People are calling for a mass boycott of The Sun for its deplorable response to the London Attacks [IMAGE]

The Sun 19 April apocalypse
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27 years since Liverpool banned The Sun for blaming football fans for their own demise in the Hillsborough disaster, the paper is in hot water again. This time, for an absurd front page which appears to link Arsenal Football Club to the London attacks.

The front page

The London attacks of 3 June killed seven people and injured many more. Three men in a van ploughed into pedestrians on London Bridge, before leaving the van at Borough Market to stab people at random. This was how The Sun chose to lead on the tragedy with its front page:

As Arsenal is a London club, The Sun‘s bizarre editorial decision left Londoners and Arsenal outraged.

Read on...

Some speculated the decision was an extremely tenuous attack on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is known to be a keen Arsenal supporter.

The tip of the iceberg

The Sun is just weeks from its last controversy.

Manchester called for a city-wide boycott of The Sun over its reaction to the recent concert bombing. On 22 May, 22 people were killed and 59 injured in the bombing of Manchester Arena. The Sun later ran a front page which placed an image of the youngest identified victim of the attack (8-year-old Saffie Rose Roussos) next to her killer. The move provoked strong criticism from Manchester and beyond.

Nearly 80,000 people signed the petition calling on Mayor Andy Burnham for a Manchester-wide boycott of The Sun. But Change.org removed the petition following a complaint from the Murdoch-owned paper.

Enough is enough

Once again, The Sun has poorly misjudged a response to a major tragedy on UK soil. Where readers needed solace, they found only more incitement.

But Manchester and Liverpool show there is something each of us can do to help. We can ensure we don’t reward irresponsible hackery with our attention, or our money.

Get Involved!

– Issue a complaint to press regulator IPSO over The Sun’s reaction.

Take action with Stop Funding Hate.

– Read and support independent media outlets that hold the powerful to account:

The CanaryMedia DiversifiedNovara MediaCorporate WatchRed PepperNew InternationalistCommon SpaceMedia LensBella CaledoniaVox PoliticalEvolve PoliticsReal MediaReel NewsSTRIKE! magazine,The Bristol CableThe MeteorSalford StarThe Ferret.

Featured image via Flickr Creative Commons

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