[size=12pt]Former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie faces legal action from Liverpool agency Mercury over Hillsborough claims[/size]
by John Sutton, Liverpool Daily Post
Dec 9 2011
FORMER Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie was threatened with legal action and branded “a liar” after claiming his infamous story about the Hillsborough disaster came from a Liverpool news agency.
Chris Johnson, editor of the Liverpool-based Mercury news agency, last night said the claim was “ludicrous.”
Speaking on the BBC’s Daily Politics yesterday about The Lying Rag’s front page “The Truth” story, which included dreadful false accusations against Liverpool supporters, MacKenzie claimed: “That story came from a Liverpool news agency”.
Under questioning from Andrew Marr during the lunchtime show, MacKenzie also admitted he would handle how The Lying Rag covered the disaster differently, given his time again.
He said: “If I could revisit Hillsborough, certainly I would do it in a different way.
“I would do it in the way that every other newspaper did it, which was basically that they ran the story and said ‘big fury over’, and I wish I had done that, yes”.
But Mr Johnson, who runs the Mercury Agency, was furious at MacKenzie’s latest outburst.
He told the Daily Post: “You put a rat in a corner and it bites at the first thing it can find.
“This isn’t the first time MacKenzie has said this, he tried it before in 2007 – he is trying to lay a false trail and turn the tables back on Liverpool for his very sloppy piece of journalism.
“Our lawyers have written to MacKenzie and demanded he retract this statement.”
Mr Johnson was news editor of Mercury in 1989 when the 96 Liverpool fans lost their lives in the cup tie at the Sheffield football stadium.
From this position, he would have seen all the stories written by his journalists and sent to the national press.
He is adamant nothing like what appeared in The Lying Rag originated in the city where tens of thousands were grieving for lost loved ones.
He said: “I’d bet my life that story didn’t come from Liverpool, in the strongest terms, it was not something that originated in this city.”
The Lying Rag’s coverage of the disaster brought calls for MacKenzie’s resignation.
Sales of the tabloid paper plummeted in the Merseyside area and have never recovered. He was later required by Rupert Murdoch to apologise.
That apology has never been accepted in Liverpool.
At a Parliamentary debate in October, there were calls for an inquiry to establish the source of the story that caused so much hurt in Liverpool, and there are hopes it may emerge from the work of the Hillsborough Panel.
Read More http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2011/12/09/former-sun-editor-kelvin-mackenzie-faces-legal-action-over-hillsborough-claims-92534-29923593/2/#ixzz1g218qXaw
Watch him lose it here, frothing at the mouth like a Rat in a Corner:
Kelvin MacKenzie on Hillsborough disaster (08Dec11)
by John Sutton, Liverpool Daily Post
Dec 9 2011
FORMER Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie was threatened with legal action and branded “a liar” after claiming his infamous story about the Hillsborough disaster came from a Liverpool news agency.
Chris Johnson, editor of the Liverpool-based Mercury news agency, last night said the claim was “ludicrous.”
Speaking on the BBC’s Daily Politics yesterday about The Lying Rag’s front page “The Truth” story, which included dreadful false accusations against Liverpool supporters, MacKenzie claimed: “That story came from a Liverpool news agency”.
Under questioning from Andrew Marr during the lunchtime show, MacKenzie also admitted he would handle how The Lying Rag covered the disaster differently, given his time again.
He said: “If I could revisit Hillsborough, certainly I would do it in a different way.
“I would do it in the way that every other newspaper did it, which was basically that they ran the story and said ‘big fury over’, and I wish I had done that, yes”.
But Mr Johnson, who runs the Mercury Agency, was furious at MacKenzie’s latest outburst.
He told the Daily Post: “You put a rat in a corner and it bites at the first thing it can find.
“This isn’t the first time MacKenzie has said this, he tried it before in 2007 – he is trying to lay a false trail and turn the tables back on Liverpool for his very sloppy piece of journalism.
“Our lawyers have written to MacKenzie and demanded he retract this statement.”
Mr Johnson was news editor of Mercury in 1989 when the 96 Liverpool fans lost their lives in the cup tie at the Sheffield football stadium.
From this position, he would have seen all the stories written by his journalists and sent to the national press.
He is adamant nothing like what appeared in The Lying Rag originated in the city where tens of thousands were grieving for lost loved ones.
He said: “I’d bet my life that story didn’t come from Liverpool, in the strongest terms, it was not something that originated in this city.”
The Lying Rag’s coverage of the disaster brought calls for MacKenzie’s resignation.
Sales of the tabloid paper plummeted in the Merseyside area and have never recovered. He was later required by Rupert Murdoch to apologise.
That apology has never been accepted in Liverpool.
At a Parliamentary debate in October, there were calls for an inquiry to establish the source of the story that caused so much hurt in Liverpool, and there are hopes it may emerge from the work of the Hillsborough Panel.
Read More http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2011/12/09/former-sun-editor-kelvin-mackenzie-faces-legal-action-over-hillsborough-claims-92534-29923593/2/#ixzz1g218qXaw
Watch him lose it here, frothing at the mouth like a Rat in a Corner:
Kelvin MacKenzie on Hillsborough disaster (08Dec11)
