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Title: When Media Bites
Author: Solidarity Federation
Date: Winter 1998
Language: en
Topics: the media, United Kingdom, Direct Action Magazine
Source: Retrieved on January 19, 2005 from https://web.archive.org/web/20050119074631/http://www.directa.force9.co.uk/archive/da9-features.htm
Notes: Published in Direct Action #9 — Winter 1998.

Solidarity Federation

When Media Bites

Media frenzy happened at Hillsborough. The police ‘did their bit’ (sic).

And it led to one of the biggest media boycotts in Britain. Almost 10

years on, The Sun still doesn’t sell on Merseyside.

On 15^(th) April 1989, Liverpool were to play Nottingham Forest, with

the winners going to Wembley for the FA Cup Final. 96 Liverpool

supporters ended up going home in a coffin, and to this day, their

families have seen natural justice denied. The victims who survived were

accused of killing their own people, even though the TV pictures showed

fans were the ones who organised the rescue operation whilst police,

despite their 1^(st) Aid training, mostly stood and looked on. Once the

officers in charge ‘froze’ and lost control of the situation, the fans,

despite witnessing death and injury, acted on impulse and without a

chain of command, by ripping down advertising boards to carry the

injured out of the ground. They did the job the police should have done.

Liverpool had played Forest the previous year at Hillsborough, and there

were many complaints over the venue and ticket allocations. Liverpool’s

average attendance was almost double Forest’s. The 1981 FA Cup

semi-final at Hillsborough was saved from disaster only because several

hundred fans were able to escape crushing by climbing onto the pitch.

The safety certificate for Hillsborough had not been amended since 1979,

even though a perimeter fence had been installed all around the ground.

An anonymous South Yorkshire Police Federation spokesman stated: “Many

did not have tickets but they were demanding to get in. It looked as if

mayhem was going to start outside, it was too late to postpone the

kick-off because that could have caused disorder inside”.

The first media comment on the unfolding disaster was when BBC Radio

Sport commentator Peter Jones stated: “This should have been a show

piece, this should have been a classic. At the moment, it is simple

mayhem”. The disaster was broadcast live on TV by BBC1’s Grandstand.

Dozens of photographers and journalists, commissioned to report on

football, were instead covering a scene of devastation, injuries and

horrific deaths. Their stories and photographs formed the basis of the

initial international press and TV coverage.

At 3.40 pm, BBC’s Alan Green reported from Hillsborough Football Ground

when he said there were “unconfirmed reports that a door was broken down

at the end that was holding Liverpool supporters”. By 4.15, deaths were

reported, but no numbers given. Graham Kelly, the Chief Executive of the

Football Association, reported that he had spoken to police who “had not

given the impression that they had ordered the gates to be opened”.

A short while after, at approximately, 4.30 pm Alan Green gave a crucial

report. Based on information from Graham Mackrell (secretary of

Sheffield Wednesday FC), who had spoken to the police, he described

events:

“At 10 to 3 there was a surge of fans at the Lepping Lane end of the

ground. The surge composed of about 5,000 Liverpool fans, and the police

say a gate was forced, and that led to a crush in the terracing area —

well under-capacity, I’m told, there was still plenty of room inside

that area”.

Later in this report, it was stated that the gates were “broken down”

and “large numbers of ticketless fans had arrived at the ground”. The

media’s opinion seems merely to be that of the police’s defence. As the

bodies lay all around them, the officers in charge seem to have been

composed enough to put their own self survival first. Their comments

were made to deflect the blame, and police officers were certainly told

to alter statements, to further back up the officers in charge. From the

police/media’s immediate groundwork of forming public opinions, we

witnessed a media frenzy, in which the events of the day became another

story to be played for all it was worth. But the stories backfired badly

in Merseyside, where thousands of eye-witnesses came back from

Hillsborough with a completely different version of events.

boycott

The Sun Newspaper, with a massive circulation on Merseyside, was the

worst offender. The April 19^(th) edition (see cover illustration) was

burned in the streets by working class people. I witnessed my town

centre, where crowds of people had set fire to copies taken from

newsagents. Local Councils were forced to ban the Sun from local

libraries, etc., a ban that is still in place 9 years later.

The boycott mostly spread by word of mouth, and some people almost came

to blows when some unsuspecting person walked into a house or pub with a

copy — the ‘Scum’ quickly became the term by which it was referred. The

Merseyside boycott is widely reported to have cost the ‘Scum’ Ł10

million per year. The Hillsborough Campaign intends to step up the

action in the run up to the Sun’s planned special apology issue on the

10^(th) anniversary, in April 1999.