Kharhaz wrote:"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."
This quote, attributed to Winston Churchill, is one that Liverpool fans in particular can recognise the wisdom in, certainly since April 16, 1989 - the day after the Hillsborough disaster. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Hillsborough knows that lies have been threaded through the sad and terrible history, popping up at every turn.
Lies to protect, lies to sell, lies to cover up. Liverpool fans have become unfortunately adept at recognising lies. We've seen too many of them, too often, and know there's always someone new to keep them alive.
A new sower of all too familiar lies has emerged in the USA - London-born Chelsea supporter, Steve Cohen. Cohen has two shows, 'Fox Football Fone-In' on Fox Soccer Channel (the main football cable outlet), the other 'World Soccer Daily', a podcast also broadcast on Sirius/XM satellite radio. This makes him one of the more significant voices in the relatively small United States' soccer community.
To even the casual listener's ears, Steve Cohen has an unabashed hatred of all things Liverpool. However, three years ago when discussing Hillsborough and the 96 dead, Cohen went well beyond the realm of impassioned supporter. He blamed Liverpool fans for the deaths and conflated Hillsborough with Heysel. Complaints rained down and a week later he apologised, to management, to viewers, but never to the 96, their families or survivors. He didn't retract his statements, he simply apologised that he got 'wound up' and made 'hurtful statements'. Crucially, he didn't stop. Cohen made numerous subsequent statements about Hillsborough. He simply couldn't let it go.
As the 20th Anniversary of Hillsborough approached, Cohen became emboldened by his disgust for the observance of the anniversary, which he construes as an attempt by Liverpool fans to 'take events that they were... largely responsible for...' and '...somehow turn the world on its head and make themselves the victims.'
Two days before the anniversary, Cohen felt it necessary to sully the remembrance by railing: "I'm still reading the same old stuff about who's responsible - its the police, its the stadium, whatever" before going on to fabricate evidence: "Nobody discusses the 6,000-8,000 who showed up without tickets and my argument has always been, if those people don't show up, this never happens."
Liverpool fans got word of these comments and sprung into action. Mel Abshier of the Dallas branch (of the North American Liverpool Supporters) first engaged Cohen asking for the truth to be told. These exchanges were fruitless; it was made clear that these were Cohen's opinions, tough luck. Undeterred, Liverpool supporters around the USA put their disgust to good use. Cohen was entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts. Mel unified the North American branches behind a single complaint. The LFCNY (the official supporters' club in New York) also acted, using its media contacts. Two parallel campaigns fighting the lies.
Mel put in yeoman's work getting the email addresses of the sponsors and started a campaign. The LFCNY did the same and, suddenly, a deluge of emails inundated sponsors. As they were made aware of Cohen's litany of hurtful statements, sponsors quickly began to distance themselves. FourFourTwo had no problem dropping him. Fado Pubs, an Irish pub chain, denied him access for outside broadcasts and local advertising. 365-inc, replica shirt suppliers, were appalled and ended their business relationship. WhoAre Ya Designs, a t-shirt maker, refused to re-up their expiring contract.
The campaign gathered steam and exposed more and more people to Cohen's extensive back catalogue of lies. There was widespread shock as to the depths Cohen had plumbed in his show on February 22, 2009 where, incensed by fans' desire to change the Champions League game that coincided with the 20th Hillsborough Memorial, he mocked Liverpool 'milking' the Hillsborough tragedy. Cohen went on to say: "They are not the victims [of Hillsborough], they are the perpetrators... they are the most despicable people." Cohen told his audience that the Hillsborough Justice Campaign 'couldn't be more corrupt or blatantly ridiculous' and finally remarked that these Liverpool fans were 'the scum of the earth'.
Cohen was forced to issue yet another one of his infamous apologies, or as he put it 'putting this c.rap to bed'. Much like the apology three years ago, there was no mention of the 96 dead, their families, or Hillsborough, nor was there any retraction of his unsubstantiated lies about the cause of the disaster. In fact, within the week he reiterated a somewhat more muted: "I still think there's shared responsibility." Immediately following his 'apology', Cohen spoke about the campaign against him. Liverpool fans were denounced as 'thugs', 'terrorists' and 'worse than the Taliban'.
The aim of the campaign is to get Steve Cohen off the air. We want him gone from Fox Soccer Channel, gone from Sirius/XM. Gone. We continue to peaceably exercise our first amendment rights by emailing sponsors and we have still more arrows in our quiver. New avenues are being explored, new companies are being contacted, new supporters are being found. Celtic Supporters' Clubs of North America have joined our campaign, Liverpool FC have issued a statement condemning Cohen, and there's still more to come.
96 fans of our fellow Liverpool fans went to an FA Cup semi-final over 20 years ago and never came home. Steve Cohen is discovering how intrinsic the 96 and Hillsborough are to Liverpool. The 96 are as much part of the DNA of Liverpool Football Club as the five European Cups and 18 League Championships. They were ours, that's the bond. And that's why we guard their memory and their reputation so closely, wherever their memory is impugned. They are with us every day, every game.
They are dead and they cannot answer for themselves, but we can and we will. Fight the lies. We answer for them, we fight for them because they cannot, because they are dead. But they are us. Liverpool. We may have been 3-0 down, but Stevie G has put in the first, Vladi has knocked in the second and Xabi is standing over the ball on the penalty spot.
Conor Brennan is Vice President of LFCNY Supporters' Club, Alastair Cairns is the creator of the boycott Steven Cohen website located here.
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I think it was Igor who pointed this out a while back but I didnt pay too much attention to it. I just took it as some prat trying to be controversial for the hell of trying to be famous but after reading what he has come out with he really is that ignorant. What a poor excuse for a human being. He refuses to look at reason and is so self absorbed in himself, what he says is right and cannot understand why people are mourning this disaster.
What a horrible little creep.
JoeTerp wrote:the commentary for the games has been atrocious though
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