Kelvin MacKenzie Puns

Kelvin MacKenzie on the subject of how he perceived The Sun's target audience:

>> "You just don't understand the readers, do you, eh? He's the bloke you see in the pub, a right old fascist, wants to send the wogs back, buy his poxy council house, he's afraid of the unions, afraid of the Russians, hates the queers and the weirdos and drug dealers. He doesn't want to hear about that stuff (serious news)."

I think it perfectly sums up how we've reached the point we have, where public and political discourse is based so heavily on emotion rather than sound, rational argument or discussion. Not just that but they actively play up or even encourage fears, or prejudices against 'others'/ minorities, rather than just giving people information.

For the best part of 40 years those in the media have recognised that selling the news was about playing on (or encouraging) strong emotional responses, with factual or accurate reporting being entirely irrelevant.

Outrage is clearly the easiest emotion to rely on. This is exemplified perfectly by Mackenzie's coverage of the Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 Liverpool football club fans died as a result of crushing in Sheffield's Hillsborough stadium. The next day they ran a front page titled 'THE TRUTH' where they claimed that:

• Some Fans Picked Pockets of Victims"

• "Some Fans Urinated on the Brave Cops"

• "Some Fans Beat Up PC Giving Kiss of Life".

>> Further specific allegations were made that during the disaster itself Liverpool fans inside the stadium had stolen wallets and other items from the dead, had urinated over policemen and the bodies of dead fans, that they had beaten policemen, ambulance men and rescue workers attempting to save the lives of other fans and had sexually abused the body of a dead girl after shouting "throw her up and we'll fuck her" to policemen moving her body

These points are all entirely detached from what actually happened (aka factual reporting of the tragic disaster). The whole story was also utterly false, but it tarred the city of Liverpool, the football club and the victims themselves for decades. It's what in part enabled the gross injustice of Hillsborough to continue for so long (25 years for the inquiry to start and prosecutions still ongoing). Hell, people still regularly share those sentiments, and many still believe the lies pushed on that day. They ha

I'm a foreign fan, you might have worked that out the moment I asked this question. I acknowledge what the s*n did and why they are massive cunts but I have no idea who Mackenzie and Ingham are. Liverpool fans hate them and call them idiots or pricks. I just want to know why. Help out a foreign fan please. Why do I have a feeling I'm going to end up hating these guys as well haha. Thanks in advance