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'The Real Truth': how Hillsborough is reported on Thursday's front pages

“Today the truth, tomorrow… justice” reads The Scotsman while the Times describes events as “vindication for Hillsborough families after 23-year struggle.”

THE DAMNING FINDINGS of an independent report into the 1989 stadium disaster in which 96 Liverpool fans were killed dominate the front pages of Thursday’s newspapers in Britain, with one key word emphasised.

Truth.

“The Truth” was the banner headline infamously used by The Sun 23 years ago as they reported false allegations that supporters picked the pockets of the dying and urinated on police.

The Hillsborough Independent Panel’s report today revealed that those reports were sourced from a Sheffield news agency, briefed by senior police officials who were attempting to cover-up their own culpability and lay blame at the feet of fans instead.

Under the banner “The Real Truth”, Thursday’s Sun repeats the apology offered today by editor Dominic Mohan who said that the paper is “profoundly sorry for false reports”.

“Today the truth, tomorrow… justice” reads The Scotsman while the Times describes Wednesday’s events as “vindication for Hillsborough families after 23-year struggle.”

Of the major British newspapers, the Daily Telegraph is the only one not to mention Hillsborough on its front page.

The Sun
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  • The Sun

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  • The Scotsman

  • The Independent

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    Mute paulomaldini
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    Sep 12th 2012, 10:39 PM

    The Telegraph simply ignore one of the biggest police and political cover ups in Britain, ever. Classy.

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    Mute Darren Skelton
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    Sep 12th 2012, 10:47 PM

    You’re crazy if you think that was one of the biggest cover ups of the last few decades. This was just an example of a group of brave, relentless people who refused to back down, refused to give up and refused to go home without justice. As much as they they tried to ignore them and wished they’d just give up, they never did. And that deserves a hell of a lot of credit and respect. The people who only apologised after today should be ashamed of themselves. They knew for years that they were part of a vicious and cruel smear campaign and only said sorry when they had no other choice. I’d say today was a bitter sweet one for families of the 96.

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    Mute Strongbow62
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    Sep 13th 2012, 6:24 AM

    I think it’s a bit late for The Sun to be making amends. It was one of the biggest offenders.

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    Mute Danny McLaughlin
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    Sep 13th 2012, 6:46 AM

    Strongbow,
    They were the biggest offenders.
    They ran with the story for days. It took them 20 years to print an apology, when all the original staff had left. It’s only now, after the hacking scandals that people have woken up to them.
    #BuyTheS*n #JFT96

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    Mute El Cheebo
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    Sep 13th 2012, 2:55 PM

    Hardly ever

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    Mute Liam Preston
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    Sep 12th 2012, 10:48 PM

    The sun apology is too little and too late. Hope every Liverpool fan maintains the boycott on buying that rag.YNWA. Justice for the 96!

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    Mute Alan Murphy
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    Sep 12th 2012, 11:34 PM

    Shouldn’t be just Liverpool fans, this could have been forest fans had they been rammed into the leppings lane end or any other teams fans that could have been there that horrible day

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    Mute Pani
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    Sep 13th 2012, 8:58 AM

    If you went to a Restaraunt and found out the waiter had pissed in your soup, and the manager hadn’t apologised when you told him would you still eat there and order something else or boycott the place and never eat there again?

    If you’re a Liverpool fan you don’t need to answer, I know where you stand. Don’t buy the sun yet no problem turning on Super Sunday.

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    Mute Ann-Marie Wallis
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    Sep 12th 2012, 10:48 PM

    It would be more apt if the title read “We Lied”. And what would you expect from the Daily Torygraph. J4T96 from a Celtic fan.

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    Mute Trisha Brennan
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    Sep 12th 2012, 10:59 PM

    The S*n can take their apology and shove it.

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    Mute Paddy Duggan
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    Sep 12th 2012, 11:14 PM

    The S*n apology is meaningless, if it happened on 20th April 1989, it would be 24 hours too late

    23 years later it means nothing

    The boycott continues until they cease to exist

    Don’t Buy The Sun

    JFT96

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    Mute Les Rock
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    Sep 12th 2012, 11:22 PM

    As a Manchester utd fan i have to say this. Today a great injustice was righted, today just was served to those fans who lost their lives, justice was served to those families who waved their family members off to watch a game of football and never came home. Today Liverpool football club and the city of Liverpool got justice.

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    Mute Paddy Duggan
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    Sep 12th 2012, 11:34 PM

    No justice yet, just the truth, next is the fight for justice.

    Justice will be when the people responsible are held accountable for their actions through legal actions

    Today was a huge step but this only opened the gateway for justice

    The campaign continues…

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    Mute Anne-Marie Kenneally
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    Sep 12th 2012, 11:39 PM

    Spare a thought for the survivors too. As a relative of a survivor I know the nightmare will never go away.

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    Mute John Deane
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    Sep 12th 2012, 10:47 PM

    JFT96

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    Mute Neil McAuley
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    Sep 12th 2012, 11:26 PM

    The Real Truth is that anyone who buys or has bought The Sun since 15.4.89 has facilitated the lies and propaganda that was revealed today in all it’s naked and hideous firm.

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    Mute Neil McAuley
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    Sep 12th 2012, 11:26 PM

    *form

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    Mute Steve
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    Sep 13th 2012, 3:50 AM

    and there was me thinking I was spending my euro on a decent gaa monday supplement and some tits on page 3.

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    Mute Andy Murray
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    Sep 12th 2012, 10:50 PM

    Um, where is the Express’s daily Diana story? How quickly they forget. Too soon, Express, too soon.

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    Mute Barra Ó Murchú
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    Sep 12th 2012, 11:20 PM

    Some woman wanting to have babies is much more interesting in some papers’ opinions…JFT96

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    Mute The Green Monkey
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    Sep 12th 2012, 11:50 PM

    The two worst days in football, the Hillsborough and Heysel Stadium disasters, let us remember those who did not come home………

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    Mute Jonny Duffy
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    Sep 13th 2012, 6:56 AM

    and the Bradford City fire.

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    Mute Orela Krawczyk
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    Sep 13th 2012, 7:09 AM

    I don’t remember much of that day I was only 7 but I remember seeing my mum and dad staring at the tv. My mum was crying and my dad sat me on his lap hugged me tight and started crying. When I asked what was wrong I was told a lot of people had been hurt. The families deserve more than an explanation they deserve Justice

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    Mute Chris K
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    Sep 12th 2012, 11:42 PM

    At last a small victory for victims families lets hope more to follow when those responsible are fully brought to justice and held to account for their actions or lack of as the case may be!! You’ll never walk alone, RIP

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    Mute Stephen McElvaney
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    Sep 13th 2012, 7:34 AM

    False in accurate reports ???
    They say everything but admit to printing LIES !!!
    It could be full of topless birds from front page to back page and I still wouldn’t buy they shite !!

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    Mute Blathín Sullivan
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    Sep 13th 2012, 8:15 AM

    Love the headline “The Real Truth” so what were readers reading before this ‘the false truth’!

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    Mute Michael O Donnell
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    Sep 13th 2012, 8:36 AM

    Rip 96

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    Mute David Byrne
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    Sep 13th 2012, 12:26 AM

    I recall the day, still very sad, this news will be hard on the families but it can all be put to bed now.

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    Mute Joe L
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    Sep 13th 2012, 1:54 AM

    When the 41 people who could have been saved are identified , don’t you think the pain will become more intense than ever for their families in particular?

    Just looked at a recording of this years memorial service at Anfield which ended with the victims name, photo and age being shown one by one and couldn’t help but add 23 years to all their ages and wonder, what if?
    Such a sad sad waste!

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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    Sep 13th 2012, 11:20 AM

    Wow , seems to getting a little bit lost that”41 lives could have been saved” , that’s pretty shocking , of course if circumstances had been different no lives might have been lost , but that just because of the shambolic nature of the operations around the vent 41 people then could have been saved , 23 years is a long time to have to wait for truth and justice.

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    Mute BlackQueen
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    Sep 13th 2012, 3:53 PM

    @ShutDownTheSun

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    Mute Marist '59
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    Sep 13th 2012, 11:12 AM

    The hand of the harridan Thatcher:
    But in a handwritten note, Mrs Thatcher made it clear that she did not want to give the government’s full backing to Lord Taylor’s criticisms, only to the way in which he had conducted his inquiry and made recommendations for action.

    She wrote: “What do we mean by ‘welcoming the broad thrust of the report’? The broad thrust is devastating criticism of the police. Is that for us to welcome? Surely we welcome the thoroughness of the report and its recommendations – M.T.”

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    Mute Lynton Hartill
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    Sep 13th 2012, 7:01 AM

    It’s the past. It’s not important. What’s important is the moment of now.

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    Mute Stephen McElvaney
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    Sep 13th 2012, 7:41 AM

    How is deaths of 96 innocent people who had their names smeared with lies that took 23 years to finally bring out the truth and expose a vile newspaper and a corrupt police force and smear campaign directed by a Thatcher government NOT important ?these are the same people who jailed innocent Irish men and women, Birmingham 6 and Guilford four, was that important that the truth came out ?

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    Mute Katrina Carroll
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    Sep 13th 2012, 1:29 PM

    maybe now after a long long time, those 96 souls can rest in peace xx

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    Mute El Cheebo
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    Sep 13th 2012, 2:57 PM

    So the thousands of supporters who barged their way in are not culpable?

    Doesn’t make sense to me, it’s seems the blame should be shared to some degree.

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    Mute El Cheebo
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    Sep 13th 2012, 2:57 PM

    I’ll even give myself the 1st red thumb.

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    Mute Brian O'Neill
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    Sep 13th 2012, 4:01 PM

    The report is here: http://hillsborough.independent.gov.uk/repository/report/HIP_report.pdf

    You can read it to see what a thoroughly inaccurate statement you made and see what a very poor attempt at a troll this was.

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    Mute peter
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    Sep 13th 2012, 4:18 PM

    Read the report before making a stupid comment like that. They were coralled down a known bottle neck into an area with sub standard turnstiles in the smaller end of a stadium with no safety certificate. The reason they were in the smaller end was because it was easier for the fans of forest to go to the other end of the stadium. Due to an accident on the motorway the fans all arrived at the same time into sub standard turnstile that couldn’t deal with the numbers, also a problem that had occurred two years previous in another semi. A crush developed outside so the order was given to open the gate to alleviate the pressure, while inside the officer in charge presumed the officers would have the intiative to send the fans away from the already full central pens to the side pens. On top of all this the capacity of the pens had already been a bone of contention with sheffield wenesday and safety officers. So get your facts right before you come out with such brazen stupidity

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    Mute El Cheebo
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    Sep 14th 2012, 12:10 AM

    1st up it was an honest question. 2nd it isn’t an attempt to troll and 3rd there is no such thing as a stupid question only stupid answers.

    I read the report and while there were gross errors made by the police that lead to this tragedy and apologies were due. What were all the extra fans doing there in the first place?

    I’ll never forget watching the scenes myself it was horrific. So get off your high horses and try to answer the question. Surely there should be some shared responsibility of some degree? Why turn up to a game with no ticket in such large numbers in the first place. It creates a scenario where stupid decisions have to be made on the fly and can result in accidents.

    Which is what happened on the day. Sure it’s deplorable what the police did to try to cover up the errors made that resulted in deaths and a possible 41 could have been saved. But again why were so many extra thousands there in the first place. If they weren’t there none of it would’ve happened.

    It’s simple logic I’m applying I’m not trying to troll just merely asking a reasonable and sound question.

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