“The Sun could be a fantastic paper for doing good”
Fresh off the back of a week of controversy surrounding the newspaper, sports writer and Hillsborough campaigner Tony Evans has sat down with JOE to discuss Liverpool’s Don’t Buy the Sun boycott, why it endures, and where the publication is going wrong.
Earlier this week, The Sun was heavily criticised by England cricket international Ben Stokes for a story ran by the publication on a tragedy experienced by his family years prior to his birth in his native New Zealand.
https://twitter.com/benstokes38/status/1173893834377441280?s=20
As part of their reporting of the story, a journalist from The Sun is said to have doorstepped the cricketer’s parents at their home, something Stokes’ described as “the lowest form of journalism”.
The incident has prompted fresh discussion over The Sun, its ethics and the boycott campaign which began in the city of Liverpool after the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.
That boycott was prompted by The Sun’s reporting of the disaster, notably its “The Truth” cover which outlined an inaccurate and, ultimately, fabricated version of events that occurred that day.
In an interview with JOE, Evans explained the boycott, its origins, and why any call to widen it to other Rupert Murdoch publications misses the point.
“The Sun could be a fantastic paper for doing good. It could campaign for the NHS…it could be the voice of the British working class.”
“It chooses not to.”
Sports writer and Hillsborough campaigner Tony Evans explains Liverpool’s boycott of The Sun. pic.twitter.com/jwJtl5GwNJ
— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE_UK) September 20, 2019
