'As disgusting as it is unsurprising': The Sun criticised for leaving Hillsborough off its front page
The Sun newspaper has kept the findings of the Hillsborough inquests off its front page today, sparking angry criticism online.
Four days after the 1989 disaster, The Sun ran a front page story falsely accusing fans of pick-pocketing victims, urinating on police officers and beating an officer while he was helping a victim, under a headline proclaiming to tell "The Truth."
The paper has largely been boycotted on Merseyside ever since.
It finally addressed the slurs four years ago when it ran a front page clarification headlined "The Real Truth" in which it said it was "profoundly sorry for false reports."
Today its front page story was the news that David Cameron is using WhatsApp to discuss the EU. The unlawful killing of 96 people was covered on pages 8 and 9.
Gary Lineker, Rory Bremner, Stephen Mangan and Krishnan Guru-Murthy were among the high-profile names to criticise the paper for leaving the Hillsborough rulings off its cover.
Impressionist and comedian Bremner tweeted that the relegation of the story to pages eight and nine was "extraordinary".
Actor Stephen Mangan questioned: "Wait - neither @TheSun nor @thetimes mention Hillsborough on their front pages?!"
The leader within it states that after 27 years, the "Hillsborough families finally have their first measure of justice".
The Sun and The Times, both owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., were the only major British newspapers not to give front page coverage to the verdict of the two-year inquests, which cleared the fans of any fault.
The Times later added a picture of the Hillsborough victims' families to its second edition.
The newspaper said it "made a mistake" with the front page of its first edition today which did not include any coverage of the Hillsborough inquests, adding that "we fixed it for the second edition".
On Tuesday former editor of The Sun Kelvin MacKenzie, who oversaw the story published in 1989 blaming fans, apologised for the "hurt" the story caused.
Speaking on Sky News' press preview, The Sun's political editor, Tom Newton Dunn said the police are at the "core" of the whole story and the paper were misled by them.
He said if people are still angry over the 1989 front page he "completely understands", adding: "We deserve everything that is thrown our way."