The Metro subverts the Sun’s infamous 1989 ‘The Truth’ Hillsborough front page
The Metro has taken a swipe at the Sun for its controversial 1989 ‘The Truth’ front page which defended the police and blamed football fans for the death of 96 people - and the injury of a further 766 - at the Sheffield Stadium during the cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.
Four days after the 'Hillsborough disaster', the Sun ran a front story dubbed ‘The Truth’ claiming that Liverpool fans attending the game “picked pockets of victims”. Further allegations published in the paper said fans “urinated on cops” and assaulted a policeman trying to “kiss of life” the injured.
During the most recent inquest into the disaster such accounts were picked apart bringing the newspaper’s claims into disrepute. On Tuesday 26 April however, the Hillsborough disaster inquest found that the fans were unlawfully killed and police commander David Duckenfield’s planning errors had “caused or contributed to” the incident.
Echoing the infamous headline, UK daily free tabloid the Metro ran the same headline, with the inquests findings vastly contrasting with the claims from the Sun’s now disavowed headline. The decision came after a long 27 years of campaigning from the families and fans involved in the disaster.
Topically, Rupert Murdoch’s titles The Sun and the Times made the decision to ignore running the Hillsborough verdict on the front page of their print editions on Thursday while Hillsborough gained coverage globally.