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"Kelvin MacKenzie has apologised for The Sun&amp;#039;s coverage of the Hillsborough disaster. Today (September 12) saw the publication of the report from the Hillsborough Independent Panel, which, consistent with the findings of Lord Justice Taylor&amp;#039;s earlier report, found that police and emergency services made &amp;quot;strenuous attempts&amp;quot; to deflect the blame for the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans at the FA Cup semi-final on April 15, 1989 on to innocent fans.   Four days after the disaster, a front-page story in The Sun under banner headline &amp;#039;The Truth&amp;#039; claimed that fans &amp;quot;picked pockets of victims&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;urinated on the brave cops&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;beat up PCs giving the kiss of life&amp;quot;. Speaking on publication of the report, Prime Minister David Cameron said that then-editor MacKenzie had to &amp;quot;face up to his own responsibilities&amp;quot; regarding the coverage.      &amp;quot;Today I offer my profuse apologies to the people of Liverpool for that headline,&amp;quot; MacKenzie said in a statement. &amp;quot;I too was totally misled. 23 years ago I was handed a piece of copy from a reputable news agency in Sheffield in which a senior police officer and a senior local MP were making serious allegations against fans in the stadium. &amp;quot;I had absolutely no reason to believe that these authority figures would lie and deceive over such a disaster.&amp;quot; He continued: &amp;quot;As the Prime Minister has made clear these allegations were wholly untrue and were part of a concerted plot by police officers to discredit the supporters thereby shifting the blame for the tragedy from themselves. &amp;quot;It has taken more than two decades, 400,000 documents and a two-year inquiry to discover to my horror that it would have been far more accurate had I written the headline &amp;#039;The Lies rather than The Truth&amp;#039;. I published in good faith and I am sorry that it was so wrong.&amp;quot; Trevor Hicks, Hillsborough justice campaigner and father of two daughters who died in the tragedy, said that MacKenzie&amp;#039;s apology was &amp;quot;too little, too late&amp;quot;, adding: &amp;quot;The man is low-life.&amp;quot;      Today&amp;#039;s report found that 41 out of the 96 who died &amp;quot;had the potential to be saved&amp;quot;, beyond the 3.15pm timeframe set by the original inquest. It also found that 164 police statements had been &amp;quot;significantly amended&amp;quot;, with 116 negative comments about police leadership removed. Blood samples of victims was taken by the coroner and criminal records searched by police in a bid to damage the reputation of the victims. Last week, journalist Harry Arnold said that he had written The Sun report of April 19 in a &amp;quot;fair and balanced way&amp;quot; and that MacKenzie penned &amp;#039;The Truth&amp;#039; headline.      During an after-dinner speech to Mincoffs Solicitors LLP on November 30, 2006, MacKenzie was alleged to have said he stood by the original report. &amp;quot;All I did wrong there was tell the truth,&amp;quot; he was quoted as saying. &amp;quot;There was a surge of Liverpool fans who had been drinking and that is what caused the disaster. The only thing different we did was put it under the headline &amp;#039;The Truth&amp;#039;. &amp;quot;I went on The World at One the next day and apologised. I only did that because Rupert Murdoch told me to. I wasn&amp;#039;t sorry then and I&amp;#039;m not sorry now because we told the truth.&amp;quot; However, last year MacKenzie admitted that he did regret the paper&amp;#039;s coverage of the disaster. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/media/news/a405536/kelvin-mackenzie-offers-profuse-apologies-for-hillsborough-coverage/>