Dunk Knows Best

We covered a news item about Chelsea's reported interest in Fernando Torres. In that item it says: "Mirror newspaper hack Martin Lipton writes..." then within a few hours we have one of our bitter haters suggesting that the item was from The Sun newspaper. This is how thick they are. Now even if The Sun had covered it, how would that muppet know... does he read the rag then?

While I support the boycott of The Sun newspaper, I think it's cheap that so many so called Liverpool fans use the innocent memories of the 96 against me. To me that is stooping very low but what do you expect from these muppets. Although I would encourage Reds not to buy The Sun I would never force that stance on anyone about that or any other subject. KopTalk doesn't tell people how to support the club, that's not our job. We will encourage people to stay clear but what others do is none of our business.

They like to suggest that I read or support the rag and like The Sun, they fabricate the truth themselves. It is of course nonsense that I read the rag, not just because of the Liverpool association but because I'm a Labour vote and have been all my life. Naturally as a result of that The Mirror newspaper, a Labour newspaper and direct rival of The Sun, has been my read since I was at school and always will be. I also buy it to remember my grandparents who used to buy it when I was a young lad.

Articles from The Sun are never published in our media section on KopTalk. But hey, why let the truth get in the way of anything. We would also never accept any form of advertising from the rag. If such ads appeared on KopTalk - because you can't block them with our advertising agency until new campaigns start - then they would and have been in the past, be disabled immediately. Anyone who suggests differently is using 96 lives to try and discredit me which is terribly sad. I don't think they realise how hurtful that is.

At the World Cup in 1998 I was pictured with a Tango hat on. There was also a Sun newspaper logo on the same hat. They were placed on the heads of England fans by what I assume was Page 3 girls or some other lasses employed by the newspaper. I'm not from Liverpool and was not educated about The Sun & Hillsborough. I lived in Scarborough and there was no Sky Sports News, no internet and so on when it happened, I'd be 14 in 1989, there was no access to what was happening in Liverpool. All we had was Teletext for LFC News.

1998 was the year that KopTalk was formed as a website. Before that she was a popular mailing list where I sent LFC news out by email. I - yes me - uploaded that photo to the internet (to KopTalk) myself unaware of the boycott and what The Sun had done etc. Back in 1998 there was just one Liverpool FC website and no real awareness like today about the disaster. I've explained the story a million times but the fan club would never accept it. It's far easier to use the 96 against a lad that would have been 14 at the time of the disaster. Had I done this today as a 35-year-old man, educated on what The Sun did, then I would deserve all the shit that they throw at me.

Many times we get young fans on KopTalk that will say something "I saw this in The Sun.." now rather than shout them down and attack them, I encourage education. The obvious question is "Do you know what The Sun said in 1989?" - then you explain. Today it is much harder to claim ignorance thanks to the internet but you have to remember that some people are young lads and if they're not from Liverpool, they may not be aware of the boycott etc.

I don't buy or support The Sun newspaper, never have done, never will because of my political views, because I'm more intelligent than the average Sun reader and because I'm a Liverpool supporter who despises what they published about the disaster. Whether people choose to believe that or not is of no concern to me.