Telegraph drops “new columnist” Kelvin MacKenzie after first online column
Former Sun editor, Kelvin MacKenzie, has been dropped by the Telegraph after only one online column for the newspaper.
MacKenzie’s first, and only, column went live on Thursday 4 April, attracting more than 800 comments. Entitled, “Politics should be left out of the classroom Mrs Blower” he discussed the teaching profession, reality TV producers, banks and British Gas.
He was introduced with a number of official Tweets, with the @Telegraph feed stating it was "introducing our new columnist...", while Richard Fletcher, editor of Telegraph.co.uk, told his Twitter followers to "Meet our new @Telegraph columnist ... Kelvin MacKenzie. Read his debut column here".
However, many accused the Telegraph of "dumbing down" and by the end of the day Henry Winter, football correspondent at the Daily Telegraph, said that MacKenzie's column was a "one-off and won't be repeated".
However, speculation is mounting that MacKenzie’s swift departure was the result of a backlash relating to the Hillsborough football disaster, which marks its anniversary on 15 April.
MacKenzie was responsible for the front page story which made false allegations about the behaviour of Liverpool FC fans.
An article from the Liverpool Daily Post cited Hillsborough Family Support Group chair Margaret Aspinall who said that the timing of his hiring was an "absolute disgrace".
A spokesman for the Telegraph would only confirm that it was "a one-off experiment."