with anything he does in the rest of his career. Will slip and slide and blame everyone else while trying to look contrite and honest, that Sheffield MP Irvine Patnick will be his get out of jail card, I have already heard the sentiment "Well we were briefed by an MP" bandied about. The fact still remains if you face a situation were 95 people are already dead with one in a critical condition, and you think there is any credibility in what you have been told, do you do a indubitable front page piece that slags off all the people and friends that are taking support from each other, and by definition the bereaved themselves; or does some element of humanity creep in and you are sensitive of the victims family and friends plight and what they are going through and do a more thorough fact checking before printing anything. That is what gets me, how on any level, you could think that headline was acceptable with the community in such deep shock at the events, but then we all know what the establishment thought of Liverpool anyhow. Just a sub human pr**k eager to please Thatcher, Murdoch, and their Tory friends, and I would also add I wonder how many of those people in his circle, thought that was a step to far but kept stum.
I think it would be good to ask other national newspaper editors of that time if they were approached with the allegations too, it would be interesting to see how many was and refused to 'take part'. If there are a few then it puts McKenzie in a worse position IMO
Right at the end, when McKenzie's driving off, I really wanted him to say "Just tell us, on camera, why you are such a slimy, despicable ****".
Brilliant, it has always sickened me how he is still treated as a respected guest by the rest of the media. Hopefully we will now see the end of that.
AFAIK pretty much all of the other newspapers were approached by Whites, the news agency to make the original report, and pretty much all of them did print the allegations, although as bylines and making it very clear that they were unsubstantiated allegations. Only the Sun put it on the front page and made out that the whole thing was verified facts. There's a good account of it here, which includes the original story produced by the news agency: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...dly-sorry-over-false-fan-conduct-reports.html
Got to say it didn't feel like that at the time, I had always felt that the rest of the media got off lightly with all energies being focused towards the sun but maybe thats just because my head was all over the place back then and that report does put it in a slightly different context.
All our heads were all over the place. Swarbs called it correctly. They did all carry it, but not with the level of vitriol that the scum took pleasure in utilising.
There is little or nothing that can be done about McKenzie. Whatever he has to say it is up to the media itself to pillory him. What is more worrying is that a senior lawyer (who apparently has given advice to the justice campaign) has now given his opinion that no senior police officers will face charges in relation to either the events at Hillsborough or the subsequent cover-up. THIS CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN
